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I 




HISTORY 

OF 



SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, 
Its People and its Principal Interests. 



By 
Robert Sidney Douglass, A. B., LL. B. 

Professor of History, State Normal School, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 



VOLUME 



ILLUSTRATED 



Publishers : 

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Chicago and New York 

1912 



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PREFACE 



This territory of Soutlieast ilissouri was 
first visited by De Soto about the year 1540. 
The next Avhite men who saw it were the 
adventurous voj-agers from Canada who 
reached the Mississippi from the north and 
passed down toward its mouth. ^Marquette 
and Joliet and La Salle all visited this sec- 
tion, or at least saw it as their canoes floated 
down the great stream. No attention how- 
ever was paid to the district until Renault, 
the agent of the Company of the West came 
with his miners and four hundred slaves to 
Fort Chartres witli instructions to explore 
the country for the precious metals. This 
was about 1720. In his search for gold and 
silver he penetrated to what is now the 
county of Ste. Genevieve, finding no traces 
of gold or silver, but finding abundant de- 
posits of lead ore. These desposits he began 
to work. ^line a Breton was opened. Old 
Mine located. La Motte was discovered, and 
in other places attempts were made to work 
tlie rich deposits of lead ore, destined long 
afterward to be famous as among the great- 
est and richest deposits of lead in the world. 
These settlements for the purpose of mining 
naturally attracted other people, and about 
the year 1732 there was formed, in the great 
common field three miles south of the present 
site of Ste. Genevieve, the first permanent 
settlement within the limits of the state and 
one of the half dozen oldest towns in the 
Mississippi valley. This settlement known ns 



"le vieux village de Ste. Genevieve," was 
also called "Misere" because of the troubles 
its inhabitants experienced with floods of the 
river. 

Ste. Genevieve proved to be only the first 
of a number of settlements within this ter- 
ritory of Missouri. The magnificent plans of 
La Salle, long neglected by the French, at 
last began to be appreciated. France was 
arming herself for the great struggle impend- 
ing with the English and preparing to shut 
them up in the territory occupied by them 
along the Atlantic coast. And so not alone 
along the Ohio and near the Alleghany moun- 
tains, but also along the course of the great 
river itself, settlements were planned, forts 
Iniilt, the favor of the Indians courted, in or- 
der to bold the country, if possible, against 
the inevitable attempt at expansion on the 
part of the Englisli. Besides this organized 
attempt to settle and hold the country for 
political reasons, tlie country itself invited 
settlers. Missouri, at that time as always, was 
among the most attractive j^arts of the great 
continent. Here were all the things to attract 
settlers, and accordingly, at St. Charles, St. 
Louis, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid 
settlements were planted, and the wilderness 
began to be brought under the dominion of 
the white man. Forests were cleared away, 
mines were opened, towns laid out, commerce 
began to stir, grain was grown, mills built, 
religion was not forgotten and the cross was 



IV 



PREFACE 



lifted from many an humble church spire. 
The territory of New France was fondly be- 
lieved to be destined to great things. 

In 1762, however, by the secret treaty of 
Fontainebleau ceded all her territory west of 
the river to Spain, and the Spanish soon en- 
tered into possession. The transfer was very 
distasteful to the French settlers here, but in 
reality the rule of the Spanish was better 
than that of the French. The Spanish gov- 
ernment undoubtedly- dreamed of a great 
Spanish colonial empire west of the river, and 
gave much consideration to the task of 
building it up. Her governors here were in- 
structed to do all in their power to secure 
settlers, especially those from east of the ]Mis- 
sissippi who had had some experience in the 
life of the pioneer. The Ordinance of 1787 
which prohibited slavery in the Northwest 
Territory of the United States, turned a part 
of the tide of imigration across the river, to 
the Spanish territory where no sueli restric- 
tion was in force. Spain sent to this country 
some of the ablest of her colonial adminis- 
trators who gave much thought and effort to 
the task set them of building up her western 
possessions. 

In 1800, the territory passed again into the 
control of France, and there were again 
dreamed the dreams of a new and glorious 
France in the New World. However it was 
a time of great stress and storm in France. 
Napoleon was engaged in his herculean strug- 
gle with the English. He needed all the re- 
sources of his vast empire to support him iu 
that struggle. The command of the sea was 
denied to France. Nelson and his fleets cut 
France off from her oversea dominions. Na- 
poleon saw the inevitable consequence of try- 
ing to hold the great territory in America, 
known as Louisiana. It must fall into the 
hands of the English. To prevent this, to 



help build up a rival for England, and to 
gain mouej' which he needed, he sold the im- 
mense territory of Louisiana to the United 
States for the sum of $15,000,000. And so 
on a day in 1804 the flag of France was once 
more hauled down from her American pos- 
sessions and the banner of the republic took 
its place. 

That transaction iiiarkis an epoch not alone 
in the history of the western territory, but 
also in the history of the United States. The 
territory thus acquired from France, con- 
tains some of the best and fairest parts of the 
vast domains of our country. Of course the 
transfer meant much to Louisiana. The re- 
strictions on trade, on religious freedom, on 
local self government which France and 
Spain had imposed on settlers within the ter- 
ritory, were at once removed and there 
poured into the new possessions a constantly 
increasing stream of immigration from the 
older sections of the union. State after state 
was carved from the new territory. ]Missouri 
was admitted to the Union in 1820, taking her 
place at once among the great states. 

The subsequent histor,y of the state is a 
story of marvellous growth. Its vast re- 
sources have been developed, roads and rail- 
roads built, cities and towns have everywhere 
sprung up, the population has multiplied un- 
til now there are more than 3,000,000 people 
within the borders of ^Missouri alone. He 
who can close his eye to the present, sweep 
away all that civilization has brought, and 
with the imagination call again into existence 
the country as it appeared to De Soto or La 
Salle, awake from the grave the savage In- 
dians who were once its sole population, then 
reclothe the land with its boundless forests 
and repeople them with the wild animals that 
once swarmed in countless numbers through- 
out all this region, fill the air again with the 



J 



PREFACE 



eoimtless wild fowl that amazed the trav- 
elei', and then having restored the past as it 
was, can trace again the stejjs b.y which civi- 
lization came, sees before him one of the most 
stirring pages of history. It is the ever in- 
teresting storj' of man's conflict with the sav- 
age forces of nature, with savage man him- 
self, of his conquest of mighty forests, his 
mastery of the streams, of the expansion of 
little settlements and frontier towns to great 
cities, the change of the rude and hard con- 
ditions of frontier life for the comforts and 
luxuries of civilization, the building of gov- 
ernments of systems of education, the spread 
of religion — in a word, he lives again the ex- 
perience of the race in its struggle up from 
tlie savage conditions of the wilderness to 
the height of civilization. 

To recount this wonderful story in part is 
the purpose of this work. No one can appre- 
ciate more than the author how imperfectly 
the task has been performed. The tield is 
vast, the difficulty of sorting and selecting 
historical material great, and the time which 
might be devoted to the task, limited. He is 
conscious of many faults of omission, and 
doubts not that many of connnission are 
present. 

The sources of material are varied. For 
the early period the monumental work of 



Ilouck, The History of JVIissouri, must for 
many years be indispensable to the historian 
of .Missouri. It is a rich mine of information. 
Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri 
is also valuable. The period of the Civil war 
is adequately covered as yet only by the of- 
ficial reports in War of the Eebellion Records 
published by the government. Conard's En- 
cyclopaedia of the History of Missouri has 
been freely used. Where possible actual re- / 
search work has been relied upon. 

The author's thanks are due and are hereby 
tendered to Hon. Louis Houck of Cape Gir- 
ardeau, for encouragement and assistance ; to 
Rev. J. C. Maple, D. D., whose long acquaint- 
ance with Southeast Missouri and scholarly 
attainments render him peculiarly fitted for 
a.ssistauce in preparing its history; to Rev. 
Geo. W. Harlan of Farmington, for permis- 
sion to use his unpublished History of the 
Presbytery of Potosi ; to Dr. J. S. Dalton of 
New ]\Iadrid; to H. W. Watson of Memphis, 
for permission to print the account prepared 
by his grandfather, Judge Goah Watson. 

It remains to be said that none of these, 
here named, are in anyway responsible for 
the errors in the work. For them the author 
is .solely responsible and toward them he begs 
the kindly indulgence of the reader. 



INTRODUCTION 



The term, Southeast Missouri, like most 
terms made up from geographical expres- 
sions, is of indetinite application, being used 
in quite ditt'erent ways by dift'erent people 
and at different times. In its widest signifi- 
cance it designates the east half of that part 
of the state south of the Missouri river, 
which contains somewhat more than a quarter 
of the entire area of the state. Sometimes 
its use is restricted to the counties lying in 
the alluvial plains of the Mississippi river, 
frecj[uently called the swamps. Other mean- 
ings are given to the term also, but all of 
them have a vagueness of application which 
can be avoided only by arbitrary definition. 
As here used the term includes the counties 
of Jefferson, Washington, Iron, St. Francois, 
Madison, Ste. Genevieve, Perry, Reynolds, 
Wayne, Bollinger, Stoddard, Scott, Cape 
Girardeau, Carter, Ripley, Butler, Missis- 
sippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, and Dunklin. 
These counties have an area of twelve thou- 
sand square miles and in 1910 their popula- 
tion was 362,453. 

As the term is here used it is of course 
an arbitrary one, but definiteness in its use 
may not be secured without arbitrarj' limits 
being set. There are, however, certain con- 
siderations which led to the restriction of the 
term in the manner here proposed. In the 
first place the area chosen is practically that 
included within the three districts of Ste. 
Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Ma- 



drid as laid out by the French and Spanish; 
with but few exceptions all the counties men- 
tioned were settled before the transfer of the 
territory to the United States ; and the larger 
numljer of the early settlements within the 
state are contained within Southeast Mis- 
souri as the term is here defined. 

Another consideration which led to the se- 
lection of these limits is the fact that not- 
withstanding many striking differences in 
topography the section of the state here 
chosen for discussion has had a fairly uni- 
form development. The causes which led to 
the settlements in one part of the section 
are substantially the same which led to set- 
tlements in other parts, and the general char- 
acter 'of the settlements and the life of the 
people do not exhibit any great diversities. 

Southeast Missouri, as here defined, con- 
sists of two sections differing widely in phy- 
sical features. The line dividing the two sec- 
tions runs from the Mississippi river at Cape 
Girardeau, southwest through Cape Girar- 
deau, Stoddard, Butler, and Ripley counties 
dividing the latter two into almost equal 
parts; and reaches the state line about half 
way between the east and west lines of Rip- 
ley county. This line is marked throughout 
most of its course by bluffs averaging from 
seventy to one hundred feet in height and 
known as the Mississippi escarpment. East 
and south of this line of bluffs are the allu- 
vial bottoms of the Mississippi, the St. Fran- 



INTRODUCTION 



eois, and Little rivers; west and north of the 
line is the Ozark plateau. In the alluvial 
bottoms are the counties of Scott, Mississippi, 
New Madrid, P.emiscot, and Dunklin to- 
gether with parts of Cape Girardeau, Stod- 
dard, Butler, and Ripley. In the Ozark up- 
lift are Washington, Jefferson, Iron, jMadi- 
son, Ste. Genevieve, Perry, Carter, Wayne. 
Bollinger, Reynolds and St. Francois coun- 
ties and the remaining parts of Cape Girar- 
deau, Stoddard, Butler, and Ripley. The 



a part of the plateau in southern Missouii 
and Arkansas and to apply different names 
to other parts. In this discussion the term 
Ozark plateau is most frequently used as 
being the most appropriate name by which to 
designate such an elevated region as that we 
are here considering. 

This plateau extends from the Mississippi 
river at St. Louis to the southwest and 
reaches into Arkansas, its eastern and south- 
ern boundary in Missouri is marked by a dis- 




Capaha Bluffs, Rock Levee Drive, Cape Girardeau 



former section includes about 3,800 square 
miles, the latter about 8,200 square miles. 

The latter of these two sections, which has 
more than twice the area of the former, is a 
high land region being a part of an elevated 
plateau extending through Missouri and Ar- 
kansas and sending off ridges into other 
states. This plateau has been variously des- 
ignated as the Ozark mountains, the Ozark 
upland, the Ozark uplift, and the Ozark pla- 
teau. Of late years there has been a tend- 
ency to restrict the term Ozark mountains to 



tinct escarpment or line of elevated, often 
precipitous bluff's. From St. Louis to Cape 
Girardeau, this escarpment is found on or 
near the bank of the Mississippi river, but 
south of Cape Girardeau the escarpment turns 
to the southwest and leaves the river. This 
elevated plateau or plain resembles in its gen- 
eral outline, an elevated dome; by some it 
has been compared to an upturned canoe, its 
central axis stretching from the northeast to 
the southwest. The plain is about five hun- 
dred miles in length and two hundred miles in 



INTRODUCTION 



width, aud has a total area of about seventy- 
five thousand square miles. 

The central part of this plain does not re- 
semble a mountainous country, most of it be- 
ing free from any great differences of elc 
vation. It is simply an elevated plateau. At 
its edges, however, the plain bears consider- 
able resemblance to mountains, due to the ac- 
tion of the streams which have worn down 
their valleys at the edge of the plateau, 
leaving the land between the valleys to stand 
up as elevated and distinct hills or moun- 
tains. Through the central part of the 
plateau the fall of the streams is not very 
great, and consequently their action of wear- 
ing down their valleys has been slow. At the 
edge of the plateau, however, the slope is 
great, the average descent from the plateaTi to 
the Mississippi plain being about one hun- 
dred feet at the present time. Formerly it 
was more than this, and the streams of the 
plateau have carved their valley.s rapidly thus 
making great differences of level between theii' 
beds and the untouched soil between them. 

The average elevation of the Ozark plateau 
is about one thousand feet though there are 
places where the elevation is greater than 
this. From this central elevated part the 
slope extends to the northeast to the south- 
east and to the west. 

Breaking away from this elevated dome- 
like region are a number of ridges extending 
in several directions. One of these ridges ex- 
tends across the IMississippi river at Grand 
Tower and another at Thebes. Some other of 
the ridges extend to the south and cross into 
Arkansas, while others strike off to the south- 
west into Kansas and Oklahoma. 

The ridge which is broken by the river at 
Grand Tower is called the Shawnee hills. It 
extends through Illinois and crosses the Ohio 



river into Kentucky where it gradually fades 
away into the other physical features of the 
state. It received the name Shawnee hills 
from the early explorers in Missouri and Illi- 
nois, who found the Shawnee Indians living 
along the hills. The Indians at that time 
were called Oshawando and this name was 
given at first to the hills. The point where 
the jMississippi river breaks through this 
ridge, now known as Grand Tower, is one of 
the most interesting places within the Mis- 
sissippi valley. p]ven a casual examination 
of the spot discloses the fact that within com- 
paratively recent times the Mississippi river 
flowed considerably east of its present chan- 
nel. On the Illinois side above the town of 
Grand Tower is a great isolated rocky hill 
known as Fountain Bluff, which rises to a 
height of 635 feet above the ordinary level 
of the river. The channel of the river was 
evidently at one time to the north and east 
of this great bluff. One of the remarkable 
things connected with the formation at this 
place is the fact that the strata in Fountain 
Bluff dip are in an opposite direction from 
those found in the rock known as Grand 
Tower and the other rocks on the west side of 
the river. The strata are the same in general 
cluiracter indicating, that the formation was 
once continuous from Fountain Bluff to the 
hills on the we.st side, but the fact of the 
changed direction of the dip of the strata to- 
gether with the narrowness of the channel and 
its precipitous sides, indicate that the break 
in the hills was formed by some violent up- 
heaval. 

Another of these ridges extends across the 
^Mississippi river at Commerce, evidently 
having been broken here within compara- 
tively recent times as the bed of the river is 
still formed of rocks and boulders, not hav- 
ing been worn away by the action of the 



LNTiiOULCTlOX 



stream nor covered with sediment as would 
have been the case if this part of tlie stream 
bed were as old as most of it. A part of this 
ridge extends into the alluvial section and is 
known as the Scott count}' hills. Other 
ridges make off from the central dome of the 
upland to the southwest extending into Ar- 
kansas and Oklahoma. 

Within recent years the name St. Fran- 
cois mountains has been ajiplied to the hills 
in St. Francois, Iron, Wayne, and AVasliiir^- 



was built, have been thrust up in the forma- 
tion of these mountains until they are now 
at the surface : Iron Mountain, Shepherd 
ilountain. Pilot Knob, and others in their 
vicinity are some of the best known of these 
St. Francois mountains. The hill just west of 
Knob Lick in St. Francois county in the vicin- 
ity of the granite quarries known as Syenite, 
is a good example of these mountains formed 
by uplift. The name St. Francois mountains is 
peculiarly appropriate to them since most of 




Elephant Rocks, Gr.^niteville 



ton counties. These hills are not only among 
the highest in the Ozark region of Missouri, 
but they are perhaps the only true moun- 
tains found within the state. They seem to 
have been formed not by the wearing down 
of the plain as is the ease with most of the 
Ozark hills, but to have been thrust up from 
beneath by forces within the earth and thus 
are true mountains in their origin. In these 
mountains are exposed the only Azoic rocks 
in Missouri. The granites which form the 
primordial base on which this Ozark region 



them are found in St. Francois county and 
since also they form the source of the St. Fran- 
cois river. The name because it is appropriate 
and describes a distinct formation will prob- 
ably come into general acceptation and use. 
The upthrust which created these mountains 
brought the hard granite and basalt to the 
surface or near it in many places, and in 
places dikes of these rocks were formed cross- 
wise of the ridges previously existing. The 
streams of tlie section occur for the most part 
in the folds in the ridges formed within the 



INTRODUCTION 



material lying aliove the Azoic rorinatioii ; 
the action of these streiiins has worn down 
their bed nntil in some eases they have eoine 
to the dikes of luii-d i-ork lying transversely 
across the stream hed. The hardness of the 
granite has prevented its wearing away as 
rapidl.y as the other portions of the valley 
and this fact has given rise to rather pecn- 
liar formations. The stream has ordinarily 
carved this wall of rock thrust across its 
course, but car'\'ed it much moi-e slowly than 



Southeast Missouri are Shepherd ilountain 
having an elevation of twelve hundred feet. 
Pilot Knob with an elevation of 1,118 feet 
covering an area of three hundred and sixty 
acres and Iron iMountain which rises 228 feet 
above the plain and covering an average of 
five hundred acres. 

This Ozark region contains one of the 
greatest mineral regions in all the world. 
Judged by the variety of minerals as well 
as l)y the innuense quantities of some of them. 




Scene at the Shut-In Near Arcadia 



the remaining jiarts of its stream bed so that 
it is hemmed inio close (luarters at these 
places. They are locally called "shut-ins." 
One of them is to be seen on Stout's creek 
in the vicinity of Arcadia and there are many 
others in the same region. 

The Ozark region of Missouri has its high- 
est elevation along the line extending from 
Jefferson county to the southwest through 
Iron and into Barry and White counties; 
east and west of this line the elevation grad- 
ually becomes less. The highest points in 



the area deserves to take first place among 
mineral sections. The precious metals are 
not found in paying quantities, but a large 
number of other minerals are so found. The 
mineral which exists in this region in great- 
est abundance is lead which has attracted the 
attention of miners from the very earliest 
times; perhaps the greatest deposits of lead 
ore to be found in the entire world are in 
this section. Lead, however, is not the only 
mineral which is produced in paying quanti- 
ties, iron is found in a number of these coun- 



INTRODUCTION 



ties, uotablj' Irou, St. Francois and Wayne. 
Copper and zinc are also taken in connection 
with lead and other minerals are mined on a 
smaller scale. 

There exist great quantities of tine clays 
and some of the largest deposits of sand fit 
for glass making in the United States. Be- 
sides these there are immense quantities of 
valuable building stone both lime stone and 
granite and also considerable quantities of 
a good qualit.y of sand stone. 

The north part of this district is drained 
largely by the IMaramec river which has its 
source in Maramec springs in Dent county 
and flows north and east emptying into the 
Mississippi on the line dividing Jefferson 
county from St. Louis county. It is a pic- 
turesque and beautiful stream and with it are 
connected some of the earliest events in the 
history of the state. It receives a number of 
small tributaries from both north and south. 
The principal tributarj^ of the Maramec on 
the south is Big river which rises in Wash- 
ington eouut.y, flows north through Washing- 
ton and Jefferson counties and empties into 
the Maramec in Jefferson county. It is not 
navigable but is a very beautiful stream and 
has considerable water-power yet undevel- 
oped. All the eastern part of the district is 
drained by streams whicli flow to the east and 
empty into the IMississippi. South of the 
ilaramec are Saline creek. Aux Vases, Cin- 
quehomme, Apple Creek and Cape LaCroix 
creek; these streams with other smaller ones 
have their source within the Ozark upland 
and flow down its eastern border into the 
^Mississippi. 

The rest of this district is drained princi- 
pally by streams flowing to the south, the 
easternmost of these are Castor and White- 
water both of which have their origin in St. 



Francois count.y flowing toward the south and 
uniting to form Little river in New Madrid 
county. The St. Francois river also rises in 
St. Francois county and flows in a general 
southerly direction receiving the waters of 
Little river in Arkansas and finally flowing 
into the IMississippi. West of the St. Fran- 
cois river are Black river and Little Black j 
these streams rise in Reynolds and Iron coun- 
ties, flowing to the south into Arkansas and 
finall}' uniting with White river. The most 
westerly of the streams of the district is Cur- 
rent river, perhaps the most beautiful stream 
in the entire state, its general direction is 
south and east, it is a tributary of Black 
river. 

South and east of the line which we have 
indicated, from Cape Girardeau to the Ar- 
kansas line, is found the alluvial bottoms of 
the Mississippi, Little River, the St. Francois, 
and Black River. With the exception of two 
areas, this section is practically level and all 
alluvial soil. These two areas are the Scott 
county hills and Crowley's ridge. The Scott 
county hills lie just south of what is called 
the Big swamp south of Cape Girardeau and 
extend a distance of about 15 miles from the 
neighborhood of Gray's Point to near ]Morley 
in Scott county. These hills are a part of the 
Paleozoic uplift and were doubtless connected 
with the ridge in Illinois at the time when the 
^lississippi river flowed to the southwest from 
Cape Girardeau. They are essentially the 
same in structure and geologic origin with 
the Ozark plateau. 

The other elevated land in tliis part of 
Southeast Missouri is Crowle\''s ridge, ex- 
tending from a point in Seott county not far 
from Bell City in a southwesterly direction, 
crossing the state line near Campbell, and 
ending at the Mississippi river near the mouth 



INTRODUCTION 



of the St. Francois. This ridge varies in 
width, being about ten miles wide in the cen- 
tral part of Stoddard county and becoming 
very narrow between Dexter and Maiden. It 
is broken in two places, in the north by Castor 
and further south by the St. Francois river 
which crosses it just west of Campbell in 
Dunklin county. This ridge is geologically 
unlike the Ozai'k upland and most .certainly 
had a different origin. It is composed prin- 
cipally of clay and seems the remains of allu- 
vial soil which had been thrust up from below 
and sculptured down again by the action of 
the rivers, leaving this ridge. The ridge it- 
self slopes from east to west having its great- 
est height on the eastern edge, where it is 
about one hundred feet in elevation. 

The remainder of the land in Southeast 
Missouri is practically level but falls into a 
number of divisions. The firet of these from 
east to west is the low country bordering 
along- the ^Mississippi river. There is extend- 
ing south from below the Scott county hills a 
sand ridge called the Sikeston ridge which 
reaches the river at New Madrid and extends 
almost to the south line of New Madrid 
county. This ridge is elevated some 10 or 15 
feet above the level of the bottom lands and 
its soil is principally sandy loam. East of it 
in the neighborhood of Charleston, there are 
two other similar ridges of sandy loam. 

West of the Sikeston ridge extending to 
Crowley's ridge in the north part and to the 
sandy ridge of Stoddard and Dunklin coun- 
ties in the southern part, is the low bottom 
of Little River, which lies from 15 to twenty 
feet below the level of the sand ridges and is a 
heavily timbered section with a great deal of 
humus and exceedingly productive. 

West of this bottom of Little River is an- 
other sand ridge which extends from just 
south of Dexter to the state line near Hor- 



nersville in Dunklin county. On this ridge 
are situated the towns of Bernie. Maiden. 
Clarkton, and Kennett. The ridge is from 
5 to 10 miles in width, is from 10 to 15 feet 
higher than the bottoms of Little river, and 
lias a very rich and productive sandy loam 
soil. 

West of this ridge lying between it and 
Crowley's ridge in the north part is what is 
known as West swamp, while in the south 
in Dunklin county the St. Francois river is 
between the sand ridge and Crowley's ridge. 
The bottom of St. Francois river is not un- 
like that of Little river. 

West of Crowley's ridge in Stoddard 
county is the valley of the St. Francois river 
and Black river. These are heavily timbered 
regions with a soil considerably heavier than 
the sand ridges above mentioned. 

The drainage in this alluvial section of 
Southeast Missouri is principally from north 
to south. Of course on its eastern edge it is 
drained by the Mississippi which forms its 
eastern boundary. The Scott county hills are 
the source of two creeks, Ramsey creek which 
flows north emptying into the Mississippi, 
and Cane.y creek which flows to the north 
and then west and is a tributary of Little 
river. Mississippi county and the eastern 
part of New Madrid county are drained in 
part by St. James and St. John's bayous. The 
other streams of the alluvial section are prin- 
cipally those which have their origin in the 
Ozark upland and enter the alluvial district 
at its northern limit. In the neighborhood of 
Allenville, Crooked creek and Whitewater 
river combine and the stream thus formed is 
called Whitewater until it receives the waters 
of Caney creek and the East Fork after which 
it takes the name of Little river. This .stream 
flows to the southeast and then to the south- 



XIV 



INTROUUCTIOX 



west and crosses the state Hue into Arkansas 
tinally pouring its watera into the St. Fran- 
cois. 

West of Crooked creek a number of other 
smaller streams tiow into the alluvial di.striet. 
The first of these of importance is Castor river 
which enters the alluvial district near Zalma 
in Bollinger county. Castor tiows south and 
southeast through parts of Stoddard and New 
:\Iadrid counties and finally empties into Lit- 
tle river. 

Two other streams of importance having 
their source in the Ozarks make their way 
through the alluvial district. The eastern- 
most of these, the St. Francois river, leaves 
the hills in the edge of Wayne county and 
tiows directly through Stoddard and forms 
the state line between Dunklin county and 
Arkansas. West of St. Francois river, Black 
river enters the alluvial district at Poplar 
Bluff. It, together with a number of smaller 
ti'ibutary streams, most of them rising in the 
hills, cross the state' line into Arkansas from 
Bollinger county. 

Besides these more important streams there 
are several other smaller ones such as Varner 
river, Buffalo creek, Taylor slough, and Chil- 
letecaux in Dunklin county, Pemiscot bayou 
in Pemiscot county and Portage bay and Open 
bay in New Madrid and Pemiscot counties. 

With the exception of part of the sand 
ridges in Scott, New Madrid, and Dunklin 
counties this entire alluvial section was for- 
merly heavily timbered, the entire country 
being covered with a heavy growth of oak, 
gum, Cottonwood, hickoiy, ash and other 
varieties of trees in the higher portions, and 
with cypress in those parts of the bottoms 
where water stood. There are still vast quan- 
tities of timber in this section, but it is fast 
being denuded of its timber. 



This alluvial region presents an interesting 
geological problem. Those who have studied 
the region are not in agreement as to how the 
vast Mississippi embaymeut was formed. It 
has been suggested by some students that this 
great plain stretching from the mouth of the 
]\Iississippi to Cape Girardeau and varying in 
width from five to forty miles, is a coastal 
plain formed by the action of the waves 
against tlie land surface. No doubt a plain 
so formed would bear some resemblance to the 
alluvial plain of the jMississippi valley, but it 
is difficult to believe that such a plain as this 
could have been formed by wave action ; the 
resulting debris from the destruction of the 
land surface nuist have retarded the action 
of the waves long before they sculptured a 
plain extending so far into the laud. 

Without attempting to go into minute de- 
tails the ijrobabilities are that the alluvial sec- 
tion as it now exists is a river valley. Early 
in geologic times the head of the Gulf of 
^Mexico was near the site of Cape Girardeau 
and there was thus thrust into the heart of 
the North American continent a great trian- 
gular gulf. This gulf has been filled with al- 
luvial soil from Cape Girardeau to the pres- 
ent southern limit of the delta. It is not pos- 
sible to determine how deep the alluvial de- 
posits are since there have been made no bor- 
ings deep enough to find the bed of rock. 
Certain borings made for artesian wells and 
at New Madrid for the purpose of finding 
support for a bridge, indicate that the allu- 
vial soil is more than two hundred feet in 
depth though there is very good reason to be- 
lieve that it is very much deeper than this. A 
boring made at Cairo, Illinois, extended to a 
depth of 1,200 feet without striking bed rock. 

It is plainly evident that the amount of al- 
luvial material deposited in this gulf is en- 



INTRODUCTION 



XV 



oruious. It was brought dowu doubtless in 
large part by the great rivers which occupied 
the present position of the Mississippi and 
Ohio, perhaps at one time much larger than 
the present streams. 

The soil now found in the alluvial section 
is not, however, the original deposits. There 
seems good reason for believing that the clay 
ridge known as Crowley's ridge is a remnant 
of the original deposit in the valley. This 
first deposit was raised up b.y the action of 
the forces beneath the surface and was then 
sculptured down by the action of the stream. 
This action has been going on for many thou- 
sands of years doubtless and the original de- 
posits have been removed in large part exeejii 
Crowley's ridge. Not only has the river 
sculptured the original deposits, it seems to 
have meandered back and forth across this 
great valley now washing tiie bluffs along the 
eastern side and now those along the western 
side, alternately sculpturing away deposits of 
alluvium and reforming them in other places. 

The alluvial plains as they now exist then 
represent two separate cycles of stream ac- 
tion. The first consisted in filling in the arm 
of the Gulf of I\Iexico with alluvial deposits. 
This was separated from the second cycle of 
the stream action liy the uplift of the 
deposited material al)ove their former level; 
in tlic second cycle they are wearing down 
and redistributing this uplifted material 
into its present position. There seems no 
reason to doubt that within a comparatively 
short geologic time Crowley's ridge will en- 
tirely disappear under the action of the forces 
now at work upon it. 

It is evident that there exists a complete 
contrast in physical characteristics between 
these two sections of Southeast Missouri. The 



most obvious of these differences is the fact 
that there are no hills in the alluvial section, 
while the whole Ozark uplift is dotted with 
them. There is also a marked difference in 
the streams ; those of the plateau having their 
origin in springs of clear limpid water, fiow 
between banks which are sometimes steep and 
even rugged in appearance. They have a 
swift current, are narrow and deep, but such 
of them like Castor, Whitewater, and the 
St. Francois which pass from the uplift to the 
alluvial plains undergo a complete change of 
character. They are no longer deep, narrow, 
and swift of current, with well marked banks, 
Init they become wide and shallow and spread 
out over many miles. 

The soils, too, are different. In the upland 
are the clays. They follow the outline of the 
hills on which they were deposited. The 
characteristic soil of the plains is a sandy 
loam, while gravels, clays and marl are to be 
found in places. The distinct characteristic 
soil is that which makes the great ridges on 
which are situated the flourishing towns of the 
district. 

In minerals, also, the contrast between the 
sections is striking. No other section of 
equal size in the world contains a greatei' 
variety and wealth of minerals than the 
Ozark plateau. Here are to be found the great 
deposits of copper, zinc, lead, iron, and others. 
The alluvial plains on the other hand have no 
minerals except bog ore. The materials of 
which the plains are formed are the loose 
elastics. While the plains are lacking in min- 
eral wealth, they possess great supplies of 
timber. The hills are covered in man.y places 
with timlier. but the valuable trees in great- 
est numbers are to be found in the rich soil 
of the low lands. Here flourish the cotton 
wood, oak, gum, cypress, and hickory in great 



XVI 



INTRODUCTION 



abundance. No other part of the United 
States possesses more valuable timbers than 
the low lands in Southeast Missouri. 

This contrast between sections is also to be 
seen in their climate. Spring visits the low- 
lands at least two weeks earlier than it does 
the uplands. The winters, too. ai-e not so cold 
on the plains, and the rain-fall is considerably 
greater. In fact the line marking forty inches 
of annutil precipitation coincides quite closely 



with the escarpment which separates the pla- 
teau from the plain. These differences of cli- 
mate and soil have resulted in certain differ- 
ences in the crops cultivated in the two sec- 
tions. The great staple crops, wheat and 
corn, are extensivel.y grown in both sections, 
but in addition to these the alluvial soil 
produces large crops of cotton and melons 
which cannot be grown successfully in the 
hills. 



CONTENTS 



SECTION I 

CHAPTER I 

ARCHAEOLOGY 

Mounds in Southeast Missouri — Great Numbers Known to Exist — Distribution op 
Mounds — Size op Mounds — Shape — Arrangement — Various ]\Iounds Described — An 
Ancient Wharf — Contents op Mounds — Who Built the Mounds — The Mound Builder 
Theory — The Work op the Indians — Probable Origin — Collections of Relics — Beck- 
with's Great Collection — Plates Found Near Malden — Other Remarkable Pieces. 3 

CHAPTER II 

ADVENTURES OP DE SOTO 

Is Made Governor op Florida — Lands in Florida — Discovers the Mississippi — Place of 
Crossing — Direction op March — The Casquins — Religious Service — Attack on Cap- 
AHAS — Search for Salt — Probable Situation op Capaha Camp — Return to the South 
— Quigate — Location of Caligoa — Further Travels and Death — Interest Concerning 
Exact Route. 13 

CHAPTER III 

FRENCH EXPLORERS 

Why Spaniards Did not Take and Hold the Country — Vague Ideas of the West — News 
OF the Mississippi — Radisson and Groseilliers — Joliet and Marquette — Discovery op 
the Mississippi — Extent op Their Voyage — The Return — Illness of Marquette — 
Why Joliet Was Not Given Credit for Expedition — Early Voyage of La Salle — 
French Ideas of the New World — Views of the English — La Salle's Purpose — 
Friendship With Frontenac — Visit to France — Start of the Expedition — Loss op 
the Griffon — Creve Coeur — He Reaches the Mississippi — Passes to its Mouth — The 
Colony at Starved Rock — Goes to France— Colony on the Gulp — Death of Lasalle 
— Estimate of His Character. 22 



xviii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV 

INDIAN HISTORY 

Importance of Indians in Our History — Indian Trade — Indians in Southeast Missouri 
When DeSoto Came — The Capahas — The Siouan Family and its Branches — The 
OsAGES — Their Homes — Their Farms — Osage Houses — Furniture and Clothing — 
Polygamy — Weapons — Peculiar Customs op the Osages — Painting op -the Body — 
Their Government — ^Wars With Other Indians — Defeated by Sacs and Foxes — Their 
Removal From the State — Delawares and Shawnees — Their History Outside Mis- 
souri — Why the Spaniards Brought Them to Missouri — Character — Their Villages — 
Tecumseh's Sister — Chilletecaux — Witchcraft Delusion — The Mashcoux Tribe — 
Treaties With the Indians — Indian Education. 33 

SECTION II 

CHAPTER V 

STE. GENEVIEVE DISTRICT 

The Name Louisiana — The Illinois — The French and Spanish Districts With Their 
Limits — The Appearance and Character of the Country — Ste. Genevieve — Probable 
Date op First Settlement — "The Old Village of Ste. Genevieve" — Original Set- 
tlers — Officials and Legal Proceedings — Occupations — The "Big Field" — Indian 
Troubles — Life of the French Pioneers — Population — Pittman's Account — • Visit op 
Paul Allioy — As Peck saw the Town — Impressions of Flag — Ferdinand Rozier — 
John James Audubon — John Smith T.— Henry Dodge — John Rice Jones — New Bour- 
bon — New Tennessee — Table of Settlements — First Settlers in Iron County — The 
Cook and Murphy Settlements — St. Michael's — Old Mines — First Settlers in Jef- 
ferson County — Perry County Settlements — Long's Account. 49 

CHAPTER VI 

CAPE GIRARDEAU DISTRICT 

Its Limits— Life of Lorimier — First Settlement at Cape Girardeau — Influence With 
the Indians — Grants of Authority and Land — Lorimier's Tomb — Name op Cape Gir- 
ardeau — Cousin. — Early Settlers — The Town Laid off — Some of the Early Build- 
ings — First Incorporation, 1808 — Early Settlers Within the District — The Ramsays 
- — The Giboneys — Other Early Families — Settlements in Various Parts of the 
District. 67 

CHAPTER VII 

DISTRICT OF NEW MADRID 

Its Boundaries — "L'Anse a la Graise" — The LeSieurs — Situation of New Madrid- 
Colonel George Morgan — Grant to Morgan — His Expectation of Profit — His De- 
scription op the Site — The Survey of the Town — Opposition op Wilkinson and Miro 
— New Madrid Falls into Hands of Miro — Letter of La Forge — The Commandants 



CONTENTS xix 

OP THE Post — Emigrants Who Came With Morgan — The LeSieur Family — The La 
Forges — Joseph Michel — Robert McCor — Richard Jones Waters — Tardiveau — Other 
Settlers — Robert Goah Watson — Military Companies — Other Settlements in New 
Madrid County — Little Prairie — Settlements in Scott County — Town Near Sikeston 
— Benton — Joseph Hunter — Tywappity Bottoms — Mississippi County Settlements — 
Spanish Land Grants — The King's Highway. 81 



CHAPTER VIII 

GOVERNMENT UNDER FRANCE AND SPAIN 

Louisiana Under La Salle — The Province op Louisiana — Capitals and Governors — Ces- 
sion to Spain — Providence op Upper Louisiana -^ Lieutenant Governors op Upper 
Louisiana — Districts and Commandants — Syndics — Authority op Oppicials — French 
Law Retained — Character op Government — The Cabildo at New Orleans — Organiza- 
tion op ]\Iilitia — "L' Annee du Coup" Attack on St. Louis — Treachery op Governor 
Leyba — Action op the Ste. Genevieve Company — Expedition to New Madrid — Punish- 
ment op Indians — Orders Concerning Taverns and Sale op Liquor to Indians. Ill 

CHAPTER IX 

SOCIAL LIFE 

Population in 1804 — Settlements — Occupations — Differences Between French and 
America Settlements — Houses op the French — Stockades — Food and Cooking — Dif- 
ferences in the French Produced by Residence in This Country— Social Life — Dress 
— Amusements — La Guignolee — Contented Character of the French — Trade — Amer- 
ican Settlers — Characteristic Life — Houses — Clothing — Food — Law-Abiding Char- 
acters — German Settlers — Absence of Spanispi Settlers — Merchants — Prices — Prod- 
ucts — Travel — Roads — River Travel — Kdkl-Boats — Religious Conditions — First Ser- 
vices — Restrictive Laws of Spain — Records of the Catholic Church in Ste. Gene- 
vieve — Father Meurin — Father Gibault — James Maxv^ll — First Church Buildings 
— Support of Priests — Bishop Dubourg — De Andreis — Founding of St. Mary's Sem- 
inary — Danger op Misunderstanding the Character op the People. 117 



CHAPTER X 

TRANSFER TO THE UNITED STATES 

Feeling of the French Settlers — Settlements Founded Under the Rule of France — 
Emigration from the Western States — Why Spain Fostered the Movement of Ameri- 
cans Across the River — Question Over the Navigation op the Mississippi — Restric- 
tions on Commerce — Treaty of Ildefonso — Negotiations for Purchase op New Or- 
leans — Offer op all Louisiana — Motives op Napoleon in Selling Louisiana — Cere- 
monies Attending the Actual Transfer — Captain Amos Stoddard and His Authority — 
Significance of the Transfer. 139 



XX CONTENTS 

SECTION III 

CHAPTER XI 

AMERICAN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT 

Government of the Louisiana Territory — The Territory of Orleans — The District of 
Louisiana — First Governor — Courts of Common Pleas — Officers at the Various 
Posts — Causes of Dissatisfaction With the Gon'ernment of the United States — Me- 
morial OF Grievances — The Territory of Louisiana — Confirmation of Land Grants — 
Courts — Wilkinson as Governor — Lewis — Clark — The Territory of Missouri — Pow- 
ers of the Governor — Meetings of the Territorial Legislature — Various Laws — Rich- 
ard S. Thomas — John Scott — Johnson Ranney — General Watkins — Greer W. Davis 
— Alexander Buckner — Other Prominent ]Men — The Byrd Family — Circuit Courts 
— Officers in Ste. Genevieve — Cape Girardeau District and County — New Madrid Dis- 
trict and County — Creation of New Counties — Lawrence — Wayne — Madison ■ — 
Jefferson — Washington — Perry — ^Military History. 147 

CHAPTER XII 

PERIOD FROJI 180-4 TO 1821 

Population — Character of Immigrants — Settlements in Various Parts op the Section 
— Early Settlers — • Industries — Fabminc — Mining — Merchandising — Prevailing 
High Prices — Manufacturing — Hunting — Transportation — Steamboats — Social 
Life — Lawlessness — Gambling — Dueling — Some Famous Duels — Hospitality — 

POSTOFFICES AND RaTES OF POSTAGE NEWSPAPERS SCHOOLS — LIBRARIES — DrESS. 175 

CHAPTER XIII 
PROTESTANT IMMIGRATION 

Visits of Protestant Ministers — John Clark — Josiah Dodge — Thomas Johnson — An- 
drew Wilson — Religious Condition of the Settlers — Motives Which Brought Them 
to Louisiana — The Work of the Baptists — David Greene — Bethel Church Near 
Jackson — Its Early IMembers — The First IMeeting House — Relics of old Bethel 
Church — Memorial Services in 1906 — Growth op the Church — Other Churches Or- 
ganized BY Members of Bethel — Early Ministers of the Church — Wilson Thompson 
— Thomas Stephens — Thomas P. Greene — The First ^Missionary Collection — The For- 
mation op an Association op Churches in Missouri — John M. Peck — The Work of the 
Methodist Church — First Preachers — John Travis — Organization of McKendree — 
Early Members — First Meeting House — Jesse Walker — The First Circuits — First 
Sermon in Cape Girardeau — Campmeeting at McKendree in 1810 — Harbison — New 
Circuits Formed — Organization of the Missouri Conference — Rucker Tanner — The 
First Conference Held in Missouri — The Work of the Presbyterians — Hempstead's 
Letter — A Church Organized in Washington County, 1816 — Organization of the 
Presbytery of Missouri — Early Ministers — Timothy Flint — The Columbian Bible 
Society — Flint's Writings — Disciples of Christ — William McMurtry — First Organ- 
ization IN Missouri, 1822 — Difficulties Under Which Early Ministers Labored — 
Progress Made — Peck's Description — Debt Owed to Pioneer Ministers. 196 



CONTENTS xxi 

CHAPTER XIV 

NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE 

Time and Area — Unique Among Earthquakes — Contemporary Accounts Mentioned — 
The Scene Described — Direction of the Shocks — Size of Affected Area — Character 
OF Disturbances — Small Loss of Life Explained — A Death from Fright — Persons 

Drowned — Appearance of the Air — Vapors — Lights and Glows — Earth Changes 

Fissures — Lignite — Areas of Surface Raised — Sunk-Lands — Observations Made by 
Lyell — Distribution of Sunk-Lands^Epfect on Timber — Expulsion of Material 
from the Earth — Water-Sand — Sand Blows — Sand-Sloughs — Sinks • — Suggested 
Causes — Contemporary Accounts — Mrs. Eliza Bryan — Long^Bradbury — Flint — 
Faux — LeSieur — Col. John Shaw- — Letter op an Unknown Writer — Long — Nuttall 
— Flagg — Former Drainage as Described by LeSieur — Government Assistance to Suf- 
ferers — The New Madrid Claims — DeLisle vs. State of Missouri — Loss of Popula- 
tion. 212 

CHAPTER XV 

STATEHOOD ATTAINED 

Petition for Organization as a State — Bill to Organize a State Government — The 
Slavery Controversy — The Tallmadge Amendment — Debate Over the Amendment — 
Deadlock op the Two Houses — The Missouri Compromise — Feeling in the State — 
The Constitutional Convention — Members from the Southeast — The Constitution in 
Congress — Further Opposition to Admission — The Debate — Clay's Compromise — 
The Solemn Public Act — The President's Proclamation Admitting the State — Pe- 
culiarities op the Transaction — State Boundaries — Missouri — Arkansas — Wolf 
Island. 234 

SECTION IV 

CHAPTER XVI 
GENERAL DEVELOPMENT 
Analysis op Population, 1820-1830 — Comparative Census Table, 1820-1860 — French 
and German Elements — Period op Town Growth. 247 

CHAPTER XVII 
STE. GENEVIEVE AND ST. MARYS. 

Shipping Center of Mineral Region — Ste. Genevieve-Iron Mountain Plank Road— 
150th Anniversary Celebrated — -U. S. Senators from Ste. Genevieve — Ste. Gene- 
vieve of Today — St. Marys. 251 

CHAPTER XVIII 
CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY TOWNS 

Cape Girardeau a Steamboat Town — Incorporated as a City — Prosperity After the War 
— State Normal School Located — Stage of Stagnation — Really Remarkable Progress 
— Founding of Jackson — First Institutions and Persons — Civil Government — Pres- 
ent County Seat — Burpordville — Appleton — Pocahontas and Oak Ridge. 2.')6 



xxii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIX 
NEW MADRID AND MADISON COUNTIES 
Blows to New Madrid — Incorporated as a City — Long the County Seat — Point Pleasant 

— PORTAGEVILLE FreDERICKTOWN. 265 

CHAPTER XX 

WASHINGTON AND PERRY COUNTIES 

PoTOsi Laid Out and Incorporated— Old Mines — Caledonia — Perryville — Longtown 

Altenburg. 269 

CHAPTER XXI 
WAYNE AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES 

Greenville, Early and Late — Piedmont — Patterson — DeSoto — Crystal City — Her- 
cuLANEUM — Hillsboro — KiMMSwicK — Hematite. 272 

CHAPTER XXII 

ST. FRANCOIS, BOLLINGER AND PEMISCOT COUNTIES 

Present-Day Bismarck — Libertyville — Farmington — Marble Hill — Lutesville — Gay- 
oso — Caruthersville. 277 

CHAPTER XXIII 

DUNKLIN AND MISSISSIPPI 

Old-Time Kennett — Modern Town Dates from Railroad — Clarkton — Hornersville — 
Mississippi County Seat — Charleston of the Present — Belmont. 284 

CHAPTER XXIV 

TOWNS OF SIX COUNTIES 

Commerce Incorporated — Benton, Scott County Seat — Sikeston — Doniphan, County 
Seat of Ripley — Poplar Bluff, Butler County's Seat of Justice — Bloomfield, Stod- 
dard County — Ironton, County Seat of Ironton — Arcadia — Lesterville — Smaller 
Settlements. 290 

CHAPTER XXV 

POLITICAL, CIVIL AND MILITARY 

The First State Election — Contest for the Senatorship — The Eight Counties-^Courts 
IN Each County — Organization of New Counties — Southeast Missouri in the Mex- 
ican War. 299 



CONTENTS xxiii 

CHAPTER XXVI 

CREATION OF NEW COUNTIES 

St. Francois County — Scott County — Organization and Settlement of Stoddard 
County — Ripley County — Pioneers of Dunklin County — Reynolds, Butler and Bol- 
linger Counties — Pemiscot County — St. Francois Levee District — Courts of the 
County and Prominent Citizens — Iron and Carter Counties — Founders of the Eight 
Old Counties. 302 

SECTION V 

CHAPTER XXVII 
GENERAL MOVEMENTS 

Position op the State — Number op Soldiers Furnished — Appointment op a Major-Gen- 

ERAL OF THE StaTE GuARDS — GENERAL S. WaTKINS — GENERAL THOMPSON — SKIRMISHES IN 

August, 1861 — General Grant — Fortifications at Cape Girardeau^Martial Law — 
Thompson's Raid into Jefferson County — Situation in November, 1861 — Battle of Bel- 
mont — Early Months of 1862 — Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten — Skirmishes 
and Raids op 1863 — Marmaduke's Invasion — Capture op General Jeff Thompson — 
Price's Raid Conditions After the "War. 327 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

REGIMENTAL HISTORIES 

Union Troops Organized— Home Guards and State Militia— Third, Fifth, Sixty-Fourth, 
Sixty-eighth, Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Second, Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth and 
Forty-seventh Infantry — Sixth and Tenth Missouri Cavalry — Engineer Regiment, 
West Missouri Volunteers — Twenty-third and Twenty-ninth Regiments of Enrolled 
Militia — Other Commands of State Guards — Ninth and Second Infantry — Noted 
Confederate Organizations. 341 

SECTION VI 

CHAPTER XXIX 

MOVEMENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 

Railiwad Building— Drainage— Wealth — Manufacturing — Mining — Transportation- 
Resources— School* and Churches — Local Option — Population — Organizations — 
Spanish-American War. 357 



i\ 



xxiv CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXX 

TOWNS FOUNDED SINCE CIVIL WAR 

Marquand — Glenallen — Zalma — Bessville — Neeleyville — FisK — Habviel — 
Van Buren — Ellsinobe — Grandin — Hunter — Pocahontas — Allenville — White- 
water BURFORDVILLE — MiLLERVILLE — OaKRIDGE — GOBDONVILLE MaLDEN — CAMP- 
BELL — Gibson — Holcomb — Senath — -Whiteoak — Glennonville — Cardwell — 
Caruth — Cottonplant — Des Arc — Sabula — Belleview — Annapolis — Pestus 

— House's Spring • — Morse Mill ■ — Peveley — Victoria — Mine LaMotte — Corn- 
wall DlEHLSTADT EasT PrAIRIE BeRTRAND — MaRSTON — GiDEON — • PaRMA 

LiLBOURN COMO MOREHOUSE • — HaYTI — HOLLAND COTTONWOOD PoiNT — STEELE 

— Calryville — ■ Lithium — Wittenberg — Longtown — Schumer Springs — Bunker 

— Ellington — Naylor — Flat River — Desloge — Leadwood — Elvins — Bonne 
Terre — BisMAROK — DeLassus — Knob Lick — Libertyville — Doe Run — Oran — 
Fornfelt — Illmo — Crowder — Kelso — Blodgett — Mobley- — Chaffee — Vandu- 
SER — Dexter — Advance — Bernib — Puxico — Irondale — Mineral Point — Rich- 
woods — Chaonia — Leeper — Mills Ring — Williamsville. 371 

SECTION VII 

CHAPTER XXXI 

EARLY SCHOOLS 

Work of the Subscription Schools • — Academies at Ste. Genevieve, Jackson, Potosi, 
New Madrid, Perryville, Point Pleasant, Cape Girardeau, Bloomfield, Poplar Bluff 
AND Charleston. 397 

CHAPTER XXXII 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Foundation op Public System — The State Commission — Sale of Lands — Laws of 1853 — 
Provisions of 1874 — Growth of the System — Southeast Missouri Teachers' Associa- 
tion — First Schools in Various Counties. 404 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING 

St. Mary's Seminary — St. Vincent's College — Will Mayfield College — Elmwood Sem- 
inary — Farmington College — Marvin Collegiate Institute — Carleton College — Ar- 
cadia College — The State Normal School at Cape Girardeau. 412 



CONTENTS XXV 

SECTION VIII 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

SOCIAL LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 

Isolation of Many Communities — Deprivations Suffered — Houses — Food — Dress — 

Household Implements — Schools and Churches — Amusements — Unity of Feeling 

Treatment op Disease — Versatility of the Pioneer — Development of Character 

Farming — Mining — Manufacturing. 439 

CHAPTER XXXV 

RELIGIOUS HISTORY— Continued 

Catholics — Methodists : Quarterly Meetings, Circuits and Districts — Baptists : As- 
sociations — Evangelical Lutherans — Protestant Episcopal Churches — Congregation- 
ALisTs — German Evangelical and German Methodist Churches— New School Presby- 
terians — Cumberland Presbyterian Churches — Christians (Disciples of Christ) — 
Southeast Missouri Presbyterian Churches — Presbyterlinism in 1854-64 — 1864-1874 — 
Division in Presbytery — Decade from 1884 to 1894 — History Since 1894. 448 

CHAPTER XXXVI 
RAILROADS 

Beginning of Railroad Agitation — Companies Formed — The First Railroad — St. Louis, 
Iron Mountain & Southern — Cairo & Fulton — Present Condition of the Iron Moun- 
tain — The Cape Girardeau, Pilot Knob & Belmont — The Houck Lines — The 'Frisco 
System — the St. Louis Southwestern — The Illinois & Missouri Bridge Company — Mis- 
sissippi River & Bonne Terre Railroad Company — The Williamsville, Greenville & 

' St. Louis Railroad Company — St. Louis, Kennett & Southeastern — The St. Louis & 
Missouri Southern — The Paragould Southeastern — • The Illinois Southern — The 
Missouri Southern — The Paragould & Memphis — The Butler County Railroad — The 
St. Francois County Interurban. 496 

CHAPTER XXXVII 

GENERAL STATUS 

Location — Area — Topography — Timber — Industries — Transportation — Towns 
— Population — Schools — Wealth — Bollinger — Butler — Cape Girardeau — Car- 
ter — Dunklin — Iron — Jefferson — Madison — Mississippi — New Madrid — Pemi- 
scot — Perry — Reynolds — Ripley — St. Francois — Ste. Genevieve — Scott — 
Stoddard — Washington — Wayne. 510 



i\ 



xxvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 

THE NEWSPAPERS 

Cape Girardeau — The First Paper — Bollinger — Butler — Carter — Dunklin — 
Iron — Jefferson — Madison — jMississippi — New Madrid — Pemiscot — • Perry — 
Reynolds — Ripley . — St. Francois — Ste. Genevieve — Scott — Stoddard — Wash- 
ington — Wayne — The Great Work op Newspapers. 529 

CHAPTER XXXIX 

SOME BIOGRAPHIES 

Louis Houck — Lownes H. Davis — Robert H. Whitelaw — William B. Wilson — Judge 
John W. Emerson — Samuel S. Hildebrand — Samuel Byrns — B. B. Cahoon — James D. 
Fox — J. J. Russell — H. J. Deal — Absalom McElmurry — William Dawson — Joseph 
Hunter — John A. Mott — Robert A. Hatcher — Eliza A. Carleton — William Carter 
— Placide DeLassus — James R. McCormack — Milton P. Cayce — Gustavus St. Gem — 
Charles S. Hertich — M. L. Clardy — Marshall Arnold — James P. W^vlker — N. B. 
Henry — F. P. Graves — Firmin Desloge. 548 



/, 



INDEX 



Abbey, Daniel, 291, 342 

Abel," Ezekiel, 74, 75, 257 

Abel, Wilson, 290 

Abernathy, Albert G., 402 

Abernathv, Clayton D., 270 

Able. Wilson, 171 

Abshier,' Claude E., 821 

Academies, 400 

Adams, Benjamin H., 530 

Adams, J. W., 912 

Adams, James T., 293 

Adams, Jefferson D., 1279 

Adams, Joel, 1094 

Adelphi Literary Soeiety, 430 

Advance, 391 

"Advance Guard," 544 

' ' Advertiser, ' ' 532 

Ake, Eli D., 534 

Akers, Alfred H., 618 

Albert, H. L., 431 

Albert, J., 256 

Albert, John, 262 

Albert, Leon J., 433, 588 

Albert, E., 267 

Albert, S., 256 

Albright, George W., 753 

Alderson, James, 410 

Alexander, Harry E., 695 

Alexander, John H., 282 

Alexander, William, 302 

Alford, George G., 265 

Algonqnins, 34 

Allen, Albert 0.. 537, 1052 

Allen, B. B., 411 

Allen, Benjamin F., 976 

Allen, Edward, 913 

Allen, Eussell L., 1163 

Allen, Samuel, 265 

Allen, Thomas, 497 

Allen, Thomas C, 1149 

Allen, William E., Jr., 821 

Allenville, 373, 374 

Alleys Mines. 177 

Allstun, Hiram B., 1117 

Ally, John, 63 

Altenburg, 271 

Altenberg Evangelical Lutheran Church, 479 

Alvey, William T., 923 

Amoreaux, Michael, 164 



Amusements, 122 

Anderson, Benjamin F., 1224 

Anderson, Ed, 901 

Anderson, Henry, 949 

Anderson, I. E., 478 

Anderson, M. S., 1251 

Andrew, Lyman B., 402 

Andrews, John, 302 

Andrews, L. H., 402 

Annapolis, 378 

Anthony, Benjamin, 171 

Anthony, Edward D., 576 

Anthony, John, 249 

Anthony, Robert A., 650 

Antioch Christian Church, 494 

Appleberry, Daly, 780 

Appleberry, Reuben, 780 

Apple Creek, xii 

Apple Creek, 66 

Apple Creek First Presbyterian Church, 489 

Apple Creek German M. E. Church, 483 

Applegate, H. A., 308 

Appleton, 264 

Arcadia, 297 

Arcadia College, 420 

Arcadia College and TJrsuIine Seminary, 842 

Arcadia Congregational Church, 482 

' ' Arcadia Prospect, ' ' 534 

"Arcadia Valley Enterprise," 534 

Arent, Cornelius, 79 

Arenz, Oscar, 1283 

"Argus," 530 

Arion Literary Society, 430 

Arkansas River, 26 

Armour, David, 194, 262 

Armstrong, John, 262 

Arnold, J. L.. 1050 

Arnold, Marshall, 556 

Arthur, William C, 960 

Asa, A. Frank, 1186 

Ashabranner, 183 

Asherbramer, t)aniel, 80 

Ashley, John, 1078 

Ashley, John L., 1090 

Ashley, W. H., 257 

Ashley, William H.. 162, 261, 402 

Audubon, John James, 60, 213 

Austin, 181 

Austin, A. C, 308 



XXVll 



xxviu 



INDEX 



■ Austin, .lames, lliO. 3UL', 40^ 
Austin, .Moses, (54, 1.59, 1(59, 183, 269, 402 
Austin, Stephen F., 154, 155 
Aiix Vases, xii 
Averill, Harvey E., 538 
Azar (Breton), Francois, 182 
Azoic- Bocks, x 

Bagby, Robert J., 756 

Bage, Samuel K., 985 

Bailey, .J. A., 113(5 

Bailey, Ealph E., 1-J4U 

Baini, Ely D., 9S5 

Hairil, Kraiieis M., lUTli 

Baird, James M., 893 

Haird, Martin V., 473, 1067 

Baker. E., 678 

Maker, Elisha, 62 

Baker. Henry, 178 

Baker, .James, 307 

Baker, iloses, 290 

Baker, J'eter, 178 

tiakcr, Kebecca, 63 

Baker, W. L., 957 

Baldwin, Hartwell, 291 

Baldwin, Joseph, 421 
Baldwin, J. W., 403 

Baldwin, Paul, 560 

Baldwin, T. E., 285 

Baldwin, Thomas E., 559 

Ball, J. Morgan, 1192 

Ballard, James M., 929 

Ballew, James, 161 

Ballon, (Mrs.) Agnes, 197 

Bancroft, (_'. B.. 307 

Bancroft, Thonujs S., 402 

Baptists, 198. 207, 463 

"Bajitist Headlight," 530 

"Bajitist Journal," 534 

Barber, Moses B., 703 

Barham, William H.. 1068 

Barkley, Eichard, 402 

Barley, Absolom. 295 

Barnard, .Tames Underwood, 426 

Barnard, W. P., 287 

Barnes. C. M., 1035 

Barnes, Goah S.. 1046 

Barnes, John X., 1033 

Barnes, William A., 1270 

Barnett, Silas Y., 1108 

Barnhart, Adam, 307 

Barren ('hurch, 201 

"Barrens, The," 6li. 177 

Barrett, A. M., 742 

Barrett, William L., •■)(i6 

Barrow, Aimer, 674 

Barsaloux, .lean Ba|)tistc, 107 

Barsaloux, John B.. 11.") 

Barsaloux, .lohn Bajiti^le. 66 

Barth, Phillip II., 1017 

Bartlett, G. T., 403, 531 

Bartlett, Orson, 295, 296, 103 

Bartlett, Thomas. 29] 

Barton. David, 63, 169, 238, 299 

Bateaus (pirogues), 131 

Bates, Elijali, 169 

Bates, Moses. 402 

Battery F, Second Illinois Light Artillerv, 347 

Battle' of Belmont, 332 



Bannddatt, C. F., 894 

Baxter, Francois, 282 

Bayou Portage, 230 

Ba.you, St. John, 6 

Beattie, George .\I.. 262 

Beauvais, Jean, 52 

Beauvais, J. S. J., 150 

Beauvais. St. Gem, 52 

Beck, Arnold, 341 

Beckwith, Xewman, 303 

Bedford, A. Jl., 288, 295, 498 

Bedford, H. H., 350 

Bedford, Henry Hale, 305 

Belchamber, James, 794 

Bell City, 391 

Bell, Huey F., 7.S9 

Bell Telephone Go.. 261 

Belleview, 378 

Bellevue Collegiate Institute, 461 

Bellevue Presbyterian (Jhurch, 488 

Bellevue Settlement. 207 

Bellevue Valley. 64, 178 

Bellon, Tolhert E., 1(158 

Belmont, 289 

Belmont Branch, The, 497 

Belt. Harry B.. 1029 

Beverly. Nathaniel, 168 

Benedict, Horace D.. 613 

Bennett. Carroll P.. 676 

Bennett. Joseph. 267 

Bennett, L. D., 476 

Benton, 290, 449 

' ' Benton Express, ' ' 542 

"Benton Express Record," 542 

Benton-Lucas Duels. 190 

Benton Presbyterian Church, 484 

"Benton Record." 542 

Benton, Thomas H.. 190. 299 

Bequette. Joseph. 52 

Bergmann. William C., 6(i0 

Bcrgmann, William F., Ii37 

Bernie, 391 

"Bernie Star," 544 

Berry. J. A., 371, 784 

Berryman, Jerome C, 461, 725 

Berthaume, Marie, 73 

Bertling, Daniel, 480 

B?rtran(l. 379 

Bessville, 372 

Bethel Association of the Baptist Church, 46: 

Bethel Baptist Association, 475 

Bethel Bajitist Church, 162 

Bethel I hurch, 198 

Bethel Church Monument, 200 

Bethlehem Baptist Church, 476 

Bettis, Elijah. 238 

Bettis, Overton, 167 

Bidewell, Charles F., 643 

Bidewell, George, 662 

Biffle, A. L.. 1193 

Big (?reek Baptist Chunh, 477 

"Big Field." 7, 119 

Bigham, William. 282 

Big River, xii 

Big River. 331 

Big River Mills. 63 

Big Swamp. 76 

Bird. Abraham. 109, 179 

Bird's Point, 109, 179, 379 



INDEX 



Bird, Thompson. 2S8 

Bishop, Pleasant, 267 

Bismark, 277, 3S(i 

"Bismark Gazette," 541 

Bismark Presbyterian Church, 491 

BisplinffhntT, (ieorge H., 694 

Black. John, 314 

Black River, xii, .\iv 

Black River Baptist Association, 469 

Black River Baptist Church, 469 

"Black River Country," 531 

"Black River News," 531 

Blackweli, 3.^1 

Blake, Ross, 871 

Blakemore, A. F., 1076 

Blakemore, .7. B., 285, 507 

Blaine, Albert, 733 

Blair, Governor. 243 

Blair, Robert, 74 

Blair, Thomas, 204 

Blanton, .1. Thompson, 605 

Blanton Plank-Road, 265 

Blanton, William H., 724 

Blavlock, Richard D., 848 

Blavlock, \V. ir., S65 

Bledsoe, John H., 966 

Bledsoe, J. S., 288 

Bledsoe. Bichard, 254 

Bledsoe, William B., 953 

Block, Hiram, 402 

Block, Levi, 270 

Blodgett, 3SS 

Bloom, Peter, 62 

Bloohifield. 295, 3.35, 337, 453, 454, 462 

"Bloomfield Argus," 543 

Bloomtield Baptist Church, 473 

Bloomfield Educational Society, 403 

"Bloomfield Herald," 295, .543 

Bloomfield Mission, 454 

"Bloomfield Vindicator," 296, 545 

Blount. .Jacob C., 293, 311 

Boaz, Herbert L., 1210 

Bocarie, Phyllis, 65 

Bogliolo, Etienne, 97 

Bogliolo. Matteo, 265 

Bogy, Joseph, 154 

Bogy, Leon, 344 

Bogy, Lewis V., 253 

Boise Brulo Bottom, 66 

Bolduc, Louis, 56 

Boli, E. :\r., 273 

Boli. .lohn, 65 

Boli, William, 125 

Boli, Williams, 65 

Bollinger County, 79, 313, 510, 531 

Bollinger. Charles F.. 770 

Bollinger. Frederick, 150 

Bollinger, George Frederii'k, 

313 
Bollinger, H. A., 1220 
Bollinger, Henry E.. 827 
Bollinger. Henfv F., 1005 
Bollinger. Ma.io'r. 128 
Bollinger, Phillip, 80 
Bollinger, Solomon, 167 
Bollinger, Walter A., 1183 
Bollinger, William, SO, 1183 
Bond, George, 344 
Bond, George H., 741 



526 



153, 154, 1.55, 177. 



Bone, William M,, 965 

Bonne Terre, 385, 450 

Bonne Terre Congregational Church, 482 

' ' Bonne Terre Register,.' ' 541 

"Bonne Terre Star," 541 

Booker. Charles O., 1273 

Boon, Pinkney E., 1288 

Booth, James, 1133 

Boutin, Samuel, 671 

Bowen, John S., 351 

Bowers. James M.. 997 

Bowman. Arthur C., 564 

Bowman, B. L., 477 

Boyce, William, 66 

Boyden, Charles, 1179 

Boyden, John R., 1179 

Boyer. Barton H., 857 

Boyer, Jaques, 52 

Brackenridge, William T., 913 

Bradbury. .John, 213 

Bradley, James, 307 

Bradley, .lames A., 1092 

Bradley, .lohn H., 655 

Bragg,' W. G., 285 

Bragg, William G., 813 

Bramblet, Clarence R., 794 

Brand, Eli T.. 841 

Brandon, .lames P.. 915 

Brandt. John, 413 

Branham, Adolphus, 1041 

Branum, Lizzie, 306 

Branum, Tecumseh, 306 

Branum, Victorine, 306 

Brasher, J. M., 314 

Brasher, .Joseph M.. 641 

Bray, .William, 715 

Bray, William G., 907 

Brayton, Rev.. 468 

Brazeau Presbyterian Church, 488 

Breckenkamp, August H.. 747 

Bredensteiner. William. 917 

Breid, David W., 661 

Breton. Francois, 269 

Brevard. A. H., 262 

Brevard, A. J., 263 

Brewer, Robert M.. 343 

Briekev, Franklin W.. 730 

Briekey, John S., 169 

Bridgeman. John. 270 

Bridges, A. B., 307 

Bridges, Ambrose D.. 918 

Bridges. J. H.. 288 

Bridges, L. L.. 761 

Bridges, William, 977 

Bringier, L.. 213 

Brissenden, Ralph. 1271 

Brooks, Elmer O.. 895 

Brooks, Harry T., 1026 

Brooks, James A., 410 

Brooks, Thomas L, 964 

Brown, Allen C. 969 

Brown, B. Gratz, 329 

Brown, James, 317 

Brown, John, 290 

Brown, John L., 1077 

Brown, John W., 473 

Brown, Robert T., 170. 270 

Brown, R. T.. 238 

Brown. Tli.nnas J.. 1046 



XXX 



INDEX 



Browne, David S., 782 

Browne. Joseph, 151 

Browne, Lionel, 154, IHil, 4(12 

Browne, Wilson. 78 

Brow-nell, Jolin W., 2()6 

Brownwood, 391 

Brunlce, Abraham, 40l' 

Bryau. (Mrs.) Eliza, i;i.3 

Bryant, Bert P., 841 

Bryant, P. P., 877 

Brydon, Doc, 1126 

Buck, Charles. 1093 

Buck, James B., 1141 

Buck. John L., 295, 1141 

Buckner. Alexander, 137, 238, 242 

Biickner, Eobert, 171 

Biiehrman, Otto, 249 

Buenger, E. E., 271 

Buerkle, John C., 727 

Buffalo Creek, xiv 

Buford. .John, 317 

Bull, Thomas, 162, 19.S, 199 

Bullett, George, 153 

Bullock, James E., 1048 

Bunker, 383 

Buute, Theodore L., Jr., 674 

Bunyard, E. J., 476 

Burchitt, J. G., 863 

Burdette. .Tohn, 267 

Burford, D. W., 1032 

Burfordville, 264, 374 

Burger, iloritz, 479 

Burgess, William J., 990 

Burke. Edward, 291 

Burlison, Ed., 839 

Burnham. B. P.. 587 

Burns, Robert F., 1056 

Burnside, DeWitt L., 1232 

Burris, Levi, 1252 

Burrough, Jacob H., 422 

Burrow, John W., 1195 

Burrow, William A., 1088 

Burton, C. E., 561 

Butler County, 179, 248, 311, 511, 531 

Butler County Educational Society, 403 

Butler County Railroad Company, 508 

Butler, Elisha C. 682 

Butler, Frederick C, 402 

Butler, John, 816 

Butler, Mann, 193 

Butler, W. A., 312 

"Buzz-Saw." 546 

Byrd. Abraham, 78, 162 

Byrd, Amos, 78 

Byrd, A. R., 410 

Byrd Family, 78. 158 

Byrd, .John,' 78, 161, 498 

Byrd Settlement, 77 

Byrd, Spencer, 153 

Byrd. Stephen, 78. 150, 154, 238 

Byrd's Creek, 78, 178 

Byrns, Sam, 759 

Byrns, Samuel, 551 

Cabildo (Council), 114 
Cahoon, Benjamin Benson, 551 
Cain, .Jesse, 161 

Cairo & Fulton Railroad, 287, 498 
Caldwell, Isaac W., 991 



Caldwell, Jame.s, SO, 154, 299 

Caldwell, Thomas, 154 

Caldwell, William C, 1109 

( 'aledouia. 64, 270 

l.'aledonia Presbyterian Church, 270 

Callaway, John, 63 

Calvin, Lula, 1191 

Calvin, Robert L., 1190 

Cameron, Donald H., 635 

Campbell, 375 

"Campbell Citizen," 533 

Campbell, Alexander, 310 

Campbell, C. C, 31] 

Campbell, J. P.. 539 

Campbell, John Jl., 1017 

Camp Rowdy. 254 

I'amren. James T., 1215 

Canaan Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 494 

Canada, 27, 28 

Canada, Mark, 56 

Canalou, 381 

Cane Creek, 179, .'n2 

Cane Creek Baptist Association, 470, 477 

Caneer, W. T.. Jr., 667 

Caney Creek, xiii 

' ' Capaha Arrow, ' ' 431 

(-'apaha Blutt's. Rock Levee Drive, <'app Girardeau 
(view), viii 

Capahas, 16, 34, 35 

Cape Girardeau, 21, 34, 51, 71, 73. 74. 1.39, 140, 152, 
161. 162, 164, 176, 177. 178, 186, 192. 249. 261, 
318. 329, 409, 420, 453. 455. 460. .504 

Cape Girardeau — A steamboat town, 256 ; incorpo- 
rated as a city, 257; prosperity after the war, 
258; State Normal School located, 259; remark- 
able progress, 260 

Cape Girardeau Association of Baptists. 464 

"Cape Girardeau Censor." 330 

Cape Girardeau Circuit, 455 

Cape Girardeau County, 178, 511 

"Cape Girardeau Courier," 530 

"Cape Girardeau Democrat." 530 

Cape Girardeau District, 49, 117, 125, 197, 207— 
First settlement within, 67; water mills on Cape 
La Croix and Hubble creeks, 72; origin of naure, 
73; limits of the town, 75 

Cape Girardeau German M. E. Church, 483 

"Cape Girardeau Herald," 531 

"Cape Girarileau Xews. " 531 

"Cape Girardeau Patriot," 530 

Cape Girardeau Presbyterian Church, 489. 4S4 

"Cape Girardeau Progress," 531 

Cape Girardeau, Pilot ICnoh & Belmont Railroad 
Company, 501 

Cape Girardeau & Jackson Jnterurban Company. 509 

Cape Girardeau & Thebes Bridge Terminal Raihvay 
Company, 303 

Cape Girardeau & State Line Railroad Company, 
501 

Cape Le-Croix Creek, xii 

Cape La Crux Creek, 77 

"Capote," 122 

Capuchin, 133 

Cardwell, 376 

Carleton College, 420 

Carleton, Eliza A.. 553 

Carleton. (Miss) E. A.. 420 

Carleton. George W., 282, 315 

Carleton, G. W., 314 



INDEX 



XXXI 



Carleton, Major, 315 

Carondelet, Baron, 62 

Can-. William C, 159 

Carrington, W. T., 410 

Carroll. William L., 1287 

Carter County, 24S, 306, 317, 41)9, 512 

Carter Family, 554 

Carter, Francis M., 827 

Carter, William, 554, 886 

Carter, Zimri, 180 

Carter, Zimri A., 317 

Cartobona, Don Francisco, 114 

Carty, Moses, 311 

Canith, 377 

Canithers, Edgar P., 625 

Carnthers, E. P., 533, 535 

Caruthers, Sam, 282 

Caruthers. Samuel, 322 

Caruthersville, 282 

" Caruthersville Eepublican, " 538 

Case, Theodore, 313 

Cashion, Arthur V., 583 

Cashion, Charles E., 760 

Casquins, 14 

Cassilly, E. V., 257 

Castor Creek, xii 

Castor River, xiv 

Gates, William il., 773 

Cato, Sanford. 1199 

Caulk, Richard, 150 

Cavender. John S., 344 

Cavinor, Joseph, 153 

Cavce, Milton P., 555 

Cedar Hill Baptist Churcli, 476 

Cellini, Francois, 449 

Centerville, 311, 329 

Cerre, Gabriel, 65, 72 

Central Missouri Baptist Association, 475 

Chaflfee, 389 

" Chaifee Signal," 542 

Chalk Bluff, 335 

Chambers, J. O., 1169 

Chandler, Lewis, 307 

Chaonia, 392 

Chapman, Alvin, 1012 

Chapman, Reuben, 314 

Chapman, Reuben S., 1011 

Chapman, Samuel, 291, 295 

Chaponga, 52 

Chapoosa Creek, 82 

Charless, Joseph, 192 

Charleston, 287, 516 

Charleston Baptist Association, 478 

"Charleston Call," 537 

Charleston Classical Academy. 403 

"Charleston Courier," 5.36 

"Charleston Gazette," 536 

Charleston M. E. Church. 460 

Charleston Presbyterian Churcli. 4S5 

"Charleston Republican." 536 

"Charleston Sentinel," 536 

' ' Charleston Star, ' ' 537 

Charpentier, John, 65, 115 

Chasteen, John B., 1129 

Chatham, Alfred T., 1009 

Cheney, L. H., 422, 423 

Cheney, (Mrs.), 423 

Cheroisees, 35, 40, 41 

Chevalier, Peter, 64 



Chickasaw Bluflfs, 14 

Chilletecaux, xiv 

Chilletecaux, 42, 44, 284, 306, 307 

Chilletecaux River, 42 

Chilton. Joseph F., 590 

Chookalee (corn meal), 43 

Chouteau, August. 150 

Chouteau. Pierre, 39 

Christians, 208, 494 

Christian Indians, 41 

"Chronicle," 537 

Cinquehomme, xii 

Cinque Homme, 42, 66, 81 

Circuit Court. 159, 304 

Cissell, Bernard, 270 

"Citizen-Democrat," 532 

Civil War, 327 

Claiborne, William, 142 

Glamorgan. Jacques, 65 

Glardv, Martin L., 556 

"Clarion," 535 

Clark, B., 470 

Clark. Francis, SO 

Clark, George B., 374 

Clark. Henry E., 286 

Clark, H. C'.. 370 

Clark, John, 65, 197 

Clark. W. C, 1193 

Clarke, C. B., 423 

Clarkson, Riley. 307, 308 

Clarkton. 164,' 286 

Clarkton Presbvterian Church, 491 

Clarv. Claude L., 1250 

Claryville, 382 

Clay, Henrv. 239 

Clements, Charles B., 11 IS 

Clevenger, E. L.. 696 

Clifton, .Tames D., 12S7 

Clifton & Jlothershead. 262 

Climate, xvi 

Cline, Benianiin J.. 1137 

Clippard, F. G.. 633 

Clowd. Robert E., 282 

Cluley. John M., 341 

Clulev, J. M.. 409 

Coats, O. B., 10.30 

Coburn, John. 151 

Cohen, D., 273 

Coker, A. S., 410 

Cole, Charles A., 672 ■ 

Cole. Oscar R., 935 • 

Cole. Phillip, 169 ■ 

Cole. Rolla A., 1003 . 

Cole, William L., 626 • 

Cole, W. N., 820 ■ 

Coleman, Francois, 52 

Coleman, F. M., 317 

Collins. Cicero, 898 

Columbian Bible Society, 208 

"Columbian Reciprocity," 534 

"Comet," 530 

Commerce, 290. 303 

"Commerce Dispatch." 542 

Commercial Clubs, 370 

Common Fields, 118 

Common Pleas Court, 159, 164 

Como, 381 

Concord Baptist Association, 474 

Concordia Seminary, Altenberg, 480 



XXX II 



INDEX 



Confederate Organizations (Civil War), 348 

Confederate A'^eterans, 369 

Congregational f'hurohes, 482 

Conrad, Arthur O., 818 

Conrad, David R., 618 

Conrad, Daniel E., 618 

Conrad, D. J., 682 

Conrad, Oeorge E., 743 

Conrad, J. J., 313 

Conrad, Peter E., 668 

Conran, James V., 1231 

Conran, Matt J., 1050 

"Conservative," .535 

' ' Constitution, ' ' 188 

Cook Settlement. 177 

Cook, Allen, 342 

Cook. .John D., 155. 158. 238, 299, 304, 310, 311 

Cook, L. C, 1153 

Cook, Mrs. M. K., 1291 

Cook, Nathaniel. 63, 1.54, 23S, 267, 299 

Cook, Eifbard, 307 

Cooke, Mrs. L. A.. 1021 

Cook's Settlement, 63 

Cooksev, Guv E., 537 

Cooley,' W. G., 288 

Cooper, Samuel, 164 

Cooper, T. S., 968 

Cooper, Thomas W., 717 

Cooper, William A., 575 

Coppage, Robert F.. 9.32 

Coppedge, George S., 1062 

Corbin, Abel R., 405 

Corbin, Daniel B., 1187 

Cordrey, Henry L., 1225 

Cordrie. Charles, 342 

Corn Measured bv Horses (view), 517 

Cornwall, 379 

Coruyn, F. M., 346 

"Correspondent and Record," 541 

"Cosmos." 543 

Cottard, Francis, 150 

Cottle, "Warren, 150 

Cottonplant, 7, 377 

Cotton Plant Baptist Church, 473 

Cottonwood Point, 382 

Couch. Lewis .1., 890 

Cousin, Barthelimi. 74 

Cox. Caleb, 267 

Cox, .Tohn .7., 267 

Cox. Moses, 267 

Cox, William, 171 

Cowdon, Emma E., 425 

Craig, Peter. 171 

Craig. William L.. 941 

Craighead. E. B., 428 

Crain. George A.. 1090 

Grain. Nancy, 934 

Cramer, George H.. 250. 341, 409 

Cramer, William, 249 

Cramer, Wilson, 250 

Cravens, George L.. 311 

Cravens, L. B., 1078 

Creek Indians. 43 

Creeks, 41 

Creighton, .Tames A., 419 

"Creole." 541 

('riddle, Edward. 163, 262 

Criddle. (Mrs.) Edward, 402 

Crites, Charles M., 673 



Crites, Peter. 80 
Crittenden, .John .T., 243 
Crittenden, Thomas T., 190 
Crockett. Robert L., 1039 
Croke, James J., 830 
Crooked Creek, xiii 
Crooked Creek. 334 
Crow, William E., 768 
Crowder, 388 
Crowe, Bennette D., 941 
Crowley's Ridge, xii, xv 
Crowle.v's Ridge, 14 
Crumb, George H., 543 
Crutcher, William J., 1095 
Crutchfield, William H., 1134 
Crystal City, 274^ 
Cude, .James, 284 
Calmer, Frederick A.," 575 
Cumberland Presbyterians. 493 
Ciimmings. Henry G., 2S7, 311 
Cummins, .Tohn. (i~) 
Cunningham, ,T. A., 314 
Cupples, Samuel, 262 
Current River, 292, 31S, 513 
"Current Local," 532 
Cushion Lake, 231 

Daffrnn, Isaac X.. 656 

Daffmn, William H., 722 

Dale, John C, 696 

Dalcv, John. 450 

Dallas. 313 

Dalton, George, 972 

Dalton^ .Tesse S., 1040 

Dalton. Robert P., 620 

Danbv, Edward L., 1089 

Dan forth, L. W., 1256 

Daniels, .Tames, 342 

Daniels. Rev., 468 

Darlington, Thomas P., 1017 

Davault, W. A.. 687 

David, Nathan. 312 

Davidson. Alexander. 1116 

Davidson, Hugh C, 1115 

Davidson. Isaac M.. 1117 

Davidson. .Tohn, 1.54, 155 

Davidson, J. T., 532 

Davis. Albert S., 1020 

Davis. A. M.. 284 

Davis. Charles. 267 

Davis, Edward L., 958 

Davis, Garret, 243 

Davis, Greer W., 157 

Davis, John, 162 

Davis. Lowdes H., .549 

Davis. Orren L., 1086 

Davis, Timothy, 157 

Davis, W. J., '1192 

Davis. Will E., 1297 

Davis, William L., 1169 

Daughertv, Abraham, 171 

Daughertv, Colonel, 329 

Daugherty, G. R.. 1272 

Daugherty, Ra!])h. 79 

Daughertv Settlement, 77 

Daughertv. William. 77, 161, 261 

Dawson Family. 533, 1065 

Dawson, George W., 96, 1066 

Dawson, Robert A., 1066 



INDEX 



XXXIU 



Dawsou, Kobert I>., 96, 105, 154, 155, 23S, 265, 315, 

402 
Dawson, William, 96, 1066 
Dav, .Jacob, S58 
Deal, Henry J., 344, 552 
Dean, William D., 1285 
De Andreis. Father, 137, 448 
Dearmont, W. S., 427, 428 
Dearmnnt, Washington S., 563 
Deck, Jacob il., 692 
Deck, John, 178 
Deckuith, Thomas. 11 
Decyperi, 89 
Deem, David B., 1128 
DeFieJd, C. S., 1280 
De Guire, Andrew, 64 
De Guire, Baptiste, 64 
De Guire, Paul, 64, 183 
De Guire, Michael, 669 
Delaroderie. Alphonse, 265, 266 
De 'Lashmutt, Lindsay, 78 
De Lashmutt, Van B.', 194 
De Lassus, Camille, 115 
De Lassus, Charles DeHault, 89, 95, 110 
Delassus, Governor, 64, 72, 386 
DeLassus, Leon, 270 
DeLassus, Placide, 554 
Delawares, 40, 41, 170 
DeLisle Familv, 232 
DeLisle, Alfonse, 1031 
DeLisle, Alfred, 1286 
DeLisle, Alphonso, 314 
DeLisle, Charles A., 1161 
DeLisle, Edward, 267 
DeLisle, George, 1054 
DeLisle, .James E., 1175 
DeLisle, Jesse J., 1202 
DeLisle, .lonah, 1162 
Delorederi, Alphonso, 402 
De Luziere, Pierre De Hault De Lassus, 62 
"Democrat," 532, 539 
' ' Demoerat-Xews, ' ' 536 
' ' Democracy, ' ' 530 
De Mun, Augustine, 154 
Denman, Clint, 540 
Denman, Harry, 540 
Denman, Harry E., 1177 
Denny, William, 79 
De Reign, Albert, 1266 
Des Arc, 298, 377 
DesLoge, 384 
DesLoge, Firmin, 557 
' ' DesLoge Sun, ' ' 541 
De Soto, 1, 82, 133, 273, 514 
De Soto's Adventures — Route, 14; timber, 15; first 

religious service, 16; the Capahas, 16; Quigate, 

20 ; death, 21 ; exact route, 21 
De Soto Congregational Church, 482 
De Soto Episcopal Church, 482 
"DeSoto Facts," 535 
De Soto German M. E. Church, 483 
DeSoto Home Guards, 342 
"DeSoto Press," 535 
Detchemcndy House, 401 
Detchmendy, P., 150 
"Deutscher Volks Freund, " 530 
Dexter, 389, 526 
Dexter Christian Church, 495 
"Dexter Enterprise," 543 



' ' Dexter Messenger, ' ' 544 

' ' Dexter Statesman, ' ' 544 

Dick, F. A., 243 

Dickinson, J. J., 370 

Dickinson, Lewis, 478 

Diehlstadt, 379 

Digges, T. H., 266 

Digges, William L., 1038 

Dill, A. R., 343 

Dinkins, John T., 853 

Dinning, Louis F., 1244 

District of St. Louis, 49 

Dittlinger, Michael, 341, 347, 409 

D'Lashuutt, E., 262 

Dodge, Augustus C, 253, 399 

Dodge, Henry, 61, 171, 238, 399 

Dodge, Israel, 66, 124, 197 

Dodge, John, 124 

Dodge, Josiah, 197 

Dodge, Thomas. 66 

Dodson, N. C., 349 

Doerner, H. E., 95."j 

Doe Run, 387 

Doe Run Presbyterian Church, 491 

Doesselman, Charles, 480 

Dohogne, Leo, 1253 

Donaldson, Humphrey, 308 

Donaldson, I. F., 882 

Donaldson, Thomas F., 882 

Doniphan, 292, 522 

Doniphan, Alexander William, 292 

' ' Doniphan News, ' ' 539 

"Doniphan Prospect," 539 

"Doniphan Prospect-News," 539 

"Doniphan Republican," 539 

Doniphan 's Expedition, 300 

Donnell, Thomas, 207 

Donohoe, Thomas, 201 

Dooley, A. J., 349 

Doris, James H., 722 

Dorris, Timothy, 1142 

Dorsay, Samuel, 105 

Dorsey, Richard, 270 

Dougherty, .John, 307 

Douglas, A. E., 426 

Douglas, R. E., 536 

Douglass, A. B., 308 

Douglass, Alexander T., 570 

Douglass, A. T., 307 

Douglass. A. W., 996 

Douglass, .lames M., 571 

Douglass, R. H., 473, 474 

Douglass, R. S. (Frontispiece) 

Douglass, Thomas J., 1015 

Douthitt. Thomas. 495 

Dowd. Thomas, 265 

Dowdy, Robert A.. 1139 

Downing, Ben R., 826 

Downing, .Tames L., 927 

Downing, John M., 1286 

Downs, Thomas J., 735 

Drainage, 360 

Drainage Movements, 357 

Drerup, John B., 1007 

Dress, 195 

Drum, T. B., 837 

Drury, Amos L., 1267 

Dubourg, 448 

Dubourg, W. F.. 137 



INDEX 



Duckworth, Buien, 783 

Dudley, William, 306 

Dueling, 189 

Dufour, Parfalt, 5i 

Duncan, Burwell A., 1209 

Duncan, J., 476 

Duncan, John E., 1058 

Dunham Hall, 269 

Dunklin County, 284. 306, 310, 513 

' ' Dunklin County Advocate, ' ' 532 

"Dunklin County Herald," 532 

"Dunklin County Mail," 533 

' ' Dunklin County News, ' ' 533 

Dunklin County Publishing Company, 533 

Dunklin, Daniel, 169, 322, 405 

"Dunklin Democrat," 533 

Dunmire, George T., 615 

Dunn, John, 154 

Dunn, S. G., 162 

Dunscomb, Daniel E., 925 

Dunscombe, James K., 952 

Durham Hall, 169 

Dutcher, C. H., 426. 428, 434 

Duval, John, 66 

Duvall, Rev., 468 

Dye, Dave, 1055 

Eagle's Nest. 257 

Ease's. Jim, Camp, 42 

East Prairie, 379 

"East Prairie Eagle," 537 

Easton. Rufus. 151 

Eastwood, James, 313 

Eating Up the Flax (illustration), 129 

Eaton, R. S., 476 

Ebert, A. A.. 1281 

"Echo," 536 

Echols. Joseph W.. 290 

Eckhardt. 262 

Eckhardt. Otto, 426 

Edgar, William R., 599 

Edmonds, iloses, 316 

Education — Work of the subscription schools, 398 ; 
parochial schools, 400; academies, 400. (See also 
Public Schools and Higher Learning.) 

Edwards, Casper M., 533 

Edwards. James, 262 

Edwards, James P., 203 

Edwards, John F. T., 297, 316 

Edwards, ilike. 1285 

Ehrichs, Theodore. 896 

Eighty-third Battalion, 348 

"El Camino Real" (King's Highway). 110 

Eldridge, L. P., 349 

Elephant Rocks. Graniteville (view), x 

Ellington, 383 

"Ellington Press." 340 

Elliott, Benjamin. 402 

Elliott, Henry, 299 

Ellis, Alfred" P., 256 

Ellis, Erastus. 74, 155 

Ellis, Solomon, 74 

Ellis, William H., 1285 

Ellis, W. W.. 1258 

EDrodt. Christian. 342 

Ellsinore. 373 

Elmer. J. B.. 342 

Elmwood, 78 

Elmwood Seminary, 419 



550 
Missouri Volunteer? 



293 



544 



Elvins. 3S4 

Elvins. Jesse M.. 644 

Elvins. Politte. 645 

Ely. T. R. R.. 607 

"Enibarras. " 132 

Emerson. John W., 297, 

Emory, Artluir R.. 1124 

Engineer Regiment. West 

England, R. E., 846 

English, 27 

English. James H., 7.54 

English, Robert, 154, 155 

English. Thomas, 199 

English. Thomas B.. 158. 

Enler, George W., 270 

"Enterprise," 532, 536 

' ' Enterprise-Messenger. ' 

Episcopal Churches, 481 

Epps. Daniel, 179 

Ernst. Joseph A., 542, 741 

"Espial." 535 

Essarv, Calvin L.. 11.56 

' ' Essex Leader. ' ' 544 

Establishment Creek, 66 

Eiibanks, J. Oliver, 706 

Eudaly, .Tames, 312 

Eudal'v, John, 312 

Evangelical Lutheran Chun-hes. 479 

Evans, Enoch. 303 

Evans. Evan. 307 

Evans. E. P., 257 

Evans. Horace D., 601 

Evans, James, 74, 238 

Evans, John James. 242 

Evans, W. H., 277 

"Evening Shade." 533 

Ewing, H. C, 422 

Ewing, Thomas, Jr., 337 

"Fairplay, " 541 

Fallenwi(ier, Caleb B.. 262 

Faris. Charles B., 1174 

' ' Farmer & Miner, ' ' 535 

' ' Farmers ' Union Advocate, ' ' 534 

Farming, .364 

Farming Machinery and ]ni|jlements, 445 

Farmington, 277, 337, 450 

Farmington Circuit, 453, 455, 463 

Farmington College, 419 

"Farmington District Messenger," 545 

"Farmington Eagle," 540 

' ' Farmington Herald, ' ' 540 

' ' Farmington News, ' ' 540 

Farmington Presbyterian Church, 489 

' ' Farmington Progress, ' ' 540 

"Farmington Times," 540 

"Farmington Times-Herald.'' 540 

Farnham, A. C. 317 

Farnsworth, Albert A.. 677 

Farquhar, J. S. N., 918 

Farr. S.. 476 

Farrar, B. J., 345 

Farrar. John, 203 

Farrar. George W., 422 

Farrar. Jloses, 308. 310 

Farris, Absolom, 307 

Path. Leonard. 270 

Faughn, James, 307 

Felts, John W., 1180 



347 



INDEX 



Felts, Robert Ci., 1180 

Feltz, Lawrence L., 778 

Fenwiek-Crittemlen Duel, 190 

Fenwick, Ezekiel, 78 

F'enwiek Settlement, 66 

Fenwick, Walter, 190 

Ferguson, James S., 293 

Ferguson, J. S., 403 

Ferguson, N. G., 470 

Ferguson, Patrick, 1223 

Ferrell, J. F., 729 

Ferries, 161 

Festus, 378^ 

' ' Festus News, ' ' 535 -^ 

Fields, William E., 1296 

Fifteenth Regiment, Missouri Enrolled ililitia, 347 

Fifth Missouri Regiment, 343 

Fiftieth .Missouri Infantry, 346 

Fifty-sixth Missouri Regiment, 343 

Figari, H., 413 

Finch, James A., 1272 

Finger, B. F., 371 

Finley, David, 307, 308 

Finney, James G.. 531 

Finney, John M., 623 

Finney, Revnolils M., 776 

Kinney, T.'.M., 461 

Finney, William B.. 770 

Finney, W. E., 1240 

First Association of Baptist Churches, 203 

First Bank in Cape Girardeau, 256 

First Bank in Jackson, 262 

First Baptism, 56 

First Baptist Church in Louisiana, 198 

First Brick House Built West of the Mississippi 

(view), 50 
First Circuit Court in Butler County, 312 
First Conference West of the Mississippi, 206 
First Congregational Church in Southeast ilissouri, 

482 
First County (state) Court, 160 
First English School West of tlie ilississippi River, 

77 
First Grist Jlill, 52 
h'irst Masiuiic Lodge, 157 

First ^Methodist Society West of the Mississippi, 204 
First Presbyterian Church, 207 
First Protestant Baptism, 197 
First Religious Service, 16 
First School in Southeast Missouri, 193 
First Schools in Bloomfield, 402 
First Schools in Various Counties, 409 
First Steamboat up the ilississippi, 188 
/^^Fisher, Alvin B., 1155 
Fisher, T. D., 540 
Fisk, 372 

Flanarv. Hugh M., 11193 
I'^lat Ri\er, 3S4 
Flecge, William B., 872 
Flentge, Edward W., 606 
Flentge, William, .343 
Fletcher, Governor, 501 
Fletcher, C. E., 273 
Fletcher, James W., 345 
Fletcher, .lohn W.. 273 
Fletcher, Thomas C, 273, 345 
Flint, Timothy, 207, 208, 261 
Florence, Oscar S., 810 
Floyd, .T. H., 473 



Fly, Christopher C., 1219 

Flynn, Ebenezer, 163 

Flynn, Joseph, 530, 542 

Fonville, William T., 1217 

Forcher, Pierre, 89 

Fordyce, S. W., 505 

Forn'felt, 387 

Fort, James L., 567 

Fort A, 329 

Fort B, 329 

Fort Celeste. 89 

Fort Creve, 30 

Fort Davidson, 338 

Fort Joachim, 52 

Fort Osage, 44 

Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry, 345 

Forty-seventh Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, 347 

"Forum," 539 

Foster, F. P., 1277 

Fourche a Renault Church, 478 

Four Jlile Baptist Church, 473 

Fou.st, A. L.. 1177 

Fowlkes, R. W., 1176 

Fo.\, Burwell, 616 

Fox, James D., 551 

Foxes, 35, 40, 70, 150, 170 

Frank, Jacob J„ 1150 

Franklin Bajitist Association, 469 

I'>anklin, J. R., 293 

Franklin, Robert G., 267 

Frazer, Theodore F., 1263 

Frederiektown, 64, 177, 186, 267, 268, 349, 420, 453, 

454, 455 
Frederiektown Baptist Church, 477 
"Frederiektown Conservative," 538 
"Frederiektown Democrat," 535 
"Frederiektown Journal," 535 
Frederiektown Xorthern Presbyterian Church, 493 
' ' Frederiektown Standard, ' ' 535 
Fremont 's Rangers, 342 
French, 50 
French, Bristol, 705 
French Explorers — From the great lakes, 22; Pi'eueh 

in Canada, 23; Joliet and Marquette, 24; La Salle, 

27; Indian trade, 28; Tonti and Hennepin, 29; 

La Salle 's death, 31 
French, George R., 342 
French Settlers, 248- 
Fric, Philii) A., 885 
Friend, Charles, 108, 179 
Frissell, Elizabeth Bollinger, 318 
Frizzell, Joseph, 194, 262 
Frohna Evangelical Lutheran Church, 479 
Fromentin, Eligius, 150 
Frontenac, 23, 27, 28 
Fry, Henry, 63. 179 
Fulkerson, .James P., 256 
Fur Trade. 124 

Gabouri, Laurent, 51, 52 
Gaither, Benjamin B., 290 
Gaither, J. W., 987 
Gale, C. F., 256 
Gallivan, Thomas, 1062 
Gambling, 189 
Game, 50 

Garaghtv, Eugene, 256 
Gardiner, J. J., 402 
Gardner, Demjisey, 11 SO 



XXXVl 



INDEX 



Gardner, Samuel, 1155 

Gardoqui, Diego, 83 

Gargas, James W., 795 

Garner, Levi, 1205 

Garner, William J., 1184 

Garrett, H. Clav, 1061 

Garrett, Peter E., 262 

Gary, Walter, 1269 

Gaskin, John W., 1130 

Gay, W. T., 799 

Gayle, John W., 262 

Gayoso, 108, 179, 282 

' ' Gayoso Democrat, ' ' 538 

Geaslin, Hiram P., 582 

Gee, John T., 1260 

Geneauz, 52 

George, Solomon, 62 

"General Pike," 188 

Gerhard, Ernst, 479 

German Evangelical Churches, 482 

German Methodists, 483 

German Settlers, 249 

Germans in Upper Louisiana, 128 

Gibault, Father, 135 

Gibler, Frederick, 74 

Giboney Family, 77 

Giboney, Alexander, 77 

Giboney, Andrew, 256, 319 

Giboney, Eebecca (Ramsay), 77 

Gibson, 376 

Gibson, Dean, 536 

Giddings, N, J., 463 

Giddings, Solomon, 207 

Gideon, 379 

Gideon Anderson Lumber & Manufacturing Companv, 

1251 
Gilbert, Charles E., 713 
Gilbert, Miles A., 254 
Gilbow, William N., 1285 
Giles, John, 171 
Gill, Ealph, 262 
Gillen, Edward D., 951 
Gilley, Jesse A., 293 
Gillispie, Grant, 370 
Girardot, 73 
Girvin, J. T,, 314 
Gissel and Companv, 270 
Glascock, Charuel, 204 
Glascock, John, 262 
Glascock, Eobert L., 307 
Glasscock, Sarah A., 308 
Glassev, James A., 1198 
Glen Allen, 17S_, 371 
Glennonville, 377 
Goad, Henry S., 1013 
Godt, William J., 1142 
Goff, David P., 721 
Goflf, James L., 830 
Gorg, Albert J., 1293 
Golden, John, 291 
Golder, Solomon D., 288, 344 
Gomache, August, 65 
Gomache, Jean Baptiste, 65 
Goodale, C. T., 410 
Goodman, Laurin C, 1192 
Gordon, Joseph F., 1042 
Gordon, Nellie, 426 
Gordonville, 77, 79, 178, 374 
Gordonville German M, E. Church, 483 



Gorman, Kuran, 287, 288 

Gossage, William F., 1008 

Governor, 152 

Government Under France — Province of Upper Louisi- 
ana, 112; question of language, 113; procedure, 
113; intoxicants to Inilians, 116; excise tax, 116 

Govreau, Joseph, 52 

Grace Episcopal Church, Crystal City, 4S2 

Graham, C. T., 476, 477 

Graham, Clara E., 1261 

Graham, Margaret A,, 1173 

Graham, Napoleon B., 1173 

Graham, Pinkney, 477 

Graham, William, 1278 

Graham, William F., 262 

Grand Army of the Eepublic, 369 

Grand Tower, ix 

Grand Tower, 24 

Grandin, 373 

Grandin Congregational Church, 482 

Grant, John F., 1001 

Grant, U. S., 329 

Grasey. William, 290 

Gratiot, Charles, 150 

Graves, Fayette P,, 819 

Graves, F. P., 557 

Gray, Alexander, 320 

Gray, David, 105 

Gray, Drakeford. 171 

Gray, John, 171 

Great Osages, 39 

Green, B. W., 1113 

Green, Ernest A., 11.54 

Green, Samuel JI., 319 

Green, Thomas P., 193, 465 

Greene, David, 199, 201 

Greene, Eobert, 161 

Greene, Samuel it., 203 

Greene, Thomas Parish, 202 

Greenville, 272, 333 

Greenville Circuit, 454 

"Greenville Democrat," 545 

"Greenville Eeporter," 545 

"Greenville Sun," 545 

Greenwell, Leo A., 1060 

Greer, Alfred W., 1172 

Gregory, James, 374 

Gregory, William, 349 

Gregory, William N., 297 

Gresham, Milo, 1276 

Griffin. Edward. 656 

Grimsly, William C, 313 

Grishaiu, Lin, 628 

Grojean, Constantine, 342 

Groseilliers. 23 

Grove. F. M.. 409 

Gruelle. William. 530 

Gudgpr. William M., 707 

Guerthing. .Tohn, 164 

Guess. Harrv A., 709 

Guffy, B. l;, 982 

Guib'eault, Charles, 107 

Guibord, Eugene, 411 

Guibord, Jacques, 159 

"Cniignolee, La," 123 

Guignon, S. A., 267 

Guild, Ealph, 163, 318 

Gulf Railroad Svstem, 259 

Gulf System, 260 



INDEX 



xxxvu 



flunnells, John, 307 
Gutlirie. Orlaiulo F., 370 
Guy, E. L., 1188 
Gwyu, Oliver B., 622 

Haden, Aiithouv. 162 

Hafner, Phil A., 542 

Haines, Bert, 1077 

Haines, Eilward C, 1036 

Haines, Frank, 1059 

Haley, Oba, 630 

Hall," Joseph, 206 

Hall, Robert, 162 

Ham, Thomas H., 732 

Hamburg, 328 

Hamilton, A. V., 410 

Hamilton, George A., 66 

Hammersley, George O., 786 

Hammond, Daniel, 238 

Hammond, Samuel, 148, 275 

Hand, William, 262 

Handy, Noah, 288 

Hanesworth, Henry. 461 

Hanover Evangelic-al Lutheran Church, 480 

Happy Missouri Corn Grower (view), 181 

Harbin, James A., 1191 

Harbin, John W., 1148 

Harbison & Christie, 282 

Harbison, George C, 158 

Harbison, John, 291 

Harbison, John C, 74. 205, 206 

Hardemann, Letcher, 370 

Harden, Joseph, 155 

Harkey, Daniel, 308 

Harkey, Daniel D., 308 

HarkeV, J. H., 308 

HarkeV, W. M., 308 

Harkey, Wells E., 823 

Harkey. Wilbur D., 308 

Harlan. George W., 485 

Harlow. Alonzo T., 857 

Harms, Ernst. 480 

Harper & Christy, 295 

Harper, Eobert, 80 

Harper, W. B., 265 

Harrington, George W., 531 

Harris & Chinn, 297 

Harris, Charles, 1267 

Harris, James, 307 

Harris, John W., 1030 

Harris, O. B., 740 

Harris, Samuel Stanhope, 319, 349 

Harris, Van Leslie, 1268 

Harrison, Allan J., 1260 

Harrison, Arthur S., 888 

Harrison, N. C, 409 

Harrison, Van H., 286, 877 

Hart, George W., 154 

Hart, John, 115 

Hartshorn. Carr, 664 

Hartv, Alfred L., 1200 

Hart'y, William C, 1199 

Harv'iel, 372 

Hase, Frederick, 270 

Hatcher, Eobert A., 553 

Hatcher (R. A.) & Co., 265 

Hatcher, William H.. 749 

Hatley, Thomas, 307 

Haw,'j. T>., 28S 



Haw, Marvin T., 461 

Haw, U. L., 461 

Haw, Uriel, 452 

Hawkins, H. P., 346 

Hawkins, Jesse M., 854 

Hawkins, John, 159, 402 

Hawkins, Milton, 835 

Hawn, Daniel, 776 

Hawks, Edward L., 1185 

Hawthorn, Edward, 80 

Hayden, Anthony, 158 ' 

Hayden, Blevins, 77 

Hayes & Bartlett, 288 

Hayes, Hartford. 288, 410 

Haynes, Daniel, 374, 905 

Haynes, Henry, 747 

Hays, Christopher, 79, S4, 150, 161, 162, 

Hays, George. 78 

Hays, John, 161 

Hayti, 381 

•'Hayti Signal," 538 

Hazel Eun Lead District, 183 

Head, James, 65 

"Headlight," 531, 539, 540 

Heeb, John W., 1186 

Heeb, Eosa L., 1186 

Hematite, 65, 276 

Hembree. J. C, 477 

Hemme, Charles A. F., 804 

Hempstead. Benjamin E.. 855 

Hempstead, Stephen, 207 

Henderson & Lawson, 293 

Henderson, A. S., 291 

Henderson, George, 74, 257 

Henderson, Harry, 1045 

Henderson, J. M., 403 

Hendricks, A. F., 573 

Hendrickson, William, 342 

Henn, Susan, 56 

Hennepin, 29 

Henry, Nelson B., 426, 557 

Henry, S., 539 

Hensiey, Oliver E., 1147 

Henson, Elbert H., 979 

Henson, James A., 597 

Henson, Samuel D., 305 

Hepzibah Church, 201 

"Herald," 531 

Herculaneum, 168, 177, 19.3, 275 

Herkstroeter, Henry A., 598 

Herrman, James, 307 

Hertich, Charles S., 556 

Hertich. Joseph, 193, 405 

Heuchan, Eobert B., 1234 

Hickman, E. A., 370 

Hickman, J., 468 

Hickman. John A.. 1159 

Hicks, Z. T., 748 

Higdon, William PL, 773 

High School, Farmington (view), 279 

Higher Learning— St. Mary's seminary, 412; St. Vin- 
cent's college. 413; Will Maytield college. 41h; 
Elmwood seminary, 419; Farmington college, 419; 
Marvin Collegiate institute, 419; Carleton college, 
420 ; Arcadia college. 420 

Highest Point on Pilot Knob (view), 298 

Higginbot.ham, James L., 1102 

Higginbotham, Thomas, 825 

Highlill. B. F., 781 



INDEX 



HighfiU. Charles W., 998 

Higlifill, Sailie E., 998 

HU'lebraml, .Tolui, 64, 124 

Hildebrand, Samuel S., 550 

Hilgert, John J. A., 899 

Hill, Alonzo D., 1255 

Hillsboro, 275 

Himmelberger, .Tohn H.. (i4(i 

Hiinlnian, Emma P., H79 

HiiKlman, James JI., 879 
•Hinriehs, Belle C, 1163 

Hinrichs, Charles F., 1162 

Hitfhcoi-k. Ethan Allen, 274 

Hitt. Benjamin, 199 

Hitt, Wiliiam, 199 

Hodges, Thomas L., 859 

Hoilgmeiller, .Tames, ,S44 

Hoft'mann, August W., 1145 

Hogan, Edmund, 162 

Hogan, Peter, .S4.3 

Hogue, John A,, 982 

Hdlijert. James, 302 

Holbrook, F. M., 477 

Holeomb, 376 

Holcomb, Lewis, ,S07, 310 

Holden, Edwanl M., 402 

Holland, 382 

Holland, James H., 1114 

Holley, Ulysses G., 1257 

Holliday-Klotz Land and 

HoUidav Land & Lumber 

Hollidav, Sailie H., 419 

Holliman, A. W„ 317 

Hollisler, Edward. 208 

Holly, W. X., 960 

Home of Our Fathers (view). 

Honey, .Tohn, 65 

Hoos.' Thomas, 343 

Hopewell Baptist Churcli, 

Hopkins, Joseph A., 303 

Hopper, Gillum M., 950 

Horine, Thomas iL, 300 

Horner, John J., 948 

Horner, Russell, 307 

Horner, William B., 889 

Horner, William H„ 287, 

Hornersville, 287 

' ' Hornersville Courier, ' 

Hornsbv, .T, C, 477 

Horrell^ B. M„ 2.56, 319 
. Horrell, Thomas, 481 

Hoskins, .Tohn, 290 

Hoskins, Thomas L„ 1204 

Hostetler, Henrv S., 986 

Houek, Louis, 78, 259, 422. 428, 434, 5i]l, 503 

Houck's Missouri & Arkansas Eailroad, 502 

Hough, Harrison, 312, 315, 498 

House, Adam, 65 

Houses of Louis ' Boulduf and Louis (iiiilinurd, Ste. 
Genevieve (views), 57 

House 's Spring, 65, 378 

Houston, Hiram J., 891 

Houston, John S., 284 

Houston, Joseph S., 310 

Houston, W. H., 981 

Houts, Christopher G., 238, 

Houts, James, 303 

Houts, John, 290 

Howard, William N., 685 



Lumber Comjiany, 507 
Company, 272 



126 



476 



307 



287 



548 



262. 291 



Hulibard, Charles T., 911 

Hubbard, Jliehael, 286 

Hubbard, Robert G., 940 

Hubbard, Walter M.. 922 

Hubbard. William W., 697 

Hubbell Creek, 79 

Hubbell, Ithamar, 79 

Hubble 's Mill, 161 

Hudspeth, Ayers, 311 

Huebner, John H., 1188 

Huff, Henderson, 293 

Huffman, .Tesse D., 892 

Huffman, Samuel, 462 

Hug, Stejdien, 909 

Hughes, A., 476 

Hughes, Benjamin H., 666 

Hulser, H. M., 342 

Humboldt Literary Society, 430 

Hummel, John A., 1054 

Humphreys, Joshua, 164 

Hunot, Joseph, 115 

Hunter, 373 

Hunter, Abraham. lOS. 303 

Hunter, Albert B., 1079 

Hunter & Mathewson, 266 

Hunter & Watson, 265 

Hunter. Eva P., 1249 

Hunter, Ben. F., 292 

Hunter, David, 291 

Hunter, E. ('., 895 

Hunter, J. H., 349 

Hunter, Joseph, 108, 153. 154, 179, 290, 553 

Hunter, Lewis F., 1249 

Hunter, Mary, 78 

Hunter, Shapley R., Jr.. 1055 

Hunting, 1S7 

Hurley, Muses, 108. 165 

Huskev. Ti.omas, 732 

' ' Hustler, ' ' 537, 539 

Hutehings, John, 238 

Hux. William J., 1121 

Illinois, 24 

Illinois, Missouri & Texas Railway Company, 501 

Illinois Southern Railroad, 508 

Illmo, 388 

"Illmo Headlight," 543 

Impeaehment Proceeding, 155 

' ' Independent, ' ' 534. .541 

"Independent Patriot," 192, 529 

Indian Grove Sediool, 288, 410 

Indian Agriculture, 36 

Indian Moccasin. 38 

Indian Mound (view), 4 

Indian Plates, 11 

Indian Relics, 11 

Indian Roads, 82 

Indian Trade, 27, 33 

In<lian Wars, 170 

Indians, 9, 150, 170 

Indians — Trade with, 33; tribes, 34; agriculture, 36; 
houses of the Osages, 36; women, 36; weapons, 
37 ; knowledge of the stars, 37 ; pipe, clothing and 
Indian moccasin, :'>8 ; government of the Osages, 
38; witchcraft, 43 

Industries, 180 

Industries — Farming, 444; trade, 445; mining inter- 
ests, 446 

fn the Bonne Terre Lead Mining District (view), 385 



INDEX 



XXXIX 



In the Tliick Timber (vieiv), 511 

lowas, 70, 170 

Iron, 183 

Iron County. 178, 316, i513 

' ' Iron County Register, ' ' 534 

Irondale, 392 

Irondale Presbyterian Church, 491 

Iron Mountain Evangelical Lutheran Church, 481 

Ironton, L'96 

"Ironton Forge," 534 

"Ironton Furnace, "534 

Iroquois, 30, 31, 40 

Island Xo. 10, 333 

Ivers, John, 257 

Jaekson, 162, 178, 186, 193, 261, 401 

Jackson — Founding of, 261 ; first institutions and per- 
sons, 262; civil government, 263; present eountv 
seat, 263 

Jackson Academy, 194, 402 

Jackson Baptist Church, 465 

Jackson Branch Railroad Company, 500 

"Jackson Courier," 530 

"Jackson Eagle," 529 

Jackson German Evangelical Church, 482 

Jackson il. E. Church, 455, 460 

' ' Jackson Review, ' ' 529 

Jackson, Albert, 315, 343 

Jackson, John W., 1173 

Jackson, Lyman F., 533 

Jackson, Sanford, 282, 315 

Jackson, Thomas M., 686 

Jackson, Wingate, 201?, 463 

Jacobs, John, 78 

James, Henry, 308 

.Tames. Jl. T., 1239 

Janis, B. X., 52 

Jan is, Henry J., .542 

Janis, Xicholas. 53 

•Tarvis, Daniel O.. 1127 

.lasper. Henry, 266 

".leans." 127 

Jecko. I<\ J., 288 

Jeffers. W. L., 334, 349, 350 

Jefferson, 141 

Jefferson County, 168, 176, 179. 514— First settler in, 
64; first mill in .lett'erson county. 65; first Protes- 
tant services within .Tefferson county. 65 

.TefTerson County Baptist Association, 475 

".Jefferson County Crystal Mirror." 533 

".Tefl'erson County Democrat," 535 

".Tefferson County Record," 535 

".Tefferson County Republican," 535 

".Teffersonian, " 529. 535 

Jennings, Daniel I^., 349 

Jennings, .Tames M.. 349 

Jennings. E. E., 688 

.Tesuits. 13.'; 

.loachim, 177 

.Toachim Creek. 273 

Johns. William L., 595 

Johnson, Albert L., 610 

Johnson. Benjamin. 193 

Johnson. .Tohn, 179. 751 

Johnson, .Tohn M.. 295 

Johnson. .Toseph. 109 

Johnson. Thomas. 197. 198 

Johnson. T.. 256 • 

.Tiilinson, William It.. 1157 



Johnson, Winifred, 426, 1242 

Johnson, W. H., 1211 

Johnson, W., 256 

.Tohnston, Frank A., 749 

Jokerst, Leon, 51 

Joliet, 14 

.Toliet, Louis, 24 

.Tones, Andrew. 349 

.Tones. Augustus. 253 

Jones, Benjaniin C. 1165 

Jones, Charles, 65 

Jones, Charles L.. 906 

Jones, E. E., 1032 

Jones, E. M., 1041 

Jones, F. JI., 807 

.Tones, Cieorge H., 1103 

.Tones. George W., 252 

Jones, Isaiah, 307, 308 

Jones. John Rice. 61, 154, 169, 238, 252, 269. 299, 

322, 402 
Jones, Joseph L., 1203 
Jones, Langdon, 787 
Jones, N. G. H., 295 -- 
Jones. 0. C. 543 
.Tones, Robert H.. 787 
Jones. R. H.. 285. 507 
Jones, Thomas D., 864 
Jones. William T., 1297 
Jones, W. P.. 349 
Jordan, G. W.. 493 
Jordan, ,T. S., 468 
.Foslyn, Clarence L., 1073 
"Journal," 545 
Joyce, J. R., 1279 
Joyce, T. E., 410 
Juden, John' Sr., 199 
Juden, John, Jr., 155, 199 
Juden, John, 262 

Kahmann, Guy F.. 70(1 

Kalfus, C. C, 288 

Kansas, 34 

Karnes, .Tohn JI., 1002 

Kaskaskia, 51 

Kaskaskias, 14, 26 

Kaths. Frederick. 814 

Kayser, George M.. 344 

Keaton. Cornelius L.. 1212 

Kelch, L. E.. 1184 

Keel-boat. 132 

Keep, Frederick, 171 

Keith. Abram W., 755 

Keith, Frank L., 755 

Keller, Daniel J.. 533. 994 

Kellev. John R., 1005 

Kelley & Taylor. 293 

Kelly. Jacob. SO 

Kelly, X. F., 711 

Kelly, William V., 711 

Kelso, 388, 450 

Kelso, I. R., 1232 

Kendree Chapel. 453 . 

Kennedy, .Tohn E., 1156 

Kennedy, Matthew, 54. 124 

Kennett, 284 

Kennett Baptist Church, 473 

"Kennett Clipper," 533 

Kennett Presbyterian Church, 491 

Kent & Sparrow. 254 



xl 



INDEX 



Kent, Thomas B., 923 

Key], Wilhelm, 479 

Keyte, William A., 270 

Kibby, Timothy, 150 

Kiefner, Charles E., 692 

Kiefner, Samuel B., 619 

Killian, George, 270 

Killian, Joseph C, 343 

Killion, William M., 1057 

Killougli, W. W., 488 

Kimball, Charles A., 282 

Kimbrow, James H., 1068 

Kimm, Theodore, 275 

Kimmell, G. G., 409 

Kimmell, J. Q. A., 410 

Kimmswick, 275 

Kinder, Emanuel, 1164 

King's Highway, 65, 108, 110, 291 

Kinsolving, Hersehel P., 946 

Kinsolving, Thomas B., 763 

Kinsolving, Timothy F., 871 

Kirkman, Albert, 1120 

Kirkman, Thomas P., 768 

Kitchen, Solomon G., 78, 293, 296, 304, 312, 349, 350, 

403. 499 
Kittrell, Lemuel, 305 
Kittrell, Solomon, 179, 311 
Kittredge, W. Herbert, 1196 
Klepman, Frank, 342 
Kneibert, Jacob, 262 
Knob Lick, 386 
Knowd, James, 415 
Knowles, John A., 764 
Kochtitzky, John S., 736 
Koehtitzky, Otto, 560 
Kohl, John H., 1271 
Koons, M. B., 295 
Kopp. F., 266 
Koppitz, Albert, 76(5 
Kreps, W. P., 292 
Krone, George, 585 
Krueger, Louis, 631 
Krucger, Martin C, 640 
Kuennel, John, 271 
Kurreville EvangeUcal Lutheran Church, 480 

"Labor Herald," 541 

Labriere, .Julien, 51 

Lacy, George A., 759 

Laeey, Jordan, 307 

LaceV, W. R., 538 

Ladci, Pierre D., 370 

La Fleur, Lambert, 55 

Lafont, Lafayette F,, 1208 

La Forge, Alexander, 96 

La Forge, Antoine, 148 

La Forge, A. C, 96 

La Forge, Pierre, 115 

La Forge, Pierre Antoine, S9, 96 

Laidlaw, John, 410 

Lakeville Presbyterian Church, 485 

Lalond, Jeanette, 53 

Lambert, Felix G., 654 

Lambert, Warren C, 1264 

La Jlotte Mine, 59 

Land, A., 476 

Land Grants, 148 

Landry, T. & L., 270 

Lane, Albert, 811 



Lane, Adam, 317 
Lane, Hardage, 154 
Lane, Isaac, 474, 475 
Lane, M. M., 539 
Lane, Thomas F., 726 
Langdon, Edwin J., 307, 308 
Langdon, Hiram. 307 
Langley, DeWitt C, 1131 
Langley, L., 476 
Langlois, Francis, 107 
L'Annee des Grandes Eaux, 59 
"L'Annee du Coup," 114 
Lanpher, George W., Sr., 688 
Laque Terrible, 231 
Laramie Station, 67 
Larsen, Martin, 1098 
Larsen, William H., 1099 
Larson, Louis, 1275 
LaRue, John P,, 1111 
La Salle, 27 
Lasieur, Francois, 43 
Lasley, C, N,, 308 
Lasswell, W. D,, 507, 897 
Latham, H. C, 266 
Latimer, R. T., 1259 
Latimer, William H., 1259 
La Valle, E. P., 290 
Lavalle, .John, 95, 115 
Lawlessness, 189 
Lawrence County, 1.54, 166 
Lawson, A. W,, 410 
Lawson, Moses, 275 
Lawson, William, 317 
Layton, Bernard, 270 
Layton, John, 402 
Layton, John E., 1 70 
Lazear, Benjamin K., 343 
Leach, John, 295 
Lead Belt, 363 
"Lead Belt Banner," .541 
"Lead Belt News." .541 
Lead Mines (1S04-1S21), 183 
Leadwood. 384 
Leavenworth, !■"., 344 
Lebanon Baptist Church, 476 
Lebermuth, Adolph, 919 
LeCompte, Elroy S., 410 
Lee, Frank, 307 
Lee, George, 306 
Lee, Isaac H„ 1070 
Lee, Robert E.. 370 
Leech, A. D., 2.56, 422 
Leedy, D. H., 291 
Lefler, Leonard L., 1035 
Leeper, 392 

Leeper, William T., 342 
Legislative Council, 152 
Legrand, .Toseph A., 1224 
Lehman, A., 480 
Lemmon, G. T.. 423 
Leopold, 449 
LeRoy, Lewis B.. 1146 
LeSieur, Francois, SI, 107, 266 
LeSieur, F. V., 265 
LeSieur, Godfrey, 213, 402 
LeSieur, G. V., 266 
LeS'eur, Joseph, 81 
Lesieur, Lewis F., 1284 , 
Lef ienr. Napoleon, 265 



INDEX 



xli 



Lesieur, Pliilo, 1284 

Lesterville, l-'98, 311 

Levees, 313 

Leveque, J. A., 415 

Levi Jlercautile Company, 919 

Lewis, Lilburn, 266 

Lewis, William H., 742 

Leyba, Ferdinand, 114 

"Liberal," 534 

Libertyville, 277, 387 

Liberty Baptist Church, 473 

Libraries, 195 

Light, Peter, 84 

Lilbourn, 380 

Liles, William J., 1230 

Limbaugb, Frederick, 80, 161 

Lindsay, 335 

Lindsav, James, 348, 530 

Linn, Lewis F., 213, 321, 399 

Literary Societies, 430 

Lithium, 383 

Little Black Kiver, xii 

Little, Kos, 694 

Little Osages, 39 

Little Prairie, 95, 107, 178, 233, 282, 315 

Little Kiver, xii 

Little Eiver, 230 

Little, William, 306, 470 

Lis, Louis W., 870 

Local Option Movement, 367 

Loeber, Gotthold H., 479 

Logan, Charles, 80 

Logan, David, 80 

Logan, James, 167 

Logan, James 11., 839 

Logan, John, 270 

Logan, J. v., 316 

Logan, Mary L., 1171 

Logan, Oliver, 1171 

Logan, Robert A., 80 

Loggrear, Del, 538 

Loignon, Charles, 107 

Loisel, Joseph, 52 

London, William, 477 

London, William, 895 

Long, Mayor, 213 

Long, Frank L., 712 

Long, Jesse, 307 

Longtown, 271 

Longtown, 383 

Lorance, John, 178 

Lorimer, Charlotte P. B., 73 

Lorimer, Louis, 34, 41, 67, 74, 115 

Lorimier, Louis, 161, 164 

Louisiana, 49 

Louisiana Purchase, 139 

Lower Louisiana, 49 

Lowery, John, 307 

Lowery, John J., 405 

Lowry, William, 66 

Lucas, Charles, 169, 190 

Lucas, James B. C. 151 

Lucas, John B. C, 299 

Luekey, Frank S., 891 

Lutes, Eli, 280 

Lutes, Jacob, 371 

Lutesville, 280 

"Lutesville Banner," 531 

Lutherans, 479 



Lyell, Charles, 213 
Lynch, Orton C, 609 
Lynn, James W., 1028 
Lynn, W. A., 288 

Mabrey, Thomas, 1292 

MeAlister, Alexander, 206 

McAnally, Edward D., 738 

McArthur, John, 154 

McBride, Albert, 1053 

McCarthy, E. S., 285, 507 

McCarty, Sterling H., 574 

MacChe"sney, F. L., 410 

McCleary, H. S., 410 

McClendon, H. B., 710 

McColgan, John W., 1241 

McCollum, Jesse W., 1105 

McCombs, John, 295 

MeCombs, William, 402 

MeConachie, L. G., 426 

McCormack, James E., 555 

ilcCormack, Peter, 65 

ileCormick, Emmett C, 847 

McCormick, James K., 846 

McCourtuey, Joseph, 105 

MeCown, Thomas D., 1290 

McCoy, Ananias, 64 

McCoy, Eobert, 96, 11.5, 265 

McCoy, Mollie. 1182 

McCulloch, Colonel, 328 

McCulloch, Eobert, 350 

MeCullough, E. E., 410 

McCullough, J. R., 284 

McCutchen, Louis, 1216 

McDaniel, C. P., 650 

McDaniel, J., 307 

McDaniel, W. I., 649 

MacDonald, John, 329 

McElmurry, Absalom, 311, 552 

McElmurry, Henry, 469 

McElvain, Jerry M., 914 

McFarland. James A., 282 

McFarland, Thomas, 980 

McFerron, Joseph, 74, 157, 161, 190, 238, 401 

McFerronOgle Duel, 157, 190 

McGready, Israel, 153, 169 

McGee, Charles. 1288 

McGee, John S., 426, 435 

McGee, Samuel T., 701 

McGehan, George. 302 

McGerry, J. F.. 413 

McGerrv, John F., 415 

McGhee, J. S., 427 

IFcGinthv, Fleety, 988 

MoGlothlin, .lesse A., 648 

McGrew, Elias V.. 1113 

McGuire, F. A., 530 

McGuire, J. S., 262 

McGuire. William. 262 

McHaney, T. C, 659 

McHaney, T. N., 8'!4 

Machen, Harrv L., 580 

McTlvaine, John, 402 

\[cKav. Benjamin A., 888 

McKay, Johii T., 663 

McKay, Virgil, 507, 1298 

McKendree, 204 

McKendree Chapel, 463 

:\rcKendree, William, 204 



xlu 



INDEX 



McKenzie, David H., 807 

Mackley, Andrew P., 863 

McLane, William, 270 

McLaiie, W. H., 343 

McLaughlin, Michael, 290 

Maclird, Thomas H., 343 

McMasters, John, 307 

McMillan, Albert C, 1016 

McMillan, William J., 1056 

McMinn, Sam J., 658 

McMullin, Frank M., 1104 

McMullin, R. W., 535, 796 

McMurtry, William, 208 

McNails, Joseph, 311 

McNelly, Eugene T., 425 

McNeil, John, 335 

McNiel, Oscar, 1082 

Macom, William, 469 

Madden, Thomas, 62 

Madison County, 167, 177, 514 

Magness, Perry G., 155 

Mails, 192 

Maisonville, 42 

Malcolm, Pleasant il., 1264 

Maiden, 374 

Maiden Christian (.'hureh, 495 

"Maiden Clipper," 533 

Maiden Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 493 

Malone, Elias J., 1194 

Maltus, C. F.. 482 

Malugen, John H., 771 

Manitous, 24 

Mann Brothers, 266 

Mann, David H., 1076 

Mantler, S. C, 277 

Mantz, Ernst, 480 

Manufactures, 362 

Manufacturing, 446 

Maple, J. C, 199, 465 

Maramec Baptist Association, 478 

Maramec River, xii 

Marble City Guards, 348 

Marble Citv Mill, 256 

' ' Marble City News, ' ' 530 

Marble Hill,' 280, 313 

Marble Hill Northern Presbyterian Cluircli. 492 

Marburv, Benjamin H., 584 

Marbury, H. L., 885 

Marks, David F., 155 

Marlow, Roy S., 596 

Marmaduke, John S.. 337 

Marmaduke's Raid, 335 

Marquand, 371 

"Marquanil Leader," 536 

Marquette. 14, 24, 133 

Marquette Among the Mississippi Vnlley Indians 

(view), 25 
Marsh, John. 307 
Marsh, John H., 284, 310 
Marshall, Brannon, 308 
Marshall, .John I., 822 
Marston. 372 
Martin, George, 536 
Martin, John," 315. 402 
Martin, Tom, 1072 
Marvin Collegiate Institute. 419. 461 
Massey, Drury, 313 
Mason, Charles H.. 1002 
Mason, Charles J.. 1289 



Mason, £., 257 

Mason, Nellie J., 1003 

Mason Gang of Robbers, 96 

Mason's and Murrell's Men, 102 

Master, Henry, 164 

Mathews, Richard, 303 

Mathews Prairie, 109, 179, 452 

Matkin. William M., 874 

Matthews, Ezekiel, 297 

Matthews, John, 207 

Matthews. William. 371 

Mattox. W.' H.. 476 

Maulsby, H. D., 402 

Maulsby, H. T., 265 

Maurice, Francois, 52 

Maurice, Henri, 52 

Maurice. Jean Baptiste, 52 

Mauthe. John J.. 617 

May, Henry A., 691 

Mayes, F. A., 1027 

Ma'vfield College. Will, 572 

Mayfield. John J., 1073 

Mayfield, Pinkney M., 1073 

Maxwell, James, 136, 153, 154 

Maxwell, I. Newton, 1070 

Mead. Robert L., 992 

Meador, A. R. L., 476 

Meador, J. Frank, 637 

Meigs. Return .!., 148 

Menard, ilrs.. 51 

Menard, Pierre, 56 

Menard & Valle, 56 

"Mercury." 529 

Merrill, William, 306 

"Messenger," .543, 545 

Metcalfe. Richard L., 532 

"Methodist Advocate," 542 

Methodists, 452 

Meurin Father, 134 

Meurin. J. L., 56 

Mexican War. 300 

Meyers. Benjamin. 107 

Meyers, Jacob. 105 

Meyers, William, 108, 290 

Michel, .loseph. 90 

Miehie. Ive. 962 

Michie, L. S., 1069 

Middle Brook. 298 

Milem. Jacob A., 1235 

Miller. Daniel. 295 

Miller, D. B., 293, 312, 413 

Miller, Elijah, 295 

Miller. Harry A.. 655 

Miller, Henr'v. 296, 403 

Miller. Isadore W.. 900 

:\Iiller. .lames S.. 1249 

Miller. John, 311 

Miller, .lohn A.. 1099 

Miller. John N.. 1123 

Miller, John W., 316 

Miller. Otis W.. 1280 

Miller. Robert J.. 1279 

Miller. Trentis Y.. 1254 

Miller. William H.. .569 

Millerville. 374 

Mills. J. N., 1262 

Mill Spring, 393 

Milsepen, Henry. 450 

Milster, A. W..' 410 



INDEX 



xliii 



Mine a Breton, G4, 169, ISL' 

Mine a Gerboree, 183 , ,00 

Mine a Platte (Doggett mine), 183 

Mine LaMotte, 178, 182, 378 ^_ 

"Mine LaMotte Advertiser, 000 

Mineral District of Louisiana, 181 

Mineral Point, 292, 337 

Jiinerals, xv 

"Miners' Prospect," 544 

Mineral Eegions, xi 

Mining, 181 

Milling Industry, 362 

Minter, Martin B., 758 

Mintrup, Joseph A., 604 

Miro, (Governor,) 88 

Mississippi, 24 

Mississippi Bottoms, 26 _ 

Mississippi c:ounty, 109, 1/9, oil, olb 

Mississippi embayment. xiv 

Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Railway, 506 

"Mississippi Valley Globe," 530 

"Missouri Cash Book," 530 

Missouri Compromise, 237, 240 

"Missouri Democrat, " ^541 

"Missouri Democracy," 532 

"Missouri Gazette," 153, 192. o41 

"Missouri Herald," 192. 529 _ 

Missouri SI. E. Conference, 20b 

Missouri Orchards in Bearing (views), 519 

Missouri Presbytery, 207 

Missouris, 34, 35 

Missouri State Guards. 318 , .„„,i„nf's Resi- 

Missouri State Hospital from Su,.enntendent s Resi 

dence (view). 279 
Missouri State Militia. 342 
Mitchell. .Tolm N., 295 
Mitchell, Samuel, 262 
Mitchell, Samuel "E., 911 
Mitchim, C. C, 777 
Mobley, A. B., 285 
Mohrstadt, E. C, 1126 
Molder, H. M., 498 
Monroe, 141 

Monteith, John, 422 _^ 

Montgomery, (Mrs.) Floyd ..o. . 
Montgomery, Grover C, l'-.>3 
Montgomery, Maude, 419^ 
Montgomery, Samuel, 346 
Monticello, 275 
Moonshine, Captain, 43 
Moore, B. J., 288 
Moore, Curtis, 999 
Moore, David H., 306, MS 
Moore, George, 482 _ 
Moore, Howard, 306 
Moore, Isadore, 66 
Moore, Isidore, 154, 155 
Moore, James L., 288 
Moore, J. L-, 288 
Moore. Joseph, 287 
Moore. Joseph C, 288 
Moore, Joseph H., 1213 
Moore, Joseph L., 1214 
Moore, Joseph R., 793 
Moore, P. B., 536 
Moore, Sam C, 288 
Moothart, George W., 806 
Morean & Burgess, 290 



Morehouse, 381, 537 
"Morehouse Sun," 537 
Morgan, Fred, 984 
Morgan, George, 82 
Morley, 389 

Morrill, Joseph AV., 1114 
Morris, Ira M., 967 
Morris, John W.. 983 
Morrison, D. L.. 410 
Morrison, E., 1249 
Morrison, James, 171 
Morrison, Robert, 262 
Morrison, T. J. O., 265, 315, 422 
Morrow, James R., 994 
Moseley, Clay A., 1087 
Moseley. William S., 314 
Moser.' John R.. 481 
Mott, John A., 553 
Mound Builders, 8 

Mounds— De Soto 's discovery of, 1; distribution ot 
2; material of, 3; pottery, 7; burial, 8; mound 
builders, 8; age of, 9. 
Mt. Tabor, 76 
Mt. Zion Chapel, 452 

Mozley, Charles N.. 126.) 

Mueller, George, 271 

Mueller, Jacob, 483 

Murdock, Lindsay, 342, 531 

Murphy, D., 302 

Murphy, David, 277 

Murphv, Jesse, 302 

MurphV, Richard, 154 

Murphy, (Mrs.) Sarah, 63, 410 

Murphy Settlement, 177, 206, 410 

Murphy, William, 63 

Muse, William, 2S6 

Musgrave, Elzie H.. 953 

Musick, David. 150 

Myers, William, 1051 

Myrick, Frank, 288 

Naeter Brothers. 531 

N:!!;y''Hunter'chaoter, D. A. R.. Cape Girardeau. 369 

Nanson, H. Clem, 939 

Napper, William H.. 1043 

Nations. Gilbert 0.. _571 

Navarro. Angelo, 415 

Navlor, 384 

"Naylor Nail," -539 

Neal,' George F., 274 

Neal, James P., 307 

Neal, Thomas, 194, 262 

Neale, Thomas. 262. 295, 401 

Neel, Thomas, 307 

Neel, Thomas, Jr.. 306 _ 

Neeley. William. 153. 1;)4 

Neely. William. 261 

Neeleyville. 372 

Neiswanger. Joseph. SO 

Netherton. George. 291 

Newberry, Frank, 791 

Newberry, William, 791 

Newberry, William M.. 791 

New Bourbon, 66, 124, 177 

New Bourbon (Novelle Bourbon), 62 

"New Era," 530. 531. 5.35. .540 

New France. 28 

New Hamburg. 449 



xliv 



INDEX 



New Hartford. 65 

New Madrid, 16, 21, 34, 51, 82, 106, 114, 125, 139, 
152, 165, 176, 177. 178, 186, 192, 232, 333, 334— 
Early history, 265; blows to New Madrid, 265; 
incorporated as a city, 266; long the county seat, 
266 

New Madrid Academy, 402 

New Madrid Baptist Association, 478 

New Madrid Circuit, 455 

New Madrid Count.y, 164, 165, 178, 517 

New Madrid District, 49, 117, 12.5, 176 — Its bound- 
aries, 81; "L'Anse a la Graise," 82; Indian 
transfer, 83; Pemiscot county, 107; Scott county, 
108; Mississippi county, 1U9 

New Madrid Earthquake — Area of, 214; Assures, 
218; sand blows, 222; sinks, 222; cause, 223 

"New Madrid Gazette," 537 

New Madrid Presbyterian Church, 490 

' ' New Madrid Eecord, ' ' 537 

"New Madrid Times," 537 

Newman, Arthur R., 287 

Newspapers, 192. 529, 547 

New River. 231 

"New Southeast," 544 

New Tennessee, 62, 454 

New Tennessee Christian Church, 494 

Neyboxir, Joseph, 65 

Nichols, .Tames A., 1226 

Nickey, Emmett C, 1161 

Ninth Missouri Infantry, 351 

Nipper, Simon G., 876 

Nixon, Burton 8., 1175 

Nixon, Frank B.. 1175 

Noblesse, Peter, 107 

Noel, Thomas E., 323 

Noell, .lohn W., 322 

Normal Dormitory Company. 428 

Norman, Moses, 307 

Northern Judicial Circuit, 300 

Northern Judicial (territorial) Circuit, 154 

Northern Presbyterians, 491 

Northwest Ordinance, 139 

Norton, Eichard C. 426, 435 

Null, William, 65 

Oakes, Clyde, 760 

Oak Grove Baptist ('luirdi. 473 

Oakridge, 264, 374 

"Oakridge Indicator," 531 

Oak Ridge Presbvterian Church, 491 

O'Bannon, Welto'n, 96 

O'Connor, John N., 734 

Odin, John, 413 

Odin, J. M., 448 

Oertel, Maximilian, 249 

Oglesby, Joseph, 206 

Ohio River, 24, 27 

O'Kelley, H. T., 797 

Oldest House in Cape Girardeau (view), 258 

Old-Fashioned Ore Holsters in Action (views), 120 

Ogle, William, 74, 157. 190 

Old Mines, 64, 270, 449 

Old-Time Windlass (view), 119 

Olive. John Baptiste, 96, 116, 164 

Oliver, Arthur L., 887 

Omahas, 35 

Onen Bav, xiv 

Oran, 387 

"Oran Leader," 542 



O'Reilly, 53 

O'Reilly, Count, 139 

Orr, D., 463 

Orth, John, 342 

Osage Indians, 54, 63, 183 — Agriculture, 36; furni- 
ture and implements, 36; polygamy, 37; ste::iing 
horses, 37; religion. 37; pipe, 38; clothing, 38; 
Crreat and Little Osages, 39; treaty, 44 

Osages, 23, 34, 35, 40, 70 

Osborn, Stephen, 276 

Otter Bayou, 230 

Otto, George H., 737 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, 451 

Outngamies, 37, 40 

Overall. Asa, 206 

Overall. B. W., 533 

Overton, James M., 311 

Owen, David W., 662 

Owen, Given, 307, 309 

Owen, Reuben, 309 

Owen, R. P.. 295 

Oxley, James, 308 

Ozark Plateau, Elevation of, ix 

Pacahas, 35 

Page. Thomas J. E., 944 

Painter, Louis, 262 

Painter, (Mrs.) Louis, 78 

' ' Palladium, ' ' 531 

Palmer. Aaron. 636 

Panker. D. B., 507 

Pankev, David Young, 309 

Pankey, D. B., 836 

Pankey, D. Y.. 285, 349 

Paquin, Joseph, 413 

Paragould & Memphis Railroad, 508 

Paragould Southeastern Railroad, 508 

Paramore & McDaniel, 295 

Parish, Joseph. SO 

Parker. A. F., 1283 

Parker, Henry B., 851 

Parkin. Felix J., 659 

Parks & Akin, 266 

Parks, F. C, 995 

Parma, 380 

' ' Parma Victor, ' ' 537 

Parrott, .Tames, 291 

Parochial Schools, 400 

Parsons, Charles B., 591 

Parsons, Roscoe R. S.. 595 

Pascola, 381 

Patterson, 178, 273 

"Patterson Times," .545 

Patterson, Andrew. 171 

Patterson, .Tohn, 74 

Pawnees, 41 

Payne, .loseph, 107 

Pease & Hill, 297 

Peck, 58 

Peck. Elmer H., 962 

Peck, George W.. 374, 961 

Peck, John Mason, 203 

Ppckham, .Tames, 344 

Peers, .Tohn D., 302 

Pelts, Charles L., 601 

Pelts, .lohn A., 600 

Pelts, Joseph, 307, 600 

' ' Pemiscot Argus, ' ' 538 

Pemiscot Bajou, xiv 



INDEX 



xlv 



Pemiscot Bayou, 231 

Pemiscot County, 107, 178, 1'4l', i'S2, 313, 518, .338 

Penny, Gilbert T., !l7o 

Peorias, 40, 41 

Perkins, Amos B., 1181 

Perkins, William P., 10(39 

Perry County, 66, 169, 177, 249, 518 

"Perry County Kepubliean," 536, 539 

"Perry County Sun," 539 

Perry, Samuel, 154, 155, 169, 238 

Perry, William, 402 

Ferryman, David E., 169 

Perryville, 138, 270, 451, 520 

' ' Perryville Chronicle, ' ' 539 

"Perryville Democrat," 539 

"Perryville Union," 538 

Peter, Sherwood T., 802 

Peterson, B. H., 344 

Pettis, William G., 238 

Petty, Harry V., 890 

Petty, William G., 883 

Pettv, William H., 1101 

Petty, W. G., 314 

Pevely, 378 

Peyroux, Henri, 95, 96 

Pfeflferkorn, William, 1235 

Pharr, X. H., 314 

Phelan, William G., 305, 349 

Phelps, C. P., 293 

Phelps, John D., 904 

Phillips, Henrv N., 1168 

Phillips, Levi B., 931 

Phillips, Murray, 1063 

Phillips, Samuel, 153, 1G4 

Phillipson, Joseph, 256 

Philomathean Literary Society, 430 

Physicians, 442 

Pickard, Taylor, 349 

Pickawilly, 67 

Picker. Frederick, 249 

Piedmont, 272, 527 

"Piedmont Banner," .545 

' ' Piedmont Leader, ' ' 545 

' ' Piedmont Eambler, ' ' 545 

"Piedmont Weekly Banner," 545 

Pieruas, 53 

Pierreponf, William, 265 

Pigg, P. T., 531 

Pigg, T. P., 540 

Pikey, Ben, 1051 

Pikey, Grace, 1052 

Pilgrim's Best Baptist Church, 476 

Pillow, General, 328 

Pilot Knob, xi 

Pilot Knob, 178, 338 

Pilot Knob Evangelical Lutheran Church, 481 

"Pioneer, ' ' 541 

Pioneer Spinning Wheel (illustration), 129 

Pipe, 38 

Pirtle, Isaac J., 860 

Pitman, W. A., 1028 

Pittman, 56 

"Plaindealer." 535 

"Pleasant Dealer," 541 

Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Clnircli. 490 

Plumb, William, 342 

Pocahontas, 264, 373 

Poe. Elton W., 744 

Poe, Isaiah. 204 



Poe, Simon, 204 

Point Pleasant, 178, 230, 266, 334 

Polack, Theodore H., 425 

Polk, Charles K., 843 

Pollock, L. X., 942 

Ponder, Abuer, 306 

Ponder, William S., 351 

Bonder's Mill, 337 

Pontiac, 38 

Pope, Nathaniel, 158 

Poplar Bluff, 292, 312, 511 

"Poplar Bluft' Citizen," 531 

Poplar Blutf Christian Church, 495 

Poplar Bluff High School (view), 294 

Poplin, (Jreen L., 403 

Poplin, G. L., 531 

"Poplin's Black River News," 531 

Population, 53, 56 

Population (1804-1821), 175 

Population (1820-1830), 247 

Poor, T. C, 28 

Poitage Bay, xiv 

Portage Bay, 107 

Portageville, 178, 267 

' ' Portageville Critic, ' ' 537 

' ' Portageville Push, ' ' 537 

Portell, Thomas E., 89 

Porter, Charles E., 786 

Porterfield, .lohn D., 675 

Porterfield, J. M., 680 

Postage, 192 

Postoffices, 192 

Poston, Charles P., 578 

Poston, Harry P., 998 

Poston, Henry, 302 

Potosi, 169, 193, 269, 329. 337, 401, 527 

Potosi Academy, 402 

"Potosi Eagle," 544 

' ' Potosi Free Press, ' ' 544 

Potosi Home Guards, 342 

"Potosi Independent." 544 

Potosi Presbytery. 489 

"Potosi Eepubliean," 544 

Powell, B., 265 

Powell, .Tohn E., 266 

Powell, .Tohn W., 347 

Powell, Isaac W . 104(1 

Powell, William H., 930 

Powers. William A., 1024 

Pratt, Charles E., 782 

Pratte, Bernard, 171 

Pratte, J. B. T., 52 

Pratte, James W., 160 

Pratte, Joseph, 115, 413 

Pratte, John B., 53. 183 

Pratte, S. B., 267 

Prentiss, 330 

Presbyterians — Presbytery of Missouri formed, 483 
Southeast ilissouri Presbyterian churches, 484 
Presbyterianism in 1854-94, 484; 1864-74, 485 
division in Presbytery, 486; decades from 1884 to 
1904, 487; general review, 488; Northern Presby- 
terians, 491 ; Cumberland Presbyterians, 493. 

Preslar. J. P., 1014 

Press (see newspapers). 

"Press," 531, 538 

Price. Charles B.. 349 

Priest, J. v., 318 

Priest, Zenas, 262, 401 



xlvi 



INDEX 



Pritiluucl, Charles M., 104-1 

Pritehard, Columbus K., 989 

Priteliard, Thomas E., 989 

Protesiants, 196 

Proveiicheie, P., 150 

Providence Church, 201 

Proviues, William C, 410 

Pruente, E., 450 

Pryor, Herbert, 598 

Public Schools — Foundation of public system, 404; 
the State Commission, 405; sale of lands, 406; 
curriculum, 406; laws of 1853, 406; provisions of 
1874, 407 ; growth of the system, 407 ; Southeast 
Missouri Teachers' Association, 409; tirst schools 
in various counties, 409. 

Piilliani, Thomas, 306 

Punch, Jasper X.. 1085 

Purtcls, James, 290 

Puxico, 392 

" Puxico Index," 544 

Quapas, 35 
Quigate, 20 
Quinby, X. E., 288 

Badisson, 23 

Eailroads — Railroad building since the war, 357; St. 
Louis & Iron ilountain Eailway Company, 496; 
the Belmont branch, 497; Cairo & Fulton, 498; 
Jackson Branch Railroad Company, 500; Cape 
Girardeau, Pilot Knob & Belmont Railroad Com- 
pany, 501; Cape Girardeau & State Line Railroad 
Company, 501 ; Illinois, Missouri & Texas Railway 
Company, 501; Houck's Missouri & Arkansas Rail- 
road, 502; St. Louis & Gulf Railroad, 502; St. 
Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, 502; 
Cape Girardeau & Thebes Bridge Terminal Rail- 
way Company, 503; St. Louis & San Francisco sys- 
tem, 503 ; St. Louis, Memphis & Southeastern Rail- 
road, 504; St. Louis Southwestern Railroad Com- 
pany, 505; Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Rail- 
way, 506; HoUiday-Knotz Land and Lumber Com- 
pany, 507 ; St. Louis, Kennett & Southeastern Rail- 
road, 507 ; St. Louis & Missouri Southern Railroad, 
507 ; Paragould Southeastern Railroad. 508 ; Illi- 
nois Southern Railroad, 508; Paragould & Mem- 
phis Railroad, 508; Butler County Railroad Com- 
pany, 508 ; Cape Girardeau & Jackson Interurban 
Comjiany, 509. 

Rainbolt, W. K., 478 

Ramsay, Andrew, 77, 150, 171 

Ramsay, Andrew, Jr., 171 

Ramsay, Andrew M., 303 

Ramsay, James, 171 

Ramsay, John, 78 

Ramsay Settlement, 76 

Ramsay, W. C, 78 

Ramsay, William. 171 

Ramsey Creek, xiii 

Ramsey, Robert G., 802 

Ramsey, Samuel L., 1248 

Randoff. S. M.. 476 

Randol, Enos, 79 

Randol, John, 74, 214 

Randol, Medad, 79, 171 

Randol, Samuel, 79 

Randol Settlement, 77 

Randol, Thankful, 287 

Randolph, George E.. 1288 



Raniller, Baptiste, 65 

Rankin, Lewis J., 273 

Ranney, Johnson, 155 

Ranney, Ehoda, 402 

Ranney, Robert G., 611 

Ranney, W. C, 257, 295, 501 

Rau, Gustav C, 775 

Rauls, John H., 1135 

Raveuscroft, James, 155 

Rawls, Hardy, 107 

Ray, David M., 1122 

Rayburn, M. B., 310, 995 

Ravburn, \V. C, 310 

Read, T. W., 803 

Reagan, (ieorge K., 115 

Reagan, JIathias il., 803 

Reaves, George A., 1268 

Reavis, G. H., 410 

Reck, Edward B., 586 

Redden, George W., 627 

Reddick, John R., 1107 

Red House, 71, 74 

Redman. S. E.. 973 

Reed, Charles W., 1047 

Reed, I). C, 317 

Reed, Harmon, 295 

Reed, Jacob, 188 

Reed, ilary E., 1154 

Reed, Simpson, 1153 

Reed, William, 62 

Reeves, Everett, 881 

"Reflector," 531 

"Reformer," 540 

Regimental Histories (Civil War) — Home Guards, 341 
Missouri State Militia, 342; Third Missouri Regi- 
ment, 343; Fifth Missouri Regiment, 343; Fifty- 
sixth Missouri Regiment, 343; Sixty-fourth Mis- 
souri Regiment, 343; Sixty-eighth Missouri Regi- 
ment. 344; Seventy-ninth Missouri Regiment, 344; 
Second Missouri Infantry. 344; Twenty-ninth Mis- 
souri Infantry, 344; Thirteenth Missouri Infan- 
try, 345; Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry. 345; 
Fiftieth Missouri Infantry, 346; Sixth Missouri 
Cavalry, 346 ; Tenth Missouri Cavalry, 346 ; Engi- 
neer Regiment, West Missouri Volunteers, 347 ; 
Second Regiment Missouri Volunteers, 347 ; Forty- 
seventh Regiment Missouri Volunteers, 347 ; Fif- 
teenth Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia, 347; 
Twenty-third Regiment, Missouri Enrolled Militia. 
348; Thirty-ninth Regiment, Missouri Enrolled 
Militia. 34S'; Eighty-third Battalion, 348; Confed- 
erate organizations. 348 ; Xinth Missouri Infantry. 
351; Second Missouri Infantry, 351; Second Jlis- 
souri Cavalry, 352. 
Reid, .Tames, 410 
Reinecke, Frederick, 74, 97 
Relfe, James H., 322 

Religious History (see also churches) — Catholics, 448: 
Methodists. 452; Baptists, 463; Lutherans. 479; 
Episcopal. 481; Congregational. 482; German 
Evangelical Church, 482; German Methodists, 483; 
Presbyterians, 483; Presbyterianism in 1854-64, 
484; Presbyterians, 1864-74", 485; division in Pres- 
bytery, 486; decades from 1884 to 1904.487; gen- 
eral review, 488 ; Northern Presbyterians, 491 ; 
Cumberland Presbyterians, 493; Christians, 494. 
Renault. 270 

Renault. Philip Francois, 182 
Rench, Daniel R., 716 



JNDEX 



xlvii 



Eeuiok, Joseph A., 1010 

"Renovator," 532 

Eeppy, John H., 535 

Reppy, Samuel A., 785 

' ' Representative, ' ' 541 

"Republic," 532 

"Republican," 2(31. 532, 534 

Resources, 366 

Revelle, John W., 370, 1004 

Revelle, L. W., 477 

"Review," 534 

Reyburn, Joseph A., 832 

Reynol, A., 150 

Reynolds County, 179, 311, 520 

"Reynolds County Outlook," 539 

Reynolds, James, 256 

Reynolds, Thomas, 311 

Rhodes, Horatio S., 1198 

Rice, David, 308, 310 

Rice, James, 402 

Rice, Jimer K., 606 

Rice, John F., 1120 

Rice, .John T., 1021 

Rice. Pascal, 306 

Richards, Cap B., 1072 

Richardson, J. N., 473 

Richardson, Mack, 370 

Richardson, W. B., 478 

Riehwoods, 392 

Riddle. J. F., 1274 

Rider, E. P., 423 

Rigby, J., 257 

Rigd'on, D. JI., 748 

Rigdon, Thomas J., 800 

Riney, Thomas, 270 , 

Ring, Thomas, 80 

Ringer, Louis, 295 

Ringo. Mann. 619 

Ripfey County. ISO, 248, 305, 521 

Ripley, Eleazer W., 306 

Ripley Mission. 453 

Eishe, John, 74 

Eisher, John. 74 

Ritton, J., 257 

Rivard. Francois-. 51 

"River of the Conception," 133 

River St. Louis, 49 

River Transportation, 364 

Rivers, D. L., 1018 

Riverside, 65 

Riviere, Baptiste, 65 

Riviere Petite (Little River), 230 

Riviere Zenon, 79 

Roberson. C. A., 1160 

Roberts. DeWitt. 426 

Roberts, Frank D.. 920 

Roberts. Thomas, 290. 303 

Robertson, Edward. 108 

Robertson, J. R., 1132' 

Robidaux. Joseph. 153 

Robins, M.. 477 

Robinson, C. S., 207 

Robinson, William P.. 1288 

Roeheblave. Phillip. 53 

Rodney family, 79 

Rodney, Michael. 171. 295 

Rodney settlement. 77 

Rodney. Thomas J.. 256. 257 

Rogers, Edmond, 290 



Rogers, James A., 702 
Rogers, John J., 896 
Roland, Dan W., 724 
Remain, John, 65 
Romine, Abraham, 298 
Romines. .James R., 697 
Rood, Lee W., 899 
Roper. G. L., 1167 
Rosati. Father, 412, 448 
Rosati, Joseph, 137 
Rosecrans, General, 337 
Rosenberg, L.. 288 
Rosenthal. Moses, 707 
Ross, Alexander. 1170 
Eoss, A. M.. 468 
Ross, Steel, 165 
Ross, Stephen, 155 
Roth, Caspar, 480 
Roth, Louis, 480 

Rotrock, C. P.. 545 

Rowe, C. E., 280 

Roy, Barbeau A., 652 

Roy, Joachim. 65 

Roy, Pierre. 53 

Rozier, Charles, 415 

Rozier. Charles C, 321, 422, 433 

Rozier, Edward A., 817 

Rozier, Ferdinand, 56, 60, 270, 402 
Cozier, Firmin A.. 115, 301, 320 

Rozier, Francois C, 410 

Rozier, Frederick, 413 

Ruddell, George, 43. 107 

Ruddell, John. 107 

Rudy, J. F., 477 

Eueijottom, Ezekiel, 167 

Ruether, Fred J., 728 

Ruggles, Martin, 169 

Rui, 53 

Runels, Will M., 1013 

Rush's Ridge, 179 

Russell, James, 78, 79 

Russell, Joseph, 318 

Russell, J. J., 288, 551 

Eussell, William, 78, 79 

Ruth. Andrew F., 781 

Eutledge. James A., 402 

Rutter, John B.. 290 

Eutter. John P.. 303 

Evan, Abram .J.. 417 

Ryan, Dawscy. 1115 

Sabula, 378 

Sacs. 35. 40, 70. 150. 170 

Sadd, Joseph M., 492 

Sadler, Stephen H., 973 

St. Aubin, Lewis, 107 

.St. Charles, 51, 140, 152 

St. Charles District, 49 

St. Francis Levee District, 314 

St. Franeisville, 333 _ 

St. Francois County. 177. 277, 302, o22 

"St. Francois County Democrat." .54_0 

"St. Francois Countv Republican." 541 

St. Francois Mountains, x 

St. Francois River, xii. xiv 

St. Francois River, 42 

St. Gem, Gustavus, 555 

St. Gem, Jean Baptiste, 51, 52 

St. Gem. .L B., 171 



xhiii 



INDEX 



St. Gem, Vital, 53 

Ste. Genevieve, 21, 30, o6, 114, 137, 139, 140, 152, 176, 
177, 182, 186, 190, 192, 193, 197, 254; shipping 
center of mineral region, 251; Ste. Genevieve- 
Iron Mountain Plank Road, 251 ; 150tli anniversary 
celebrated, 252; U. S. Senators from Ste. Gene- 
vieve, 252; Ste. Genevieve of today, 254. 

Ste. Genevieve Academy, 193, 194, 257, 320, 401 

Ste. Genevieve Asylum, 399 

Ste. Genevieve Circuit, 454, 455 

' ' Ste. Genevieve Correspondent and Record, ' ' 192 

Ste. Genevieve County, 177, 523 

Ste. Genevieve District, 49, 66, 125, 159; population, 
53, 56 ; trade of, 54 ; military expedition, 55 ; so- 
cial life and amusement, 55; common field, 56; 
dates of settlement, 62 ; houses of French settlers, 
119; food and cooking, 121; French Canadians, 
121 ; houses of American settlers, 125 ; food of the 
Americans, 127. 

Ste. Genevieve Evangelical Lutheran Church, 481 

' ' Ste. Gene\'ieve Herald, ' ' 542 

St. John 's Bavou, sdii 

St. John's Bayou, 82, 229 

St. James Bayou, xiii 

St. James Bayou, 229 

St. Joseph Lead Companv, Bonne Terre. 506 

St. Louis, 57, 114, 140. 152 

St. Louis & Gulf Railroad, 502 

St. Lonis & Iron Mountain Eailvray Company, 496 

St. Lonis & Iron Mountain Railroad, 259, 506 

St. Louis & Missouri Southern Railroad, 507 

St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, 502 

St. Louis & San Francisco System, 503 

St. Louis, Kennett & Southeastern Railroad, 507 

St. Louis, Memphis & Southeastern Railroad, 504 

St. Louis Southwestern Railroad Company, 505 

St. Marv, Augustus S., Jr., 878 

St. Marys, 254 

St. Mary's Academy. 193 

' ' St. Mary 's Progress, ' ' 542 

' ' St. JIary 's Review, ' ' 542 

St. Marv 's Seminarv, 412, 448 

"St. Marv's Times,"" 542 

St. ilichael's, 64, 126, 139. 201, 449 

St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Irontou. 482 

St. Philip River, 49 

St. Vincent 's Church, 448 

St. Vincent's College, 413 

St. Vincent's College (views), 414 

Saline Creek, xii 

Saline Ci-eek, 18, 65, 177 

Sand Blows, 222 

Sandlin, .lonathan R., 311 

Sandlin, Martin, 179 

Sandy Creek, 193 

Sanford, Daniel, 295 

Sans Oreille, 39 

Satterfield. W. M., 308 

Saucier, F., 150 

Saukees, 40 

Sayres, William, 311 

Scene at the Shut-in near Arcadia (view), xi 

Scene on Black River near Poplar Bluff (view). 294 

Schaaf, John F., 254 

Schadt, Otto, 345 

Schaper, Jesse H., 903 

Schell, Casper, 178 

Schiller Verein, 431 

Sehleich, L. C, 423 



Schmitz, Ferdinand, 342 
Schneider, Charles W., 829 
Si-honhotf, C. A., 1229 
Schouhoff, J. H., 1247 
Schools (see Education) 
Schrader, Anthony, 480 
Schramm, Emil C., 684 
Schrum, Eugene G., 1189 
Schult, Hiua C, 314 
Schult, H. C, 956 
Schult, W. D.. 314 
Schulte, Frank, 678 
Sehultz, Thomas W., 634 
Schultze, Andrew T., 578 
Sehuiz, Gustav B., 665 
Schwartz, John, 342 
Scoggin, George W., 809 
Scott, Andrew, 154, 402 
Scott, Jonathan, 315 

Scott. John, 153, 155, 237, 238, 242, 307, 313 
Scott, J. B., 410 
Scott, John G., 323 
Scott, Thomas, 311 
Scott, Thomas B., 148 

Scott County, 108, 156, 179, 290, 303, 342, 524 
Scott County Hills, xii 
' ' Scott Countv Agricultural Wheel, ' ' 542 
' ' Scott County Banner, ' ' 543 
"Scott County Democrat," 543 
"Scott County Kicker," 542 
' ' Scott County Newsboy, ' ' 543 
Scripps, George H., 262 
Scripps, John, 205 
Scrips, (Mrs.) John, 402 
Seabaugh, A. Frank, 1254 
Seabaugh, Oda L., 779 
Seavers, David, 74 
Seavers, Nicholas, 77 
Seawell, Joseph. 261, 401 
Second Missouri Cavalry, 352 
Second Missouri Infantry. 344, 351 
Second Regiment, Missouri Volunteers, 347 
Seelitz Evangelical Lutheran Church, 479 
Segal, Louis, 1064 
Seindre, John, 65 
Sellers, Benjamin, 282 
''Selma, 275 
Senath. 376 

"Senath Leader," 534 
"Senath Star," 534 
Seneca Slough, 42 
Sergeant. Ichabod, 411 
Settle, V. T., 477 
Settle, W. W., 476. 477 
Seventy-ninth Jlissouri Regiment, 344 
Sewell, Joseph, 154, 155 
Sexton, J. W., 643 
Sexton. Lafayette, 307 
Shady Gro%-e' Baptist Church, 473 
Shafer, Sophia, 65 
Shaner, Henry, 295 
Shannon, William. 155 
Sharp. E. F., 1278 
Sharp, .Tames J.. 946 
Sharp, Thomas B., 699 
Shaw, John, 172, 228 
Shaw, -Thomas M., 290 
Shawnee Hills, ix 
Shawnees, 40, 41, 170 



INDEX 



xlix 



Shearer, J. G.. 478 
Sheehv, John T., 1060 
Shelby, Jo, 335, 337 
Shelby, Eeubeu, 270, 402 
Shell, Benjamin, 162 
Shelton, Enoch, 308 
Shelton, Lee. 562 
Shelton, William H., 308 
Shelton, W. V.. 823 
Shelton, W, F., Jr., 824 
Shepherd Monntain, xi 
Sheppard, Isaac, 199 
Sheppard, Jesse C, 1282 
Sheppard, John, 162 
Sheppard, ■William, 262 
Sherrill, L., 277 
Shields, Charles W,, 926 
Shields, S. A,, 808 
Shipley, Husfh, 307 
Sliivers, J. A„ 965 
Short, John, 178 
-Shot Tower, 65 
Shrader, John, 153 
Shreve, Israel, 84 
Shultz, Thomas J.. 853 
Shurlds, Henry, 169 
Siege of New Madrid (1862), 265 
Sigler, Charles L,, 1220 
Sikes, John, 291 
Sikeston, 108, 291, 525 
"Sikestou Herald," 542 
Sikeston M, E, Church, 460 
Sikeston Presbyterian Church, 491 
Sikeston Eidge, xiii 
"Sikeston Standard," 542 
"Sikeston Star," .542 
Simply a Big Oil Tank (view), 518 
Simpson, A. E,, 288 
Sjmpson, A. P., 1052 
Simpson, Doda B., 1052 
Simpson, .Teremiah, 77 
Simpson. Samuel P., 343 
Sink Hole. 172 
Sinks, 222 
Siouan, 34 
Sioux, 170 
Sixth Missouri Cavalry, 346 

Sixty-fourth Missouri Regiment, 343 

Sixty-eighth Missouri Eegiment, 344 

Sixth Eegiment (Spanish-American War), 370 

Skaggs, Dick, 307 

Skaggs, Dr., 286 

Skaats, Lillie E., 426 

Slinkard, Frederick, 80 

Slinkard, J. V., 873 

Sloan, Albert D., 370 

Sloan, H. L., 256, 262 

Sloan, William, 169 

Smart, John C„ 349 

Smelting of Lead, 363 

Smith & Love, 297 

Smith, Asliael. 265 

Smith, Harry A„ 539 

Smith, Henry H., 154 

Smith, H. M., 478 

Smith, James, 288 

Smith, James W., 160, 302 

Smith, John, 350 

Smith, John T., 169 



Smith, Joseph, 290, 303 
Smith, J. S., 290 
Smith, Melbourne, 746 
Smith, Owen A„ 835 
Smith, Eeuben, 313 
Smith, S. Henry, 535 
Smith, Tilman, 80 
Smith, T. John, 60, 190 
Smith T.-Browne duel, 190 
Smith, William, 199 
Smyth, James A„ 308 
Smyth, E. Lee, 1096 
Snider, Frank M., 954 
Snider, G. B., 667 
Snider, .Jacob, 307 
Snider, .John A., 1143 
Snider, Oliver E., 313 
Snoddy, John, 293 

Social Life — Population of Louisiana in 1804, 117; 
Ste. Genevieve district, 118, 119, 121; American 
settlers, 119; houses of French settlers, 119; In- 
dians, 119; food and cooking, 121; French Cana- 
dians, 121 ; dress of the French, 122 ; amusements, 
122; personal property, 124; wealth (personal 
property), 124; trade, 124; fur trade of Upper 
Louisiana, 124; American immigration, 125; 
houses of American settlers, 125; clothing, 127; 
food of the Americans, 127; general conditions, 
439; houses, 440; food, 440; dress, 440; house- 
hold implements, 441; amusements, 441; physi- 
cians, 442. 
Son, Thomas A,, 752 
Sorosis Society, 430 
Soulard, Antonio, 65 

Southeast District Agricultural Society, 257 
"Southeast Gazette," 530 
"Southeast Missourian, " 532, 537 
"Southeast Missouri Enterprise," 534 
Southeast Missouri Teachers' Association, 409 
"Southeast Missouri Statesman," 538 
"South Missouri," 530 
South Missouri Guards, 301 
"Southern Advocate and State Journal," 529 
"Southern Democrat," 529 
Southern Judicial (territorial) Circuit, 1.5_4 
Southern Mississippi Steamer (view), 365 
"Southern Missouri Argus," 540 
"Southern Pemiscot News," 538 
"Southern Scimetar, " 538 
Southern, William A„ 720^ 
Spanish-American War, 370 

Spanish Government over Louisiana — Merchants, 13U; 
prices, 130; products, 130; travel, 131; religion, 
133. 
Sparks, Daniel. 164 
Spear, Edward, 171, 199 
Speer, Asier J., 1189 
Spence, James M., 293 
Spenee, J. M., 403 
Spence, William A., 1152 
Spence, W. W,, 493 
Spencer, Edward, 307, 310 
Spencer, H.. 307 
Spencer, Urban C, 402 
Spencer, Wade H., 282 
Spiggott, Joseph. 206 
Spiller, Elbert C, 284 
Spiller, S. W., 374 
Sprigg Street, 329 



1 



INDEX 



Stacy, William L., 1047 
Stady, William C, 568 
Stalleup, James A., 1208 
Stalleup, Lynu JI., 1207 
Stalleup, Mark H., 291, 1206 
Stanberry, Henry, 243 
Stancil, Martin L., 313 
"Standard," 531 
Stanfill, J. H., 371 
Stanley, Eufns H., 937 
Stanton, John, 169 
Starett. William S., 957 
Starved Boek, 30, 31 

Statehood — Memorial for, 234; Missouri Compromise, 
237, 240; solemn public act, 239; state bounda- 
ries, 242. 
State Normal School. Cape Girardeau, "259, 367, 
409; established, 420; courses of study, 428; lit- 
erary societies. 4oO; the Young Men's Christian 
Association, 431; library, 431; enrollment, 432; 
faculty, 432; board of regents, 433; former presi- 
dents, 434 ; place of the normal school, 436. 
State Normal School, Cape Girardeau (view). 4'^1 
Statler, Conrad, 79 . ' 

Statler, Peter, 79 
Stear, Jacob, 290 
Steck, Emil, 1236 
Steele, 382 
Stein, Louis, 652 
Steinback, B., 74, 97 
Steinback, F., 74, 97 
Stephens, John W., 932 
Stephens, L. L., 473 
Stephens, Thomas. 202 
Stevens, John, 313 
Stevenson. .Tohn, 311 
Stevenson, J. Henry, 763 
Stevenson, William J., 341 
Stevenson, William T., 879 
Steward, Ambrose S., 1292 
Steward, .Tames, 65 
Stewart, Robert, 313 
Stewart, Thomas, 262, 401 
Stierberger, Edward A., 642 
Stiver, Christian E., 629 
Stoddard, Amos, 142, 143, 304 
Stoddard County, 180, 295, 304, 525 
Stoddard County Baptist Association, 478 
"Stoddard County Eepublican, " 543 
Stokes, Amzi L„ 'l023 
Stokes, Charles E., 543 
Stokes, John E., 963 
Stokes. Robert W., 992 
Stokes, R. W., 286, 308 
Stokes, T. C, 286 
Stokes, William C. 881 
Stone, John H., 317 
Storey. O. H., 639 
Story. Joseph, 105, 107, 165 
Stout. Ephraim, 80, 178 
Stout, Thankful, 79 
Strange, Tubal E., 192 
Strange, T. E., 262, 529 
Street, William, 167, 203 
Stricklin, John W., 1210 
Strother. Benjamin, 159 
Stumpe, Frederick W., 681 
Sturdivant; Robert, 256, 318 
Subscription Schools. 398 



Sugg, H. A., 856 
Summers. Andrew, 79 
Summers, John, 105 
Summers, John C, 948 
Sumpter, Bert, 818 
' ' Sunnyside, ' ' 541 
Surroll," William, 195, 262 
Sutherhind, George W., 1049 
Swan, Clarence M., 729 
Swashing Baptist Church, 476 
Swearingen, William A., 963 
Sweazea, Thomas J., 685 
Swinger, Jacob M., 1178 
Syenite Granite Company, 820 
Syenite Presbyterian Church, 491 

Tarkington, William W., 974 

Tallniadge Amendment, 237 

Tanner, Rueker, 206 

Tanot, Pierre, 65 

Tarlton, George W., 699 

Tate, C. J., 468 

Tatum Brothers, 285 

Tatuni, James P.. 657 

Tatum, Luther p., 933 

Tatum. Luther P., 562 

Tatum, Ira B., 934 

Tatum, Richard M., 658 

Taverns, 191 

Tawney, John, 1101 

Taylor, (Captain), 349 

Taylor, Edward O., 1032 

Taylor, John P., 308 

Taylor, Lee, 349 

Taylor, Lee J., 1000 

Taylor, Luther, 270 

Taylor, M. W., 476 

Taylor Slough, xiv 

TaVlor Slough. 231, 307 

Taylor, T., 400 

Taylor, William R., 1097 

Taylor, William T., 980 

Tecumseh, 42 

Templcton, James D.. 938 

Templeton, William A., 943 

Tennille, Benjamin, 162 

Tenney, David, 208 

Tenth ilissouri Cavalry, 346 

Territorial Government of Louisiana — Governor and 

general assembly, 152; courts, 158 
Territorial House, 152 
Terrv, Philip S., 1025 
Test Oath, 417 
Tetweiler, S. G., 536 
Thebes, 260 
Theel, Levi, 65 
Theilmann, Louis, 915 
Thiele, Frederick, 858 
Thilenius, Edward, 797 
Thilenius, E. M., 902 
Thilenius. G. C, 343, 501 
Third Missouri Regiment, 343 
Thirtieth Missouri Infantry, 345 

Thirty-ninth Regiment, Missouri Enrolled Militia, 348 
Thomas, Jesse B., 237 
Thomas, John C, 288, 498 
Thomas, John L., 867 
Thomas, Judge, 170 
Thomas, Richard S., 153, 154, 155, 238, 242, 300 



INDEX 



li 



Thoniassoii, Kcttie G., 1073 

Thomasson, J. W., 107-1: 

Thompson, A., 307 

Thompson, Benjamin, 410 

Thompson, Benjamin F., 792 

Thompson, Ocueral, 330, 331 

Thompson, James, 171 

Thompson, John, 171 

Thompson, Samnel II., 206 

Thompson, Samuel T., 1152 

Thompson 's Fort, 335 

Thompson, Sullivan S., 1039 

Thompson, Wilson, 202 

Thomure, Jean Baptiste, 52 

Thornberry, Ephiaim, 307 

Thorne, Solomon, 7-1 

Thrower, A. C, 1222 

Tidwell, A., 477 

Tidwell, A. G., 476 

Tiedeman, D. F., 410 

Timber, xv 

Timber, 360 

Timberman, J. W., 673 

Timbennan, John, 286 

Timberman, John H., 1273 

"Times," 540 

Timon, John, 413, 448 

Tindle, Albert, 1037 

Tinnin, Edwin L., 828 

Tinnin, Kobert H., 790 

Tipton, Samuel, 77 

Tolds, James, 403 

Tolle, B. A., 1065 

ToUesnn, Thomas K., 850 

Toole, Thomas J., 1093 

Toney, Henry, 402 

Tong & Carson, 297 

Tong, H. F., 477 

Tong, Theodore F., 267, 316 

Tonti, 29 

'l\>|il>ing, Moses H., 614 

Tori man, 35 

Totty, Ulysses G., 1291 

Tower, Bush, 275 

Towl, Benjamin F.. 838 

Townships, 159, 163, 304 

Trade, 27, 33, 124, 130, 140, 1S6, 445 

Transifer to the United States-Louisiana Purchase, 

139; trade, 140; land grants, 148 
Transportation, 187, 364 
Travis, John, 204 
Traylor, George H., 1033 
Treece, George \V., 958 
Tresenwriter, C. D., 531 
Tribble, Pearl D., 1085 
Tribble, Thomas E., 1083 
' ' Tribune, ' ' 536 
" Tri-Citv Independent," 535 
Trogdon,' J. E., 1204 
Tromlev, L. F., 532 
Trotter, David, 44, 115 
Trudeau, Zenon, 79 
Tual, Charles J., 861 
Tucker, Father, 451 
Tucker, John, 164 
Tucker, Joseph, 170, 270 — 
Tucker, Marion F., 832 
Tucker, Nathaniel B., 302 
Tucker, Rufus C, 774 



Tucker, William L., 566 

Turley, John G., 1025 

Turley, Lee, 762 

Turnbaugh, J. J., 262 

Turnbaugh, T. Ben, 1081 

Turnbaugh, Thomas B., lOSO 

Turner, B. F.. 403 

Turner, Samuel E., 342 

Tuttel. Joseph, 1151 

Twenty-third Begiment, Missouri Enrolled Militia, 

348 
Twenty-ninth Missouri Infantry, 344 
Tyler,' Thomas, 65 

Typical Stone Quarries (views), 515 
Tywappity Bottoms, 81, 179 

Uhl, Casper, 343 

Union American Lead Company, 268 
Union Literary Society, 430 
United Daughters of the Confederacy, 369 
Unity Masonic Lodge, 157 
' Upper Louisiana, 49 
Ursuline Sisters, 420 

Vail, John W., 1137 

Vallc Family, 269 

N'alle, Charles, 114 

Valle, Felix, 410 

Valle, Francisco, 52, 115, 159 

Valle, Francisco, Jr., 115 

Valle, Jean Baptiste, 52 

Van Amburg, .Tames H., 410 

Van Buren, 180, 372 

Vance, Robert L., 723 

Vandenbenden, .loseph, 105 

Vandenbenden, Louis, 97, 105 

Van Denbenden, Lewis, 107 

Vandivcr, Willard D., 426, 427, 435 

Vandover, William, 293 

Vanduser, 389 

VanFrank, P. R., 342 

VanGilder. J. W., 1133 

Van Guard Literary Society, 430 

Vanhorn, Nathan, 163, 262 

Van Lluvtelaar, John, 449 

Vardell, B. N., 822 

Vardell, Drew. 875 

Vasquez, Benito, 65 

Vessells, Francis il., 805 

Victoria, 378 

A'iews — Capaha Bluffs, Rock Levee Drive, Cape Gi- 
rardeau, viii; elephant rocks, Graniteville, x; 
scene at the Shut-in near Arcadia, xi; In- 
dian mound, 4; Marquette among the Mis- 
sissippi Valley Indians, 25; first brick house built 
west of the Mississippi, 50 ; old-time windlass, 
119; home of our fathers, 126; happy Missouri 
corn grower, 181 ; oldest house in Cape Girardeau, 
258 ; Missouri State Hospital from superintend- 
ent 's resilience, 279; high school, rarmingtou, 
279; Will Mayfield College, Marble Hill, 281; 
Poplar Bluff High School and scene on Black 
River near Poplar Bluff, 294; highest point lU 
Pilot Knob, Arcadia Heights. 298; south- 
ern Mississippi river steamer, 365 ; State Normal 
School, Cape Girardeau. 421 ; in the thick timber, 
511; typical stone quarries, 515; corn measured 
by horses, 517; simply a big oil tank, 518; Mis- 
souri orchards in bea" ' , 519. 



lii 



INDEX 



Vineennes, 51 
"Vindicator," 543, 545 
Vire, F. A., 539 
Vitt, Alfred A., 632 
Vossbrink, Henry C, 653 
Voyageur, 24 

AVabash Eiver, 49 

Wade, David, 74 

Wade, Robert C, 971 

Wade, Robert L., 90S 

Wagner, Jolin F., 64S 

Wagner, L. JI., 481 

Wagster, Xofflit .!., Sr., S15 

Wahl, James S., 90S 

Waide, Robert, 288 

Walker, Alexander S., 154 

Walker, C. A., 705 

Walker, Charles N., 537 

Walker, Cyrus, 263 

Walker. George W., 679 

Walker, Irwin K., 342 

Walker, James A., 349 

Walker, James P., 556 

Walker, Jesse, 204, 205, 461 

Walker, J. H., 233, 282 

Walker, John B., 307 

Walker, John Hardeman, lii7, 178, 242, 315 

Walker, Thomas B., 343 

Walker, Thomas M., 928 

Walker, William S. C, 629 

Wallace, John W.. 968 

Wallace. Newton, 312 

Waller's Ferrv, 163 

Wallis, J. P., 476 

Walls, Robert D., 714 

Walser, David F., 1202 

Walsh. M. C., 450 

Walters, Jacob, 155 

Walther, C. F.. 271 

Walther, Carl F. W., 480 

Waltrip, I. A., 308 

Waltrip, J. M., 308 

Ward, E. D., 274 

Ward, H. M., 498 

Ward. M.. 288 

Ward, Robert L., 945 

Ward, Samuel J., 348 

Ward, W. J., 844 

Ware, Hardy, 65 

Warren, Humphrev, 287 

Warren, Martin S., 892 

Warrington & Pennell, 265, 282 

Warner, Charles G., 505 

Warner, John E., 1262 

Warren, Robert L., 1015 

Washington County, 153, 168, 176, 179, 269, ."26 

Washington County Baptist Association, 478 

Washington County Battalion, 342 

Washington County, first settlement in, 64 

"Washington County Gazette," 545 

"Washington County Journal," 544 

' ' Washington County Miner, ' ' 544 

Washington Female Seminary, 402 

Waters, Richard Jones, 97, 115, 150, 164, 265, 402 

Waters, Thomas W., 179 

Waters, W. W., 537 

Watervalley Presbyterian Church, 491 

Watkins, Griffin, 717 



Watkins, James H., 987 
Watkins, Joseph, 80 
Watkins, Martha E., 988 
Watkins, Nathaniel W., 156 
Watkins, N. M., 263 
Watkins, N. W., 257, 316, 328 
Watkins, W.. 349 
Wathen, I. E., 256 
Wathen, Ignatius E., 290 
Watrin, P. M., 56 
Watson, Jason, 263 
Watson, Robert Goah. 97, 265, 402 
Watson, W. S., 257 
Watts, H. S., 461 
Watts. Napoleon B.. 639 

Wayne County, 80, 167, 176, 178, 203. 272, 527 
Wavne County Baptist Association, 479 
Weber, Carl, 1221 
Weber, Charles A., 343 
Weber, Emil M,, 1220 
Webb, George B., 986 
Webb, W. J., 1222 
Webster Literary Society, 430 
' ' Weekly .Journal, ' ' 545 
Weiberg (Whvbark), Samuel, 80 
Weigel." E. F.] 422 
Weirick, Upton L., 709 
Weiss, Henry F,, 769 
Welker, Leonard, 80 
Welker, Wilbur M., 587 
Wellborn, James, 290 
Welling, Charles, 262, 263, 318 
, Wells, Francis M., 624 
Wenom, Gnstavus A.. 866 
Wernert, L. C. 842 
West, Henry T., 581 
West. .John, 287 
"Western Eagle, 530 
"Westliche Post." .530 
Whalev. Nathaniel C, 999 
Wheeler. Doctor, 402 
Wheeler, David. 402 
Whitcomb. Georae. 287, 498 
Whitcomb. G. W., 288 
White, Cornelius C, 1074 
White. Edmund. 295 
White, Elbert C, 532 
White, E. C, 308 
White, G. M., 308 
White, James B., 351 
White, Josiah M., 745 
White, J. W., 884 
White, William, 74 
Whiteaker, Robert A., 924 
Whiteaker. William C, 1071 
Whitehead. Samuel W., 1196 
Whitehead, Thomas L., 1119 
Whitelaw, James M., 319 
Whitelaw, Robert H., 549, 704 
Whitener, David A.. 739 
Whiteiier. Henry, 267, 371 
Whitener, J. Q.' A.. 371 
Whiteoak, 377 

White Oak Grove Baptist Church, 478 
Whiteside, Jacob, 206 
Whitewater, 373, 492 
Whitewater Creek, xii 
Whitewater Eiver, xiii 
"Whitewater Times," 531 



INDEX 



liii 



Whittaker, M. J., 473, '1 74 
Whitteii, William H., 10S3 
Whitttorth, Isaac G., 851 
Wbybark, Levi C, 343 
Whybark, Levi E., 493 
Whybark, John C, 313 
Whybark, Samuel, 492 
Wiehterioh, Robert F., 689 
Wiggins, Levy, 66 
Wiggs, Franklin A., 638 
Wilcox, Kdward, 204 
Wilkinson, James, 142, 143 
Wilkerson, Joel, 349 
Wilkes, William C, 349, S72 
Wilkins, Fabium M., 962 
Wilkinson, James, 88 
Wilkson, Charles P., 765 
Willett, J. 0.. 468 
Williams, A. B., 307 
Williams, C. S., 799 
Williams, Elisha G., 1125 
Williams, George, 291 
Williams, George B., 849 
Williams. George K., 647 
Williams, George W., 849 
Williams, James, 469, 475 
Williams, Justin, 403 
Williams, J. J., 314 
Williams, Lee, 1227 
Williams, Lewis, 45 
Williams, Luther H., 703 
Williams, Matthew J., 1225 
Williams, Philbert R., 731 
Williams, Thomas, 291 
Williams, William, 204 
Williamson, James, 307 
Williamsville, 393 
" Williamsville Iron News," 546 
Williford, Charles, 349 
Willis, Kilev, 1229 
Will Mayfield College, 418 
Will Mayfield College, Marble Hill, 479, 572 
Will Mayfield College, Marble Hill (view), 281 
Wills, Ernest S., 1138 
Wilson, Andrew, 105 
Wilson, A. W., 419 
Wilson, Ben, 1111 
Wilson, Charles D., 1092 
Wilson, Eli. 1237 
Wilson, Ellen, 425 
Wilson, George, 164 
Wilson. H. G., 409 
Wilson, John O., 1289 
Wilson, Michael A., 296, 403 
Wfilson, Mattie G., 1239 
, Wilson, Nicholas, 154 
Wilson, Parrish 6., 1110 
Wilson, Thomas G., 753 
Wilson, T. M., 410 
Wilson, Ward, 370 
Wilson, William B., 550 
Winchester, 291 



Winchester, Abraham, 291 

Winchester, Henderson, 291 

Windsor, Elisha, 164 

Windsor, Thomas, 164 

Winn, Lulu May, 419 

Winningham, S., 469 

Winston, P. S., 988 

Winter, H. F., 480 

Wiseearver, John, 312 

Wisecarver, Nathan, 312 

Witchcraft, 43 

Witt, Christian, 65 

Wittenberg, 383 

Wittenberg Evangelical Lutheran Chun-li, 479 

Wofiford, Moses, 921 

Wolf Island, 243 

Wolff, Joseph S., 621 

Wolverton, Levy, 74 

Wood, Fred C, 714 

Wood, S. N., 346 

Wood 's Battalions, State Guards, 349 

Woodward, John, 266, 267, 402 

Workman, Elmer S., 1086 

Workman, Henry A., 1270 

Worsham, J. V., 487 

Worth, Charles, 1296 

Worthington, Robert, 74 

Wright, Campbell, 2S4 

Wright, C, 346 

W'right, Edward A., 1043 

Wright, E. A., 537 

W'right, (Mrs.) Ellen, 257 

Wright, John, 308 

Wright, J. L., 975 

Wright, Thomas, 204, 205, 206, 207 

Wright, Will D., 545 

Wulfert, Albert, 869 

Yankeetown, 254 
Yarber, John N., 293 
Yesberg. John H., 1081 
Yorke Chapel, 452 
Young, Charles A., 882 
Young, David. 205 
Young, David B., 1258 
Young, John A., 1227 
Young, J. E., 1236 
Young, L. Willis, 1048 
Young, Robert C, 936 

Zalma. 371 

Zenonian Literary Society, 430 

Zimmerman, Aaron R., 927 

Zimmerman, Daniel C, 767 

Zimmerman, .Tohn H., 1027 

Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Oravelton, 481 

Zoellner Brothers, The, 1022 

Zoellner, Adolph H., 1022 

Zoellner. August B., 1023 

Zoellner, Frank H., 1023 

Zoellner & Zoellner, 539 



SECTION I 



Ai'chjieology— De 8oto— French Explorers— Indians 



HISTORY OF 

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



CHAPTER I 

ARCHAEOLOGY 

Mounds in Southeast Missouri — Great Numbers Known to Exist — Distribution of 
Mounds — Size op Mounds — Shape — Arrangement — • Various Mounds Described — An 
Ancient Wharf — Contents op Mounds — Who Built the Mounds — The Mound Builder 
Theory — The Work op the Indians — Probable Origin — Collections op Relics — Beck- 
with's Great Collection — Plates Found Near Malden — Other R.emarkable Pieces. . 



In every part of the world are found evi- 
dences of the early existence of man. The 
dwellers in Europe find constant evidence that 
many centuries ago, long before the begin- 
ning of recorded history, there were men liv- 
ing who left behind them traces of their ex- 
istence in the form of tools and implements of 
stone, of heaps of shells, of earthen mounds 
and stone burial places. This is true also of the 
other continents, even of Asia and Africa, 
whose recorded history goes so far back into 
the past. It is also true of America. Here 
are to be found numerous remains, some of 
them centuries old, unmistakable evidence of 
man's residence here in ages long since past. 
These remains, or at least the most conspicu- 
ous of them, are great mounds of earth. They 
are to be found in most parts of the United 
States, though not in all places. Many of 
them are in Southeast Missouri. 



Here the remains are mostly earthen 
mounds and their contents. Some of these 
mounds are large, many of them are small. 
They exist in great numbers. In fact we now 
know that there are a great many more of 
them than was suspected a few years ago. 
They have been here many years. They were 
here when the earliest explorers visited the 
country. DeSoto found a large hill, perhaps 
in the immediate neighborhood of New Mad- 
rid. At any rate it was within the alluvial 
region of the southeast where no natural hills 
are to be found. It was doubtless one of the 
ancient mounds. All the early explorers 
noted them. They were old at that distant 
date. Some of them give evidence of great 
age. Large trees are growing upon them 
which could not, in the nature of things, have 
developed short of centuries. They are to a 
close observer one of the most striking fea- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tures of the topography of this section for 
they exist by thousands. Few people have 
any idea as to the vast numbers of mounds. 
There are single counties which have within 
their borders more than three thousand 
mounds. This is true of Bollinger county and 
of Scott county. Our knowledge of the vast 
numbers of mounds has been rendered exact in 
recent years by the work of Hon. Louis 
Houck. In the preparation of his ' ' History of 
Missouri" he had the mounds of the state 
counted. Even this enumeration, carefully 



formed the basis of more widely divergent 
views. An entire theory of the early history 
of this country has been built up around 
them. They have been regarded, at times, as 
the evidence of the existence of a mightj' and 
civilized race of people who existed here be- 
fore the coming of the Indians; and who, for 
some unknown reason, perished completely 
from the land before the discovery by Colum- 
bus. A great empire with organized govern- 
ment, with a mighty capital, with .swarming 
millions of population, has been pictured as 




Indian Mound 



made as it was, does not give all the mounds. 
He found, however, within the bounds of 
Southeast Missouri, as defined in this book, 
more than eighteen thousand mounds, and it 
is doubtless safe to say that were all of them 
known we should find the number to exceed 
twenty thousand. Such vast figures are over- 
whelming when we consider what an enormous 
amount of work is represented by them. 

These mounds have formed a fruitful sub- 
ject of controversy. Few subjects connected 
with history have evoked more discussions or 



the condition of the people who built them. 
On the other hand other views have been ad- 
vanced concerning them. An examination of 
some of the principal facts and theories con- 
cerning these prehistoric remains cannot fail 
to be of interest to all those who have a re- 
gard for the past. 

In the first place, it is to be said, that these 
mounds are to be found in every county in 
this district. There seems to have been no 
part of Southeast Missouri where the people 
who constructed mounds did not live and 
work. It is true that they are more abundant 



K. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



in some parts of the section than iu others. 
It is pointed out by Houek, that the.y are most 
abundant on a line extending southwest along 
the border of the lowlands from Cape Girar- 
deau to Arkansas. Along this line they exist 
in great numbers. They are found also in 
large numbers in all the lowland region bor- 
dering the Mississippi. Another fact that 
concerns their distribution is that they were 
often constructed on the bank of creek or 
river. 

INIany of them are found, it is true, away 
from bodies of water, and yet so many of them 
are found in relation to water that we are 
justified in concluding that proximity to some 
body of water helped often to determine the 
location of the mounds. 

Another fact of interest in connection with 
them is that they vary greatly in size. Some 
of them are very large. One which stands 
about two miles south of the present site of 
New Madrid is nearly circular in form, hav- 
ing a diameter of about two hundred feet and 
is probably thirty feet high. It is surrounded 
by many smaller mounds. The largest mound 
in the section, if not in the state, is in Pemi- 
scot county. It is four hundred feet long, 
two hundred and fifty feet wide and thirty- 
five feet high. It has an approach from the 
south leading up to the top. It is higher at 
the north end than at the south by fifteen 
feet. There are many other large mounds in 
the same vicinity, some of them being more 
than two hundred feet in length. One of 
them is six hundred feet long and two hun- 
dred feet wide but only eight feet high. From 
these large mounds they vary in size to the 
very small ones only a few feet in length and 
in some cases only a few inches high. 

The mounds vary in shape as well as in size. 
Some of them are rudely conical. This is per- 
haps the most common form. Others are 



somewhat elliptical in form having one axis 
much longer Ihan the other. This is the case 
of the great mound in Pemiscot county. 
Others, still, are almost square at the base 
with tapering sides iu the form of a pyramid. 
The.se mounds however are very much less 
numerous than the conical ones. It is rather 
remarkable that few if any of the countless 
mounds here show any resemblance to bird 
or beast. In other parts of the country, where 
mounds exist in such numbers as here, some 
are usually found bearing unmistakable re- 
semblance to the form of some animal. This 
is true of the great serpent mound of Ohio. 
One mound in Pemiscot bears some resem- 
blance to the handle of a gourd. A few others 
in this part of the state bear some real oi* 
fancied resemblance, to some natural object! 
Most of them, however, have no such resem- 
blance. 

Another fact that is true of a very large 
number of these mounds is that they are earth 
mounds. In many parts of the country there 
are mounds w^hich have rude structures of 
stones at their base. There are some of this 
character in Southeast ^lissouri, but the great 
numlier are built entirely of earth. It is 
plainly evident, in many cases, just where! 
the earth which entered into the construc- 
tion of the mound was secured, for the de- 
pression or excavation made in taking up the 
earth is still to be seen in the immediate 
neighborhood of the earthwork itself. No 
matter who built them, nor for what purpose, 
it is still true that they were built of earth 
taken in most if not ail eases from near thei 
site of the mound itself. 

These mounds are often grouped in rather 
significant ways. They are as we have said 
often situated on the bank of a stream or 
pond. They are nearly always grouped to- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



gether iu numbers. Not many are solitary. 
Often one large mound is surrounded by many 
smaller ones. Sometimes a number of larger 
ones are found near together. It is the all 
but universal rule that they are not found 
singly. In some eases the group of mounds 
is surrounded by a wall. Mention is made 
elsewhere of a group in New filadrid county 
around which a wall of some height was con- 
structed. Beckwith, in his history of the In- 
dians of Missouri, mentions another similar 
group in Mississippi county \vhich is also in- 
closed within a wall. 

On Bayou St. John, about eighteen miles 
from New Madrid, is a group of interesting 
mounds. They lie on the west side of the 
baj'ou and are situated on the sloping ground 
that rises from the bayou to the prairie laud 
above. It seems that iu early times an area 
of about fifty acres was here inclosed by a 
wall. This wall may be traced in part 
yet, though much of it has disappeared. 
It is from three to five feet in height 
and about fifteen thick at the base. It 
is built of earth. Inside the inclosure made 
by this wall and near its western side is an 
oblong mound about three hundred feet long 
by one hundred in width and twenty feet 
high. Near this movind is a depression in the 
earth about ten feet in depth. "Within the 
memory of men now living this depression 
had very steep sides so that a ladder was 
necessary to reach its bottom. In the center 
of the inclosure is another mound, circular iu 
shape, seventy-five feet iu diameter and twent.y 
feet in height. Directly in line with these 
two is another circular mound, one hundred 
feet in diameter and twelve feet high. Sur- 
rounding this one are a number of smaller 
mounds, while still within the inclosure are a 
large number of shallow depressions about 
three feet in average depth. 



In connection with these uiounds there «as 
to be seen at one time a curious formation of 
the banks of the bayou. Conant, from whom 
this description is taken , says that small 
tongues of the land had been carried out into 
the water, from fifteen to thirty feet in length 
and ten to fifteen in width, with open spaces 
between. These are quite similar, says Con- 
ant, to the wharves of a seaport town. It is 
Conant 's theory that this bayou was once the 
channel of the Mississippi river, which no 
doubt it was, that with the recession of the 
waters of the river, a lake was formed and 
that upon the shores of this lake the builders 
of the mounds and the inclosing wall built 
these miniature walls for the convenience of 
handling their fishing boats. 

Conant fui'ther describes an excavation ly- 
ing about one mile from the mounds here de- 
scribed. This excavation is in the form of an 
oval, one hundred and fifty feet by seventy- 
five feet and six feet deep. It has an em- 
bankment around it. On the northern side 
this embankment is eight feet high while at 
the south it is only five. On the southern side 
there is a narrow opening in the wall and from 
this opening a curved dump or fill, such as are 
erected by railroads, leads to the swamp. At 
the end of this fill and within the swamp the 
dirt taken from the excavation was deposited, 
until a circular mound or wharf was raised 
about twenty feet in diameter and five feet 
high. The same opening and elevated way 
extends from the northern end of the excava- 
tion to the water. (Switzler's "History of 
Missouri.") 

In addition to the mounds which we have 
described there are a large number of other 
striking ones to be seen in several of the coun- 
ties. One of these is a group of mounds south 
of the present site of Ste. Genevieve. They 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



are found within the "Big Field" and are 
very evidently of artificial origin. Imme- 
diately around them the ground is perfectly 
level being alluvial soil. The mounds vary 
in size, the largest being about thirty feet in 
height and probably one hundred and fifty 
feet by one hundred feet. There are a num- 
ber of other smaller mounds some of these 
too being of considerable size. Most of these 
mounds have been partly explored and have 
yielded some material to the work of the ex 
plorers. 

In Dunklin county, just south of the town 
of Cottouplant on the main county road, there 
is a large mound probably thirty feet in 
height and one hundred feet in diameter at 
the base. This mound has been dug into at 
various times and considerable quantities of 
Indian relics taken from it. It was evidently 
a burial ground for there have been found 
vessels containing bones in the mound. This 
mound is the site of the substantial dwelling 
of C. V. Langdon. 

Still another group of mounds is on the 
main road between Bernie and Dexter not far 
from the line of the Cotton Belt Railway. 
Just as is true of all the others we have de- 
scribed, this group of mounds is found on per- 
fectly level ground. There are four of them 
varying in size from a small heap of earth to 
the largest which is perhaps twenty-five feet 
in height. Diiiferent persons have dug in this 
group of mounds at various times and in li)Ot) 
some persons living in Maiden opened the 
largest of these mounds and took from it a 
quantity of Indian relics. Among these relics 
are some specimens of Indian pottery that 
are unusually good. Tliere were found water 
bottles, pots and urns of a very high class 
of vForkmanship. Some of these pieces are in 
the possession of the IMalden High school. 



It is evident that these mounds present to 
the student of history and archasology a most 
fascinating problem. Here are thousands of 
mounds of earth, scattered throughout every 
county of this section, varying in size from 
the tiny one of a few feet in diameter and a 
few inches in height, to the giant earthwork 
hundreds of feet in dimensions large enough 
to be mistaken for natural hills, and yet bear- 
ing unmistakable evidence of artificial origin. 
These structures are grouped in some order, 
follow the water-courses, are inclosed some- 
times by walls of earth, are of such age in 
many cases as to bear upon their summits or 
sides great trees hundreds of years old. Who 
built these mounds? For what purpose were 
they built? These questions presented them- 
selves at once to those who first recognized 
their artificial character. 

An answer to these questions was sought in 
the mounds themselves. Many of them were 
excavated. They returned to the researches 
of those who dug in them very different re- 
wards. Some of them contained absolutely 
nothing at all. In many of them nothing was 
found except the evidences of fire. Burned 
pieces of wood and ashes constituted the en- 
tire contents of many of the mounds. But 
some of the mounds contained other and very 
interesting remains. Pottery of every char- 
acter and size, bones of persons and of beasts, 
implements and tools, and weapons of war, 
all these have been found in mounds. Most 
numerous of all are the mounds which con- 
tain bones and pottery. In some cases the 
bones are found in the earth itself, in others 
they are in vessels of pottery. Many people 
have engaged in the exploration of these 
mounds and many mounds have been opened. 
There are still others in this section which 
have not been touched as vet. These are for 



8 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the most part owned by persons who do not 
wish them disturbed. It is quite probable that 
there exist large numbers of mounds, some of 
them not yet known, which contain many in- 
teresting remains such as those mentioned. 

So many bones are found in some of the 
mounds that they are classified as burial 
mounds. In some of them there are evidences 
of two or more distinct burials, leading us to 
believe that after the first bodies were placed 
in the mound and covered, other bodies were 
then placed above and the mound carried on 
to its completed form. The condition of the 
bones leads to the belief that most of the 
bodies were denuded of flesh before being 
placed in the mounds, and that frequently 
only a part of the bones were buried at all. 
Often only the skull and some of the large 
bones of the legs are found. In some cases 
a large number of bones are found together, 
comprising parts of a number of skeletons. 
The probability is that in such cases a large 
number of bones were gathered together and 
then put into the mound without separation. 
The tools and implements sometimes found in 
the mounds are often associated with bones, 
showing them to have been buried together, 
and suggesting some connection between their 
presence and the rites of burial. The pottery 
found in these mounds is of various shapes 
and sizes. A few large urns containing bones 
have been found, other and smaller vessels 
seem to have been made to hold food or water. 

As has been said, these mounds and their 
contents have given rise to a great deal of dis- 
cussion and many theories have been ad- 
vanced to explain their origin. Archaeologists 
believed for a long time that they were the 
work of a vanished race whom they called the 
"Mound Builders." These people w-ere re- 
garded as having lived in this country prior 



to the coming of the Indians and to have been 
a much superior race. The grouping of the 
mounds has suggested to some the arrange- 
ment of cities and villages about a center 
which was a great capital. It was insisted 
that the Indians could not have built the 
mounds for a number of rea.sons. One reason 
was that their arrangement indicated an or- 
ganization, a nation with a capital. This or- 
ganized national life the Indians did not 
have; conseciuently they did not build the 
mounds. Another reason was that the In- 
dians could not have built mounds of such 
great size as some of the works. Still another 
advanced was that the age of the mounds pre- 
cludes the idea that they were the work of the 
Indians. 

The balance of opinion inclines however, at 
this time, to the idea that the mounds are the 
work of Indians. It is difficult to accept the 
hypothesis of the Mound Builders, with their 
high state of civilization, their organized gov- 
ernment and their great capital. There is not 
sufficient evidence of .such a state of civiliza- 
tion. The excavation of the mounds did not 
disclose any evidence at all of a high state 
of civilization supposed by those who believe 
the Mound Builders to have existed. There 
has been little or nothing found in the mounds 
which was not entirely familiar to the Indian 
of this country. No such finds were made in 
these mounds as in the somewhat similar ap- 
pearing mounds of the Tigris-Euphrates val- 
ley. There the spade of the archaeologist 
turned up all the external evidences of a great 
civilization. Mighty palaces and temples ; the 
walls and streets of great cities, libraries, in- 
scriptions: the record of long years of exist- 
ence and civilization, were all uncovered, bear- 
ing silent but unmistakable evidence to the ex- 
istence of mighty and wealthy nations. Con- 
trast this with the meager contents, the im- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



9 



plements of stone, the vessels of pottery, and 
the masses of bones found in the mounds of 
this country, and we see at once how strong is 
the negative argument against the existence 
of a great civilized race of people antedating 
the Indians. It is true that in Central Amer- 
ica some ruins are found approaching the con- 
structions unearthed in the East, but such is 
not the case in North America. We may 
wonder at the industry that reared the 
mounds of such great size, we find some things 
difficult to explain in any way about tliem. 
but we cannot believe them to have been the 
work of civilized people. 

On the other hand there are reasons for be- 
lieving that they are the work of the Indians. 
One of these is the fact of their arrangement. 
The Indian, for many reasons, selected most 
frequently as a site for his habitation or vil- 
lage, the bank of a stream or lake. This is the 
situation of many of the mounds. Another 
evidence of the Indian origin of the mounds 
is the fact that the utensils and implements 
found in some of them are similar to those 
used by the Indians. Yet another is the fact 
that the Indians of this country were ac- 
customed to practice mound burial. They 
placed the dead body on a scaffold or in a tree 
until it was denuded of flesh, then gathered 
up the bones and placed them in a mound. 
That is evidently what the builders of the 
mounds did. The age of some of the mounds 
also indicates their Indian origin. Many of 
the mounds, it is true, are very old. On the 
other hand many of them bear unmistakable 
evidence of having been built in recent times. 
The mound described by Conant near Bayou 
St. John in New Madrid county, cannot be 
very old for within very recent times the pit, 
from which the earth was taken for the 
mound, had very steep sides: so steep, in fact. 



that a ladder was needed to descend into it. 
This would not have been the case if the 
mound had not been of recent origin. The 
natural action of the elements would have 
I^artly filled it up and reduced the steepness 
of its sides. In fact this has happened within 
the memory of those living when Conant 
wrote. 

These facts, while not conclusive, point to 
the Indians as the builders of the mounds. 
There are other facts pointing in the same 
direction. Jlany of the mounds contain 
traces of what seems to be the mud plastering 
from a wall constructed of canes or sticks. 
Such w'alls were built by the Indians of the 
Mississippi valley having been copied, doubt- 
less, from the Indians of the southwest. 

It has been objected to this theory that 
some of the mounds are too old. It is pointed 
out that man}' of them nuist have been in ex- 
istence for centuries before the coming of the 
white men, for at the time when DeSoto was 
here these mounds had trees growing on them. 
This objection assumes the Indians to have 
lived here but a short time. That is not 
known to be true. On the contrary we have 
strong reason for believing that they must 
have lived in North America for many hun- 
dreds of years. If they have not been here 
for a long time, it is difficult or even impos- 
sible to explain how they became scattered 
over the great continent. They were found 
to be living in practically every part of this 
country. No matter how they first reached 
the continent it required a long period of 
years for them to people such a vast expanse 
of territory. 

It is objected too that the Indians had no 
reason for building the mounds. We may not 
understand just why they were built by In- 
dians, but neither do we know why they were 
built by ;Mound Builders or anyone else. It 



10 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



is just as difficult to explain the motive of 
their construction, if we assume them to have 
been reared by the Mound Builders, as it is if' 
we ascribe them to the Indians. To imagine 
another race of people does not lessen the dif- 
ficulty of explaining the reason for their con- 
struction. 

It is not, however, imijossible to give a rea- 
sonable explanation of the existence of these 
mound.s on the theorj' that they were the work 
of the Indians. When the ancient Assyrians 
began to rear buildings, they put them on 
mounds of earth and constructed them of sun- 
dried brick, and tliis, in spite of the fact that 
their country contained many hills suitable 
for building purposes and plenty of wood and 
stone whicli might have been utilized for 
building. The explanation of these remark- 
able facts is found when we remember that 
they were imitating the work of an older 
civilized people, the Babylonians. These 
Babylonians had neither hills as sites, nor 
wood or stone as building materials. They 
found substitutes for them. The Assyrians, 
who began later, simply copied what they had 
seen others do. It is higlilj' probable that the 
Indians who build mounds were simply imitat- 
ing a form of village arrangement with which 
they had become familiar elsewhere. Per- 
haps in the southwest, where the Pueblo In- 
dians idaced their dwellings on the top of 
cliffs and utilized the tall rocks for lookout 
stations, there was formed the notion that the 
suitable place for a dwelling was on an eleva- 
tion. The Indians who went out from there 
carried this idea into places where no natural 
elevation was to be found. In lieu of this 
they reared artificial mounds. In time it 
came to be accepted that a mound of earth 
was the proper place for the location of the 
house or temple. This idea, in turn, was car- 



ried from the alluvial plains where it was 
formed into the hills where again mounds 
were reared. 

In considering this, which is advanced 
simply as a theory which may explain the 
building of mounds, it should be remembered 
that mounds are not found in all parts of the 
country. A careful investigation may dis- 
close the fact that they are found in those 
parts of the country where the inhabitants 
had some connections with the south and 
southwest. 

What seems the best and most reasonable 
explanation of the existence of the mounds is 
this. The Indians selected as a site for their 
village the vicinity of some stream or lake. 
They then erected mounds. One was for the 
house of the chief; another, sometimes pyr- 
amidal in shape for the temple ; another was 
for the burial of the dead ; still another 
formed a station for the priests and orators 
of the tribe, and one was for the purpose of 
a lookout from which to observe the approach 
of enemies. The size of the mounds depended 
in part upon the number of Indians in the 
village and in part upon their inclination and 
indiTstry. In the course of years the dwel- 
lings and temples, of frail constriiction as 
they were, disappeared, leaving only a heap of 
earth to puzzle those who found them. 

The contents of these mounds, as we have 
said, are interesting as being the record of 
the degree of civilization of the people who 
built them. Many of the mounds have yielded 
interesting and curious returns to the spade of 
the investigator. Hundreds of mounds have 
been explored more or less completely. The 
relics taken from them have been carried to 
museums and the collections of private indi- 
viduals in many parts of the country. There 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



11 



are a great many of these relics owned in 
Southeast IMissouri. Most of them are scat- 
tered, but there are several good collections. 

Perhaps the largest collection of Indian 
relics in Southeast Missouri, if not in the en- 
tire state, is that owned by Thomas Beckwith, 
of Charleston. This collection has been gath- 
ered by Jlr. Beckwith through a period of 
more than thirty years, and now comprises 
about ten thousand different pieces ; some of 
them of the every finest workmanship and of 
the greatest value. Practically all of these 
were found in Mississippi county and by far 
the larger number on Mr. Beckwith 's own 
farm. This collection is described and pic- 
tured in his book, "Indians of North Amer- 
ica. ' ' There are a number of other collections, 
most of fliem smaller, owned by residents of 
this section. Louis Houck in his book, "His- 
tory of Missouri," described some unique 
pieces which he has seen, one of which, a pipe 
bearing a carved head, has disappeared. An- 
other of these was a statuette, the figure of a 
woman carved in sandstone, about eight 
inches in height and bearing considerable re- 
semblance to the Venus de Melos. Unfortu- 
nately this remarkable piece of sculpture has 
been lost. Another of these unique pieces is 
a figure in the collection of Mr. Beckwith. It 
represents some animal and is also carved 
from sandstone and evidences considerable 
skill on the part of the artist. 

There are other collections not so large as 
this, but containing many things of interest. 
Some collections which formerly existed have 
been broken iip and the pieces dispersed. It 
seems unfortunate that at some central point 
in this part of the state, there might not be 
gathered a great and complete collection of 
Indian relies of this section to be perma- 
nently retained as a memorial for all time of 
the presence of the aborigines. 



Besides these collections having a general 
interest, there have been found occasionally 
certain pieces which have been deemed of 
great importance owing to the fact that they 
were diit'erent from the usual character of 

Indian relics. In there was found on a 

farm just south of ]\Ialden a very remarkable 
series of Indian plates. Ray Groomes while 
plowing on the farm of Mrs. Baldwin, turned 
up a piece of metal which attracted his atten- 
tion by being caught on the point of his plow. 
On examination he found that there had been 
thrown out of the furrow some metal plates. 
He searched about and picked up eight of 
these plates which had been buried to a depth 
of about sixteen inches. There was nothing to 
mark the spot and he is confident that there 
was nothing else buried in connection with the 
plates. He dug about hoping to find some 
other relics, but the only thing that he dis- 
covered was a kind of white powder in the 
place where the plates had been lying. This 
powder he did not preserve as he could make 
nothing of it at all. The plates were taken 
by him to the town of Maiden and offered for 
sale. They were finally bought by A. S. Davis 
and kept by him for a time, and then dis- 
posed of to J. M. Wulfing, of St. Louis, who 
now owns them. These plates ai'e the most 
remarkable of the Indian relics foimd in 
Southeast Missouri. They are of thin copper 
and represent what seemed to be eagles hav- 
ing faces of men. One of them seems to be a 
double eagle. They at once suggest, from 
their appearance and workmanship, the work 
of the Indians of Mexico. There is nothing 
else like them to be found in the Mississippi 
valley. How or why they were put into the 
place where they were discovered are ques- 
tions which cannot now be answered. No one 
who has examined them has been able to solve 



12 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the mystery of their presence in this part of 
America. 

There existed in Southeast Missouri two or 
three other unusually good collections of In- 
dian relies. Dr. G. W. Travis, of Cape Girar- 
deau, at one time owned one of these large 
collections. Ou his removal from Cape Girar- 



deau the collection was broken up and sold, 
part of it coming into the possession of the 
State Normal School. Another large collec- 
tion was owned by Dr. L. P. Ruff. This col- 
lection has been removed from this part of the 
state. 



CHAPTER II 

ADVENTURES OF DE SOTO 

Is Made Governor of Florida — Lands in Florida — Discovers the Mississippi — Place of 
Crossing — Direction of March — The Casquins — Religious Service — Attack on Cap- 
AHAS — Search for Salt — Probable Situation of Capaha Camp — Return to the South 
— Quigate — Location of Caligoa — Further Travels and Death — Interest Concerning 
Exact Route. 



It seems probable that De Soto was the first 
white man to set foot on the soil of Missouri. 
Certain difficulties are in the way of an exact 
determination of the question of his visit to 
this state. One of these is the somewhat ro- 
mantic style of the Spanish chroniclers who 
wrote the earliest accounts of his journey ; an- 
other is the difficulty of telling, from their ac- 
counts, just what places are referred to. It 
is no easy matter to identify with certainty, 
from the description given of places visited, 
where these places are. Yet, while we may 
not be sure, it seems highlj' probable that the 
travels of De Soto and his companions brought 
them into the Southeast Missouri. 

Ferdinand De Soto was one of the most 
daring and able of the Spanish soldiers of for- 
tune who explored the continent of America. 
He was with Avila on the isthmus of Darien, 
with Cordoba in Nicaragua; explored, inde- 
pendently, the coasts of Guatemala and Yuca- 
tan, seeking doubtless for a waterway to the 
west. In 1532, he accompanied Pizarro to 
Peru and was one of the boldest members of 
the remarkable band of men that overturned 
the empire of the Incas. From these expedi- 



tions De Soto returned to Spain with a large 
fortune, apparently willing to settle down to 
a life of ease. In 1537, however, he was ap- 
pointed by Charles V, governor of Florida 
and Cuba and in May, 1539, he landed at 
Tampa bay, Florida, with an expedition for 
the exploration of that country. He had with 
him a well-equipped army of six hundred 
men, the largest and most complete expedi- 
tion that Spain had sent to the New World. 
His purpose was to explore and conquer the 
country. Especially was he desirous of find- 
ing the great and populous cities which the 
imagination of the Spaniards, stimulated by 
their experiences in Mexico and Peru, pic- 
tured as existing in the great and unknown 
continent to the north. Strange stories were 
told by the Indians of these cities and return- 
ing wanderers of the Spanish had heard of 
Quivira, a great and rich city where there 
was gold enough to satisfy even the Spaniards. 

De Soto plunged into the wilderness with 
his little armj' and for nearly three years pur- 
sued his journey through the unexplored wil- 
derness of North America. For a time \\r 
was in the Carolinas; then he explored the 



13 



14 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Alabama river; then he came to the great 
river, the Mississippi, and crossed it. From 
this time on his wanderings have an interest 
for the student of Missouri history, for, from 
a careful study of the narrative of his further 
wandei'ings, we are led to the couclusiou that 
he penetrated the territory of the present 
state of Missouri. It is not possible to deter- 
mine with absolute accuracy the precise point 
where he crossed the Mississippi. Some stu- 
dents of journey, among them Bancroft, Nut- 
tall and Schoolcraft, think he must have 
crossed at the Chickasaw Bluffs, near the 
present site of Memphis. Othei's, however, in- 
cluding Elliot, Winsor and Martin, consider 
it more probable that he crossed lower down. 
Houck, reasoning from the fact stated by 
Garcillasso that heavy timber existed where 
they crossed the river, concludes that the 
crossing must have been at a place of alluvial 
soil and consequently not at Chickasaw Bluffs, 
which were not then timbered. He thinks the 
crossing was at some point between the mouth 
of the St. Francois and the mouth of the Ar- 
kansas, and in view of all the facts this seems 
the most reasonable supposition. 

Having crossed the river the expedition 
wandered for four days through a flat coun- 
try intersected with swamps. On the fifth 
day from their crossing they reached a high 
ridge from whose summit they saw a river. 
Upon its banks was an Indian town sur- 
rounded by fields of maize. To this place the 
march of the party had been to the north. 
Garcillasso says they kept "northward" or 
"marched directly to the north." This prob- 
ably means that after crossing the Mississippi 
they did not strike into the forest away from 
it, but continued their journey in a general 
direction parallel to the course of the river 
itself. It was quite natural for them to do 
this, because we know that the trails or traces 



of the Indians were accustomed to follow the 
general course of the river. If, then, De Soto 
after the crossing, continued to the north near 
or along the bank of the Mississippi, we may 
inquire as to the location of the ridge which 
the expedition climbed and from which was 
seen another river with a village encircled 
with fields of maize. 

It seems highly probable that this ridge was 
what is now called Crowley's ridge, one of 
the offshoots of the Ozark range which con- 
tinues into Arkansas, forming a divide be- 
tween the alluvial bottom of the St. Francois 
and that of the White and the Cache. This 
ridge terminates at the Mississippi river not 
far from Helena, Arkansas, and along its 
eastern border flows the St. Francois. Crow- 
ley's ridge is the only ridge on the west side 
of the river between the Ohio and the Arkan- 
sas. If the expedition then proceeded north 
from their point of crossing, and that point 
was south of the mouth of the Ai-kansas as 
we believe it to have been, then it was to this 
ridge they came. From its summit the course 
of the St. Francois could be seen, and in the 
alluvial soil at its base would likely be found 
the fields of maize mentioned by the chron- 
iclers of the expedition. 

De Soto and his men spent some time in the 
village which they had seen form the summit 
of the ridge resting and recovering from the 
effects of their long march through the wil- 
derness. These Indians are called Casquins 
by the members of the expedition. They were 
probably a part of the tribe of the Kaskas- 
kias. They later made their home on the Illi- 
nois where they were found by Joliet and 
Marquette. It was not an unusual thing for 
the Indian tribes to change their place of 
residence, however. In fact, this was a habit 
that marked them, so that we may believe that 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



15 



the Indians found by De Soto dwelling on the 
St. Francois, later moved to the country of the 
Illinois. These Indians received De Soto and 
his men with great hospitality showing the 
utmost friendliness and desire to please. They 
opened their houses, such as they were, for 
the use of De Soto's men, and provided pro- 
visions for men antl beasts. 

The Indians of this village told De Soto 
that their great chief, or cacique, resided 
some distance to the north. Indeed two mes- 
sengers from this chief came to the village 
during the stay of the expedition and invited 
De Soto to visit the cacique. This he deter- 
mined to do. He marched north along the 
banks of the Mississippi river, finding higher 
ground than formerly and the richest alluvial 
soil they had yet seen. This soil was a sandy 
loam, black in color and very rich. It was 
covered with forests of timber in places, di- 
versified with prairies and broken in places 
by swamps. The pecan tree, the wild plum 
and the mulberry were everywhere abundant, 
while the fields abounded in maize. After 
two days of marching they came to the chief 
town of the country where the cacique of the 
Casquins resided. It seems evident that this 
ridge up which they marched was the sandy 
ridge that runs parallel to the river from near 
the mouth of the St. Francois to the hills of 
the Ozark region near Cape Girardeau. It 
has the same soil as that described by De 
Soto's men, the trees are the same, and it 
runs in the direction of the course taken by 
them. On this ridge are situated many flour- 
ishing towns in southeast Missouri, to-day. 
Among them are Caruthersville, New^ Madrid 
and Charleston. Then, of course, it was a 
wilderness broken by the small clearings of 
the Indians and traversed bv the celebrated 



trace that led to the great crossing of the 
river near Commerce. 

The expedition was received by the In- 
dians with great kindness. The chief invited 
De Soto to lodge in his house. This dwelling 
stood on a high artificial mound and con- 
sisted of a number of houses for the accommo- 
dation of his numerous wives and their chil- 
dren. This invitation was declined by De 
Soto and he and most of his men were lodged 
by the natives in arbors or booths of brush. 
Presents were exchanged and the utmost good 
feeling prevailed. 

On the fourth day of their stay occurred 
an incident which attested the impression 
made by the expedition upon the savages. On 
the morning of that day there appeared be- 
fore De Soto the cacique, accompanied by 
his principal followers, who addressed the 
leader of the Spaniards in these words: 
"Senor, as you are superior to us in prowess 
and surpass us in arms, we likewise believe 
that your God is better than our god. We 
supplicate you to pray to your God that our 
fields, which are now parched may receive 
rain and our crops be saved." 

In response to this request, De Soto caused 
a large pine tree to be procured, and from it 
the carpenter of the expedition constructed a 
large cross. This cross was erected, and, 
there in the midst of the forest, a solemn pro- 
cession was formed which marched to the 
cross, and while the wondering Indians looked 
on in astonishment the services of the church 
were performed and a supplication sent up to 
God for the needed rain. The Indians seemed 
profoundly impressed by the solemnity of 
the occasion. Many of them knelt upon the 
ground, some were moved to tears by the serv- 
ice, and others still inquired for an expla- 



16 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



nation of the im'steries which they beheld for 
the tirst time. The solemn service was closed 
with the singing of a Te Deum and the forest 
aisles echoed for the tirst time with the sound 
of men's voices lifted up in the service of 
song to God. In the middle of the night the 
long drought was broken and a copious rain 
fell upon the earth. 

Such was the first religious service of the 
Christian church held in Missouri. Speaking 
of it Irving says:* "More than three cen- 
turies ago the cross, the type of our beautiful 
religion, was planted on the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi, and its silent forests wakened bj- the 
Christian's hymn of gratitude and praise. 
The effect was vivid but transitory. The 
voice cried in the wilderness and reached and 
was answered by every heart, but it died away 
and was forgotten; and was not to be heard 
in that savage region again for many gener- 
ations. It was as if a lightning's gleam had 
broken for a moment upon a benighted world, 
startling it with sudden effulgence, only to 
leave it in ten-fold more gloom. The real 
dawning was yet afar off from the benighted 
valley of the Mississippi." 

That the place of this first service was witli- 
in the limits of Missouri we may not doubt. 
It is impossible to fix the precise spot. The 
high hill, doubtless an artificial mound, has 
probably disappeared. The pine tree, which 
was made into a cross, was probably a ej'press 
which resembles the pine in some respects, 
and might have been found anywhere in a 
vast extent of territory. From these things, 
then, it is impossible to determine the place of 
this Indian village, but, judging from the 
direction of their travel, from the distance 
probably covered in the two days of their 
march, they were within the limits of Mis- 
souri, perhaps according to the opinion of 
*" Conquest of Florida," p. 114. 



Xuttall near the present site of New Madrid. 
At an early day a mound stood near the town. 
This mound has been swept away by the river, 
but it may well have been the scene of this 
service. 

On the next morning after the service and 
the rain, De Soto made ready to continue his 
journey to the north. He was still led on- 
ward by the hopes which had brought him 
into the wilderness. Great cities were yet to 
be found, gold was to be discovered. These 
things lay in the distance before him, as he 
fondly thought. From time to time, during 
their journey, they had found in the posses- 
sion of the Indians various trinkets and other 
things made of gold ; and these served to con- 
firm them in their belief that somewhere in 
the mighty and unconquered wilderness there 
was much of the yellow metal waiting for the 
fortunate men who might be led to find it. 
And so to seek gold and adventure, after the 
days of rest and pleasure with their new 
friends of the Casquin Indians, they made 
ready to depart. 

The cacique, however, a wily savage of 
about fifty years of age, had no idea of al- 
lowing his good and great friends to depart 
without conferring on him other tokens of 
their friendship and power. He had been 
greatly impressed with the evident power of 
the Spaniards and meditated on turning it to 
his own account. 

For many .years enmity had existed between 
the Casquins or Kaskaskias and the Capa- 
has, a tribe living further to the north. 
Lately the fortunes of war had inclined to 
the side of the Capahas, and the cacique of 
the Casquins and his people had been com- 
pelled to accept the yoke of their enemies and 
to pay tribute and render service to them. 
In the undoubted prowess and power of his 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



17 



new-found friends, the Spaniards, the eaciiine 
saw a means by which he and his people 
might be liberated from the power of the 
Capahas. Accordingly when De Soto was 
ready to depart toward the north the ca- 
cique begged leave to accompany him with 
two bodies of his people. ' ' For, ' ' he said, ' ' the 
way is long and arduous. Roads are to be 
cut. the swamps are to be crossed, and the 
baggage of the army to be carried through the 
rough woods of the way." Accordingly, De 
Soto was accompanied by three thousand In- 
dians, w'ho carried the luggage of the expe- 
dition, and by a body of five thousand war- 
riors, gay with plumes and war-paint and 
armed with all the weapons of savage war- 
fare. Of course we are to understand that 
these numbers have been greatly exaggerated 
in the telling by the chroniclers of the expe- 
dition. No such numbers of savages could 
have been gathered together in that region. 
Still we are to suppose that many accom- 
panied the expedition, perhaps the whole 
force which the cacique could muster, for he 
meant, now to avenge himself on his hated 
enemies, the Capahas. 

On taking up the march, the cacique took 
the lead with his men, dividing them into 
squadrons and marching in what the Spanish 
called good military array. The reason given 
for the arrangement of men was that the 
Indians were to clear the roads and prepare 
the camps in advance of the expedition. On 
the third day of the march they came to a 
miry swamp which contained within its cen- 
ter a lake or gulf which was probably a part 
of the old channel of the Mississippi. This 
swamp discharged itself into the river and 
was about half a bowshot across and was deep 
and .sluggish. Over this the Indians con- 
structed a bridge of logs, over which the men 
passed while the horses of the expedition 



swam. This lake with a miry swamp about 
its edge was ciuite probably one of the slug- 
gish streams which break the sandy ridge up 
which De Soto was pursuing his march. This 
ridge extends through the counties of New 
Madrid, Mississippi, and Scott. It is broken 
at a number of places by streams which carry 
part of the drainage from the basin of Little 
river to the IMississippi. It is impossible to 
know which one of these is meant from the 
early accounts, but it is evident that one of 
them is referred to, if we accept the general 
course of his march as here outlined. That 
march must have carried him from near the 
site of New Madrid across lakes, bayous, 
swamps, along the sandy ridge through the 
edge of ]\Iississippi county, east of tlie hills 
in Scott county, to the swamp lying south- 
west of Cape Girardeau. 

Having crossed on the improvised bridge of 
of logs, De Soto and his men found them- 
selves on what is described as meadows. 
Here they encamped, charmed by the beauty 
of the landscape, the luxuriance of the foli- 
age and the abundance of the flowers. From . 
this place he continued his .journey north foi' 
two days. On the third day he came to some 
elevated ridges from which he saw the forti- 
fied camp of the chief of the Capahas. This 
town was itself on a high hill or mound. "It 
was nearly encircled b.v a deep moat fifty 
paces in breadth ; and where the moat did not 
extend, was defended by a strong wall of 
plaster and timber such as has already been 
described. The moat was filled with water 
by a canal cut from the Mississippi river, 
which was three leagues distant. The canal 
was deep and sufficiently wide for two canoes 
to pass abreast without touching one another's 
paddles. The canal and moat were filled with 
fish, so as to supply all the wants of the army 



18 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\nSSOURI 



and village, without any apparent diininntion 
of the number. ' ' * 

It is evident that, in thus describing the 
situation and character of the Indian camp, 
the Spaniards were transferring to America, 
as they often did, the scenes and customs of 
Europe. The moat and canal to supply it 
were doubtless nothing more than natural 
channels, perhaps a bayou or former channel 
of the river. The Indians of America seem 
never to have constructed castles defended 
by moats, and while the situation of the Ca- 
paha village may have resembled the artificial 
moats with which the Spaniards were fa- 
miliar, they were not constructed by the hand 
of man. It would be interesting to know the 
exact site of this camp of Capaha Indians for 
these were among the most interesting of all 
the Indians encountered by De Soto and his 
party ; but it is not possible to determine 
from the description given what the site of 
the camp was. If we have been correct in 
our conjectures as to the general route fol- 
lowed thus far in the wanderings, then the 
camp thus reached must have been not far 
. from the neighborhood of Cape Girardeau. 
Of course many places in the foothills of the 
Ozarks might fit in a general way the de- 
scription here given, but two eircumstanees 
in addition to the course pursued in reaching 
this place lead us to believe that it was in the 
vicinity mentioned. One of these is a jour- 
ney, hereafter described, of a part of the ex- 
pedition to a stream, which from the pres- 
ence of salt we suspect to have been Saline 
creek in Ste. Genevieve county. The other is 
the fact that one of the varieties of fish de- 
scribed as having been present in the moat 
and canal was the spadefish or Platyrostra 
edentula, sometimes known as the shovel-bill 
cat. The latter fish is characteristic of the 
* Irving, "Conquest of Florida," p. 117. 



regions we have mentioned and its presence 
lends weight to the theory that the place of 
the Capahas was at least within the limits of 
Southeast IMissouri. This town of the Capahas 
contained, according to the account of the 
Spaniards, about five hundred houses, and 
was situated nearly three leagues from the 
IMississippi river. 

The chief of the Capahas had received no- 
tice through his scouts of the coming of the 
Casquins with their new allies, and on their 
near approach to the town, being unable, be- 
cause of the absence of his warriors, to de- 
fend it, he escaped in a canoe, making his 
way down the canal to the river and taking 
refuge on an island in the vicinity. All who 
could, followed him to this retreat, others 
fled into the woods, while many remained in 
the village and waited with alarm the ap- 
proach of the Casquins. The cacique of tlic 
Casquins, marching with his men in advance 
of the expedition, entered the Capaha villauo 
and proceeded to take vengeance for former 
defeats. All the men who were found were 
immediately killed and scalped, the women 
and children were taken as prisoners, among 
them Ijeing two wives of the cacique who had 
failed to flee with him, owing to the confu- 
sion and alarm into which the village was 
thrown by the approach of their enemies. 
These women are described by the Spaniards 
as being young and beautiful — a description 
which we may be pardoned for doubting, for 
it was their invariable custom to find beau- 
tiful women among the Indians, just as they 
found among them almost all the manners 
and customs with which they were acquainted 
at home. The houses of the Capahas were 
plundered, and even the dead were not safe 
from insult and disturbance. Within the 
public square there was situated a mausoleum 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



19 



or burial place in which had been deposited 
the remains of the ancestors of the cliief, tlie 
great men of the tribe and the tro])hies won 
by them in war. The Casquins broke open 
this sacred place, stripped arms and trophies 
from the walls, heaped insult and abuse on 
the dead bodies contained within it, trampled 
upon the bones and scattered them upon the 
ground. They replaced the heads of .slain 
enemies, some of them C'asciuins, witli these 
of freshly slain Capahas. There was no in- 
sult or indignity which tlie minds of savages 
could devise which was not put upon all that 
the Capahas held sacred. 

Now these outrages were committed, we 
are told, before the arrival of De Soto and 
his men. They were in the rear and came to 
the village only in time to save it from utter 
destruction as the maddened Casquins were 
proceeding to fire the houses. De Soto re- 
sented these actions, for he was impressed 
with the evidences of the power of the Capa- 
has and learning of the presence of the chief 
on the island to which he had fled, he sent 
envoys there to disavow the actions of his 
savage allies, and to beg for a friendly alli- 
ance with him. These envoys were not re- 
ceived by the Capaha chief, and De Soto 
learned that he was making every eit'ort to 
gather warriors that he miglit take vengeance 
for the outrages inflicted upon his village. 
Accordingly De Soto prepared to attack tlie 
Capahas on their island. He caused to be 
gathered all the available canoes and, filling 
these with his own men and the warriors of 
the Casquins, he made an attack on the 
island. He found that the Capahas had for- 
tified themselves strongly, and it was only 
with great difficulty that he was able to effect 
a landing at all. The Casquins were unwill- 
ing to fight and, after a brief engagement, 
retreated to their canoes leaving the brunt of 



tlie battle to fall upon tlie Spaniards. It was 
only after a desperate struggle that De Soto 
and his men were able to retreat from the 
island and make their way back to the village. 
In fact, it seems they would not have been 
able to embark in their canoes at all had not 
the Capaha chief ordered his men not to press 
their attack upon the Spaniards and allowed 
them to depart. 

De Soto was very )iuieh displeased because 
of the cowardly desertion of the Casquins and 
when on the following day envoys arrived 
from the Capahas, asking for peace and sig- 
nifying the desire of their cacique to visit 
liira. he determined to accept the otfered 
friendsliip and agree to an amnesty despite 
the objections of the Casquins. 

The cacique of the Cascpiins feeling the 
displeasure of De Soto and fearing to lose the 
lielp of such powerful allies as the Spaniards 
had proved themselves to be, attempted to 
appease the Adelantado (as De Soto is called 
by the chroniclers) by gifts of skins and even 
of his daughter as handmaid. In spite of 
these evidences of friendship, De Soto was 
distrustful of the cacique and contrasted his 
conduct most unfavorably with that of the 
Capaha, and he caused the cacique to send 
most of his warriors home. 

On the day appointed the Capaha chief, ac- 
companied by a hundred of his warriors, 
dressed in liandsome skins and beautiful 
plumes came to pay his court to De Soto. He 
proved to be a young man of noble and splen- 
did hearing with handsome face and physique. 
He was vastly moved by the indignities which 
had been otfered to his dead, and his first care 
was to gather the scattered bones, and return 
them reverently to their resting place. He 
then sought De Soto who came forth to meet 
him accompanied by the Casquin. 

He brought presents for the Adelantado, 



20 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



and offered himself as a vassal, but refused to 
have anything to do with Casquin, except to 
threaten him with a day of retribution, until 
upon the interposition of De Soto he finally 
agreed to settle his quarrel with him. 

In this village the expedition remained for 
several days as the situation was pleasant, 
the Indians friendly, and the supi)lies of food 
and of skins for elothing were very grateful 
to the members of the expedition who were 
worn and ragged from their long wanderings. 
It was De Soto's wish to find out about the 
country he liad not visited. To this end he 
made many inquiries of the Indians concern- 
ing the country to the north and its inhabit- 
ants. He was told that much of the country 
was' barren, but hearing that salt was to be 
obtained in that direction, he sent de Silvera 
and Morena in search of it. The Spaniards 
had suffered much on the expedition from 
lack of salt. Many of those who had died on 
the way declared that they thought the.y 
would recover if only they could have meat 
with plenty of salt on it. At the end of eleven 
days, the men who had been detached re- 
turned, almost starved, having passed through 
a thinly settled and sterile country where 
they found little to eat except roots and wild 
plums. The.v brought with them, however, 
supplies of salt and some copper. It is ciuite 
probable that these men had reached Saline 
creek for the Indians of later, and doubtless 
of that time also, were accustomed to secure 
salt from the banks of that stream. 

From this place the expedition returned to 
the village of the Casquins where they re- 
mained for four or five days, and then De 
Soto determined to travel to the westward. 
He was led to this decision by the reports of a 
country called Quigate. On leaving the vil- 
lage of the Casquins he travelled one da.v's 
march and then rested at another village of 



the Casquins near a river, which in all prob- 
ability was Little river. Crossing this river, 
he found himself upon another ridge, that 
which extends through Dunklin county, and 
after travelling for about four days he 
reached Quigate. His march carried him 
through a fruitful country where large fields 
of maize were to be seen and all the evidences 
of a large Indian population. Quigate, the 
largest town visited by the Spaniards since 
leaving Florida, was perhaps at the lower end 
of the ridge over which they had been travel- 
ing, near the line which separates Dunklin 
county from Arkansas. From here De Soto 
turned to the northwest to reach a town 
called Caligoa, where he expected, frorii what 
he had been told, he would find stores of gold 
and other precious metals. One difference is 
noted by the chroniclers in the march that 
was made to Caligoa and tliat is that no paths 
were found, but that the expedition made its 
way through the unljroken wilderness. We 
may infer from this, what we should conclude 
otherwise, that the former marchings had fol- 
lowed the trails or traces made by the In- 
dians. The country from Quiquate to Cali- 
goa is described as marshy and swampy with 
morasses and lagoons, and then as hilly and 
mountainous. Garcilla-sso says tliey marched 
forty leagues before reaching Caligoa. They 
found this town to be on a small river. Here 
the.v remained for some days. They were told 
that to north a distance of six days' journey 
the country was level, devoid of trees, and 
covered with ])uffalo. We ma.v only .speculate 
as to the location of Caligoa. If we are cor- 
rect in conjecturing Quiguate to have been on 
lower end of the ridge running through Dunk- 
lin county, and the march of De Soto was 
toward the north and west, he probably fol- 
lowed the ridge to the low hills in the neigh- 
borhood of Campbell, crossed these into the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



21 



lowlands oT Stoddard and Butler county, then 
reached the foothills of the Ozarks and fol- 
lowed them to near the headwaters of the 
St. Francois or the Black, in the granite hills 
of St. Francois county. This is the conclusion 
of most of the men who have made a study of 
the probable course of De Soto's wanderings, 
among them Nuttall, Schoolcraft, and Houck. 
Some others, however, conclude that he was 
farther west, perhaps in Southwest Missouri. 
From Caligoa the expedition turned to the 
south and west seeking now for the Cayas or 
Kansas Indians, and with this part of his 
journey he is carried from out the territory of 
Southeast Missouri. With his subsequent 
wanderings, the sufferings and hardships he 
encountered, and his tragic fate we are not 
directly concerned. Suffice it to say that 
after long wanderings he reached the Missis- 
sippi near the mouth of the Red river, sick, 
broken in mind and body. Here, to his con- 
sternation, he was told that the lower reaches 
of the river instead of being populated with 
towns and settlements where he coiild find 
for his men food and shelter, were practically 
uninhabited and impassable, that he might 
hope for little help or guidance there and 
less of food and other supplies. And, so, at 
last, after three years of wanderings, after 
untold hardships, after having surmounted 
countless obstacles, and traversed enormous 
reaches of the great continent where the foot 
of white men had never before trod, after hav- 
ing inflicted untold suffering and cruelty on 
the helpless Indians, his dreams of wealth and 
conquest all dissipated, having conquered no 
great cities and found no El Dorado, the 
spirit of the great Conquistador, the com- 
panion of Avila and Cortez was at last broken. 
In the midst of the savage forest, surrounded 
by hostile Indians, far from his home, dis- 



appointed, and despairing, he lay down to 
die. At night, by the dim light of torches, 
clad in full armor, his broken and wasted 
body was lowered into the great river which 
he discovered, and the long wanderings, the 
brilliant hopes, the troubled, cruel life of De 
Soto were at an end. 

It will always be a matter of regret to those 
who are interested in the history of their 
country, that the exact route of De Soto can- 
not be traced with certainty. Surely we 
should be glad if we might but know what 
his exact course through Southeast Missouri 
was. It would be interesting to retrace the 
route over which he wandered, to compare 
the places now, with the description given of 
them by the Spaniards who followed him. 
But such certainty is no longer possible. 
Time has swept away the last traces of his 
expedition. The very surface of the earth has 
changed in the nearly four hundred years that 
have elapsed. The great river has changed 
its course from side to side of the wide allu- 
vial bottom since then, sweeping away the 
very ground, a mighty earthquake has 
changed some of the topography of the coun- 
try through which he passed, mighty forests 
have sprung up, all the forces of nature have 
combined through the years to change the 
character of the surface of the earth. And so 
it is that we may never be sure of the way 
over which he passed. Time was wlien it 
might have been ascertained. Doubtless when 
the first Missouri settlements were formed at 
Ste. Genevieve, New Madrid, St. Louis, Cape 
Girardeau, traces of that first historic march 
through Missouri might have been found. 
But our fathers w'ere too much occupied with 
the struggle for existence to give their time 
to hunting for traces of long vanished men. 



CHAPTER 111 
FRENCH EXPLORERS 



Why Spainards Did not Take and Hold the Country — Vague Ideas of the West — News 
OP THE Mississippi — Radisson and Groseilliers — Joliet and Marquette — Discovery op 
THE Mississippi — Extent op Their Voyage — The Return — Illness op Marquette — 
Why Joliet Was Not Given Credit for Expedition — Early Voyage of La Salle — 
French Ideas op the New World — Views of the English — La Salle's Purpose — 
Friendship With Frontenac — Visit to France — Start of the Expedition — Loss of 
THE Griffon — Creve Coeue — He Reaches the Mississippi — Passes to its Mouth — The 
Colony at Starved Rock — Goes to France — Colony on the Gulf — Death of Lasalle 
— Estimate of His Character. 



It was ill 1540 that De Soto and his band 
were in Southeast ilissouri. They came 
as we have seen from the south, having landed 
in Florida and penetrated the country in a 
vain search for gold. The next white men 
who came to Missouri were French explorers 
from the great lakes. These came from the 
north and entered the country to find the 
great river whose existence was made known 
to them by the Indians, to search out places for 
trade, and to secure the country for France. 
Some of them were priests who were moved 
by the desire to carry the Gospel to the sav- 
ages — by whatever motives moved they came, 
pushing their adventurous way into the wil- 
derness and blazing the trail over which civil- 
ization and settlement were destined to enter 
the bounds of the state. It is somewhat sur- 
prising that the Spanish did not take posses- 
sion of the valley of the Mississippi since De 
Soto had discovered the river and explored 
a part of its valley, and since the Spanish 
claimed the Gulf of Mexico as a sea belonging 



to them. They did little or nothing to make 
good their claims, however, as it was the great 
misfortune of the Spanish to be occupied in 
this country, at the first, with a .search for 
gold and for cities to conquer, rather than 
with attempts to settle the country and to 
develop those resources which were destined 
to produce wealth far greater than the mines 
and cities of which they dreamed. 

It was thus left to France to begin the set- 
tlement and development of the valley of the 
great river. One characteristic of all grants 
made in this country was their indefinite ex- 
tension toward the west. Little idea was had 
as to the extent of the continent in that di- 
rection, and, accordingly, kings and trading 
companies calmly made grants whose western 
limits were undefined and undetermined, and 
whose extent, if carried to the western .sea, 
was vast beyond the very conception of those 
making them. Thus the French in Canada, 
having little idea of the extent of the country 
to the west of them, came to regard it as 



22 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



23 



ouly an extension of Canada. Wlieu reports 
uaiue to them of the great river that very 
probably emptied into the western sea or the 
Sea of Japan, they were moved to accept it as 
part of New France and laid claim to it ac- 
cordingly. 

No more adventurous or hardy men were 
concerned with the early settlement and ex- 
ploration of the new world than these same 
French in Canada. Better than any one else 
they understood and sympathized with the 
Indian ; for better than any one else they en- 
tei'ed into and shared his life. The mighty 
forests, the unexplored regions, the wild life 
had no terrors but rather attractions for 
them. Thus it was that the hardy woodsmen, 
traders, trappers, and canoe men of Canada 
explored and hunted throughout a wide ex- 
panse of territory. They set their traps and 
hunted in all the woods, they pushed the 
prows of the adventurous canoes into all the 
waters about them, they found the secret 
trails of the Indians and followed them into 
the west. They took part in the long hunts 
of the Indian, lived his life, traded to him 
the beads, the calico, the hatchets, and some- 
times the arms of the white men, and re- 
ceived in turn the choicest furs caught in the 
wide domain that stretched from the lakes 
far to west and south and north. 

To these men, fitted by nature and experi- 
ence for daring adventure and exploration in 
distant territories, the news of the mighty 
river of the west, so great that it dwarfed all 
the other rivers of the continent and poured 
a mighty flood of waters to an unknown sea, 
came like a challenge, and, in response to 
that challenge, we find them making their way 
farther and farther into the west. 

It is probable that some of these men made 



their way into Missouri and perhaps pene- 
trated to the southeast coi-ner of the state. It 
seems certain from the narrative of Radis- 
son, one of the most famous of these hardy 
and daring explorers, that he and Groseilliers 
made their way once, if not oftener, to Mis- 
souri, coming at least as far as the mouth of 
the ilissouri. He speaks of the 'forked river' 
— perhaps, if not certainly, the Mississippi; 
of the ti-ibe of Indians living ujjon one branch 
of it, ' • of extraordinary height and biggnesse, ' ' 
referring no doubt to the Osages who were 
celebrated for their height and size. Others 
probably came, also, lured by the hope of 
riches, and the desire of adventure, but little 
is known of them and their wanderings. They 
established no trading posts or settlements 
within the state and left, with the exception of 
Radisson, no accounts of their wanderings to 
enable us to judge with any certainty con- 
cerning the course of their travels. 

But these obscure and almost unknown voy- 
ages and explorations, barren of any tangible 
result in one way, produced a great effect in 
another way, and were, therefore, of impor- 
tance. The reports which they brought back 
of the country through which they travelled, 
of its soil, its rivers, the Indians and the rich 
trade which might be secured with them, of 
the mighty river that poured its flood south- 
ward and perhaps westward, of an empire 
that might be won for France and for New 
France, induced the French authorities of 
Canada to arrange for the exploration of the 
wilderness and of the great river. 

In 1672, Frontenac, the newly appointed 
and energetic governor of Canada, determined 
to send an expedition to explore the course 
of the great river and to take possession of 
the country it traversed, for Prance. No man 
seemed better suited for such an expedition 



24 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



than Louis Joliet. He was a Canadiau by 
birth, was educated at the Jesuit school at 
Quebec and intended for the life of a priest ; 
but was so attracted by the wild country about 
him that he abandoned the idea of the church 
and began the adventurous life of a voyageur. 
Previous to 1672 he had made several expe- 
ditions to the west, having explored a part 
of the western shores of Quebec and been pres- 
ent when that country was taken possession of 
in the name of France. He had also explored 
a part of the Hudson Bay territory, and was 
looked upon by those who knew him well, as 
a hardy, daring, and reliable man. To him 
Froutenac intrusted the command of the ex- 
pedition to the great river. He had instruc- 
tion to take Father Marquette with him. 
i\Iarquette was a Jesuit priest who had long 
contemplated a visit to the Indians of the 
Mississippi, and was assigned to accompany 
Joliet in accordance with the usual policy of 
the French in sending priests to accompany 
expeditions into the wilds. Joliet was com- 
missioned to proceed to the river, to make a 
voyage down its course, at least far enough to 
determine into what body of water it 
emptied, and to its mouth if possible. 

Joliet began his voyage from Point St. Ig- 
nace on May 17, 1673. The expedition con- 
sisted of Joliet himself. Father Alarquette, and 
Ave other Frenchmen. They had two canoes 
and a somewhat scanty stock of provisions. 
They made their way along the shores of Lake 
Michigan to Green Bay, passed up the Fox 
river to Lake Winnebago then the limit of 
French explorations, secured here Indian 
guides, made their way through lakes and 
streams to the height of land separating 
streams flowing into the lakes from those 
which empty into the Mississippi. Here they 
carried their canoes across the divide, which 
is narrow at this point, and launched them 



again on the Wisconsin, and on the 17th day 
of June they entered the Mississippi. After 
proceeding down its current for some distance 
they came to a settlement of Indians where 
they lauded and were kindly received. Then 
they came to the mouth of the Illinois and 
saw on the face of the great rocks which line 
the stream on the eastern side, painted mon- 
sters, described by Marquette as dreadful in 
appearance and suggestive of the devil. 
These were two specimens of the art of the 
Indians and represented manitous or gods. 
While they meditated on these they came to 
the mouth of the IMissouri. They seem to 
have reached it during flood time and were 
amazed and frightened at the tremendous 
flood of water, bearing on its tide trees and 
logs and all the debris common to high water 
in the great and turbulent Missouri. With 
difficulty they passed safely through. They 
next observed a place where the river was nar- 
rowed by rocks, part of it pouring into a nar- 
row gorge and then returning with fury on it- 
self. Doubtless this is the first description of 
the narrows at Grand Tower. The descrip- 
tion is not quite accurate for the present con- 
dition there, but the place has doubtless 
changed in appearance in the years that have 
passed. 

Day after day' the voyagers pursued their 
way, floating tranquilly down the tide of the 
great river. They passed the mouth of the 
Ohio, which they called Ouabouskiaou, or the 
Beautiful river. Sometimes they cgme to the 
camps of Indians, and, on displaying the calu- 
met wliich one of their Indian friends liad 
given them, they were kindly received. What 
a scene was presented to their eyes — the wide 
expanse of the majestic river, the boundless 
forests that lined its course unbroken by the 
dwellings of men, and peopled only by the 
wild and savage life of the woods. The nights 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\riSSOTIRI 



25 




Marquette Among the Mississippi Valley Indians 



26 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



they passed iu their boats or lying ou the 
shore by the river, beneath the stars, listen- 
ing to the sounds of the mighty current sweep- 
ing its way to an unknown sea. 

The scenes changed as they made their way 
farther and farther south. The high and 
rocky blutifs which had lined one or both sides 
of the river, from the top of which the coun- 
try stretched in rolling verdure for miles on 
either side, gave way to the low and marshy 
land of the Mississippi bottoms. Cane brakes 
were seen and mosquitos appeared in great 
clouds and made life miserable for them. 
They came at last to the mouth of the Arkan- 
sas. Here they met with Indians who dis- 
played the greatest hostility for a long time, 
but were finally induced to receive them with 
something like civility. One member of the 
tribe spoke the language of the Illinois and 
through him Marquette preached the Chris- 
tian faith to the assembled savages. They 
told him, in return for presents given them, 
what they knew concerning the lower reaches 
of the river. According to their account, the 
lower Mississippi was infested by tribes of 
fierce Indians, so formidable that they them- 
selves dared not hunt the buft'alo but con- 
tented themselves with fish and corn. 

Joliet and Marquette determined to turn 
back from this place. They had performed a 
part of their tasks. They had seen the great 
river, had voyaged for hundreds of miles 
upon its bosom, and had approached near its 
mouth as they believed, though in reality they 
were seven hundred miles from the Oulf. 
They had gone at least far enough to make 
sure that it did not empty into the sea of Vir- 
ginia, the Vermillion or California sea, but 
into the Gulf of Mexico. Further progress 
was doubtful. Their supplies were limited. 



the hot weather was coming on, the Indians 
farther down were reported as hostile, — all 
these considerations induced them to relin- 
quish their hope of continuing to the mouth of 
the river. They began the return trip on 
the seventeenth of July. The return voyage 
was far from pleasant. It was midsummer 
and the heat was great. They might no longer 
drift, but must urge their canoes against all 
the force of the river. Father Marquette fell 
ill and was like to die before the voyage could 
be completed. At last they reached the Illi- 
nois, entered its mouth, and made their way 
up its beautiful course. They were enter- 
tained by a tribe of the Illinois Indians, 
called Kaskaskias, perhaps the Casquins of 
De Soto's time. One of the members of the 
tribe guided them to Lake Michigan which 
they reached in September, having voyaged 
more than two thousand miles in the four 
months since their departure. 

Joliet and Marquette separated at Green 
Bay, Marquette remaining to recruit his 
health while Joliet hastened homeward. The 
good fortune which had been his for so many 
months deserted him at the last and he was 
almost drowned near Montreal by the upset- 
ting of his canoe. All his papers were lost 
by this accident, and he made only an oral 
report to Governor Frontenac concerning his 
trip. It is partly due to this circumstance 
that he has received so little of the credit 
justly due him for his exploit, since ]\Iar- 
quette afterward published an account of the 
voyage and it is bis name that is most closely 
a.s.sociated with the enterprise. In reality he 
had no official connection with it, but was 
present as a volunteer under the direction of 
Joliet. 

Frontenac was much gratified at the suc- 
cess of the voyage and reported to the gov- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



27 



ernment of France the results with a recoin- 
mendatiou that it be followed up and the 
country held. 

We have now to consider the work of the 
greatest of the French explorers whose trav- 
els and voyages brought them to Southeast 
Missouri. Robert Cavelier de La Salle was a 
man who would have made his mark in any 
place or situation of life, for he was rarely 
gifted in manj' ways. He was born in France 
in 1643, received a good education and 
emigrated to Canada at the age of twenty- 
three. Here he heard the reports current 
among the French and Indians of a great 
river that flowed to- the south and west and 
perhaps entered into the western sea, called 
the Vermillion sea, or Sea of California. La 
Salle was fired by the desire to discover and 
explore this river and thus open the long 
sought and eagerly desired way to China and 
the East. He accordingly interested Cour- 
celles, the governor, and Talon, the intendant 
of Canada, in his schemes. He spent several 
years in exploring the lakes .and rivers, dis- 
covering in the course of his travels the Ohio 
river and descending it as far as the present 
site of Louisville and perhaps to its junc- 
ture with the Mississippi. At any rate he be- 
came convinced that the Mississippi did not 
flow to the west nor to the east but toward the 
south and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. 

La Salle had become a friend of the new 
governor of Canada, Frontenac, and was able 
to interest him in his schemes of exploration 
and settlement. Frontenac was a man of en- 
ergy and resource and gave great assistance to 
La Salle. Through his help and encourage- 
ment La Salle secured from the government 
of France certain grants of land in Canada, 
the income of which enabled him to carry on 
the w-ork which he had undertaken. In the 



course of his negotiations he made a trip to 
France and w-as able to interest many of his 
friends in the w^ork he was attempting to per- 
form. That work w-as a great and noble one. 
La Salle seems to have been one of the few 
men at that time connected with the colonies 
in this country, either French or English, 
who had a clear grasp of the situation and 
saw the possibilities of the country. At the 
time the colonies of France were confined to 
Canada. The French were devoting their en- 
ergy to the exploration and settlement of the 
country around the Great Lakes, to tlie fur 
trade with the Indians, and to the en.ioyment 
of the wild and adventurous life of the woods. 
The country to which the French were de- 
voting their time and energies was a great 
and wonderful country in many respects. It 
contained the Great Lakes, and a wonderful 
system of rivers and water-wa.ys, the soil was 
fertile in places, and the Indian trade was 
most profitable and destined to grow for many 
years. But there was one great obstacle to 
the development of the French country and 
that was the severe climate. The winters 
were long and very cold. Snow was plentifid 
and deep, for weeks the lakes and rivers wi • 
coated with ice, and the shortness of the sum- 
mer precluded the possibilit.v of growing 
many of the desirable food plants. It was not 
a country to develop rapidl.y, nor to support 
a large population. When La Salle came to 
Canada, the French had been in possession 
for nearly tw^o generations, but had done lit- 
tle or nothing looking to securing land to tlie 
south of them. 

While the French were thus confining 
themselves to the region of the Lakes and ig- 
noring the other parts of the continent, the 
English were planted along the Atlantic coast. 
Tliey. too. for many generations, were con- 



28 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\nssorRi 



tent with the narrow strip which they held 
and made no efforts to secure the territory to 
the west. It was a case of short-sightedness 
in both the colonizing nations, and yet not a 
surprising ease by any means. The continent 
was so vast, the distances so great, the forest 
so unconquerable, the dangers from Indians 
so real that it was natural for both French 
and English to hesitate before attempting the 
conquest of the interior of the continent. To 
them the attempt seemed almost useless as 
well. The colonies grew slowly. New France 
seemed large enough for all the French who 
would ever live there. The problem as the 
men of that time saw it. was. not to secure 
and hold new lands, but to people and sub- 
due those they already held. The English 
were similarly situated. The Atlantic sea- 
board seemed ample for all the English there, 
or that were likely to come. Such were the 
generally accepted opinions of the times. It 
was, of course, the policy of short-sighedness, 
but then most men are short-sighted. 

Now, however, there had come to America 
and interested himself its future, a man who 
was not short-sighted, but on the contrary 
gifted with remarkable powers to see into the 
future. La Salle rejected the idea that 
Canada was large enough for the French. He 
saw clearly the expansion that must come, 
and he believed that the Ohio valley which he 
had discovered and explored, offered, by far. 
the best field for that inevitable expansion. 
The soil in that valley was rich, the climate 
very favorable for agriculture, the opportu- 
nities for trade with the Indians were tempt- 
ing. It must be remembered that at that time 
trade with the Indians was almost indispens- 
able in the opening up of a new section of 
the country. It was largely to this trade 
that settlers looked for support while thej^ 



cleared away the forests and made the coun- 
trj' ready for the practice of agriculture. Xo 
part of the country offered any better oppor- 
tunities for trade than the Ohio valley, and no 
part of the country was more fertile or bet- 
ter adapted to agrieultui'e. Here, then La 
Salle believed he saw the seat of a New France 
more glorious than would ever be possible in 
Canada. He believed, too, that soon the Eng- 
lish would be forced to expand ; that the At- 
lantic seaboard must soon be too contracted 
for them. Their natural expansion would be 
to the westward. This movement, when it 
came, would bring the English across the Al- 
leghanies and into the valley of the Ohio. 

To forestall this movement, to explore the 
country, to claim it for the king of France, to 
open it for settlers, plant chains of forts and 
fortified posts, secure the friendship of the 
Indians and develop trade with them, to make 
the power of France supreme in the new 
lands which he had discovered and render 
them forever outside the power of the English 
to possess — this was the dream of La Salle. 
It was not the dream of a visionary. La 
Salle could dream the most splendid visions, 
but he was no mere dreamer. On the con- 
trary he was one of the most active, tireless, 
and practical of men. His plan once formed 
he proceeded to put it into execution. He 
determined to organize an expedition, explore 
the great river to its mouth, found on its 
banks trading posts, and with the proceeds of 
this trade to open the country for settlement. 
He had a wonderful power of persuasion, and 
was able to make Frontenac see the greatness 
of his plans and secure his help in his under- 
takings. This help of the governor was al- 
most indispensable to him, for Frontenac was 
a powerful and energetic man, fond of bold 
and daring schemes and desirous himself of 
achieving riches and distinction in the work 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST iMISSOURI 



29 



of trading and colonizing. But useful as was 
the aid of Fronteuac to La Salle, friendship 
with the governor brought one drawback with 
it. It made Fronteuac 's enemies, La Salle's 
enemies. These enemies of the governor were 
by no means few nor powerless. In the first 
place he had offended the traders of Canada, 
by embarking in trade on his own account and 
estalilishing posts for this purpose on the 
western lakes. He had been unfortunate 
enough, also, to incur the displeasure of the 
Jesuits b}^ some opposition to their plans. 
The Jesuits were both numerous and power- 
ful and their opposition to the scheme of La 
Salle, induced in part by their dislike of the 
governor, was destined to cost La Salle very 
dear. The Jesuits had long had attention di- 
rected to the valley of the great river. Here 
they had planned to evangelize the Indians 
and to found a province like that of Paraguay 
in South America where they should be su- 
preme. La Salle's dream of colonization and 
settlement ran counter to this plan of the 
Jesuits and they were accordingly opposed to 
him and all tliat he attempted to do. 

In spite of all opposition, however. La Salle 
persisted in his work. In lfi73 he received 
from Fronteuac the grant of a new .seignory 
in the west. This was called Fort Fronteuac 
and was situated near the present site of 
Kingston. This grant carried with it a prac- 
tical monopoly of the fur trade in that pai't 
of Canada. In 1674 and again in 1677 be 
visited France. Here his enthusiasm, his 
knowledge of the country of America, and 
above all persistence and determination won 
approval for his schemes. He received from 
the King of France a patent of authority, giv- 
ing him the right to explore the country at his 
own expense, to build and equip forts, and to 
exercise a monopoly of the trade in bufit'alo 



skins for a period of five years. Armed with 
this concession. La Salle made the greatest 
exertion to raise enough funds to equip his 
expeditions. In this he was successful, and 
returned to Canada after having organized his 
expedition. He arrived in Quebec in August, 
1678, and secured men and supplies for his 
projected expedition to the Mississippi. One 
man who accompanied him, and who was dest- 
ined to be closely associated with all his en- 
terprises, was Tonti. He also secured the 
friendship and help of Father Hennepin. 

On landing at Quebec, La Salle immediately 
set to making arrangements for the expedition 
and sent Father Hennepin and Tonti with 
men and supplies, as an advance guard. 
Starting on November 18th, from Fort Front- 
euac, they landed at Lewiston and continued 
up the Niagara river to the Falls. Here they 
concluded to wait, and arrange for the further 
course of the expedition. They were joined 
by La Salle in January, 1679. La Salle had 
come to Lewiston, in the vessel which he de- 
signed to use for the purpose of the expediton, 
but this vessel was wrecked in the attempt. 
The early part of 1679 was spent by the party 
in building a boat for use on the upper lakes. 
This boat was launched in the spring, above 
the Falls of Niagara. The party suffered very 
greatly from the hostility of the Iroquois In- 
dians. In fact it was almost impossible to 
prevent the destruction of the vessel which 
they were building. 

La Salle left the party in the spring, and re- 
turned to Fort Fronteuac to secure further 
supplies and funds. He found that all of his 
property had been attached by his creditors, at 
the instigation of his enemies, for the pay- 
ment of his debts. Nevertheless, La Salle re- 
turned to Lake Erie to continue the expedi- 
tion, and on August the seventh, embarked on 
the new vessel which he had named the "Grif- 



30 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



foil." They sailed through Lake Huron and 
down Lake Michigan to Green Bay. Here 
La Salle collected a cargo of valuable furs, 
with which he loaded the "Griffon," and then 
sent the vessel back to Niagara, instructing 
the pilot to dispose of the furs, procure addi- 
tional supplies, and then return. 

La Salle, with the remainder of the expedi- 
tion, left Green Bay in canoes, and made their 
way to the mouth of the St. Joseph. Here 
they proceeded to build a boat and awaited 
the return of the "Griffon." Not having 
heard any news of this vessel by the beginning 
of December, La Salle was filled with appre- 
hension concerning her fate. The cargo of 
furs was necessary for a part of the expense 
of his .iourney. Notwithstanding this, he 
determined to continue, and on the 3rd of 
December the canoes made their way up the 
St. Joseph, and were carried over the five mile 
portage which separates the headwaters of the 
St. Joseph from those of the Illinois. They 
found the country of the Illinois practically 
deserted ; and, while there was abundant sign 
of deer and buffalo, they nearly starved owing 
to their failure to find food. Finally they 
found an Indian village at the great rock on 
the Illinois river, known as Starved Rock. 
Here La Salle held a council with represent- 
atives of many of the tribes of the Illinois 
country. He outlined to them his plans, one 
of which wa.s an alliance with the Indians for 
the purpose of trade. 

The Indians discouraged his attempt, tell- 
ing him that it would be impossible to reach 
the mouth of the Mississippi, owing to the 
hostility of the tribes on its lower course, and 
warning him of the dangers of such an under- 
taking. This opposition of the Indians, as 
La Salle afterward found, was caused by a 
rumor which his enemies had started, that 
he was the secret agent of tlie Iroquois. How- 



ever, La Salle finally overcame their opposi- 
tion with the threat that if they did not con- 
sent to accompany and help him in his 
schemes, he would "go to the Osages who 
were men and not women. ' ' This ott'er inter- 
ested the Illinois and gained their consent, 
for they were bitterly liostile to the Osages. 

Having secured supplies from these In- 
dians, La Salle started down the river, reach- 
ing the place which he named Fort Creve 
Coeur in January, 1680. Here he was de- 
serted by a number of his men and received 
the message which told of the loss of the 
"Griffon" with all its cargo. He then began 
the construction of a vessel in which to navi- 
gate the Mississippi. He found it necessary 
to return to Canada for certain supplies for 
the building of this vessel, and on IMarch 1st 
set out alone for Canada. His return journey 
was one of the most terrible ever made; but 
he reached Fort Frontenac in safety, and, 
having made provision for the necessary sup- 
plies, started on the return trip in August. 
He had left the expedition at Fort Creve 
Coeur under the command of Tonti, but when 
he reached that point he found the camp en- 
tirely deserted. There were abundant signs 
that the Indians had made an attack upon 
the camp, and destroyed it. Only a part of 
the vessel which had been biiilt was left, and 
since it was impossible to proceed, La Salle 
returned to the St. Joseph. Here he held a 
great council with the ]\Iiamis and the Shaw- 
nees, and with them he formed a league for 
the furtherance of his purpose in regard to 
the Illinois Indians. He returned to Canada, 
meeting on the way with Tonti, who, after 
most remarkable dangers and struggles, had 
succeeded in escaping from the Indians and 
returning by way of the upper lakes. 

This experience, which would have shaken 
the resolution of a less resolute man, but con- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST mSSOURI 



31 



firmed La Salle in his intention to explore the 
great river. In October, 1681, he returned to 
Lake Michigan, entered the Chicago river and 
reached the Mississippi, February 6, 1682. 
This time he did not attempt the construction 
of a large vessel, but made his way down the 
river in canoes. He reached the mouth ol' 
the river, October 6th and took possession of 
the entire country in the name of the king of 
France. 

Having returned from this voyage of dis- 
covery. La Salle set out upon the execution of 
the remainder of his great scheme. This in- 
cluded the project of fur trade among the 
Illinois Indians. lie had become convinced 
that this was possible only after organizing tlie 
Indians, and offering them protection against 
the raids of the Iroquois. He had selected as 
the site for his trading post, the great ruck 
known as Starved Rock. Here he planted a 
colony, and the Indians having fallen in with 
his schem.e, he won their friendship and estab- 
lished a flourishing trade in that territory. 
Leaving his little colony, he made his way 
back to Canada to secure still further sup- 
plies, but here he found things changed. His 
friend, Frontenac had been superseded as gov- 
ernor of Canada, and the new governor was 
under the influence of La Salle's enemies. He 
did all he could to hinder and discourage La 
Salle who found it necessary once more to go 
to France. Here, in spite of the misrepresent- 
ations of the governor, he once more won the 
confidence of the kihg and his ministers and 
received still more valuable patents and grants 
in the new territory. 

He organized a new expedition. It was 
planned to sail to the Gulf of Mexico, locate 
the mouth of the river, and then proceed up 
its course to some suitable place where a 
colony would be founded. In this way he 



intended to take and hold all the valley of 
the jMississippi. 

The officer in command of the ships was 
both incompetent, and hostile to La Salle. He 
failed to find the mouth of the river, and 
after cruising back and forth for a time, he 
insisted on landing the expedition on the 
coast of the gulf some four hundred miles 
west of the mouth of the river. The ships 
then sailed away to France leaving La Salle 
and the members of the expedition helpless 
in an unknown and entirely unpromising re- 
gion. La Salle made the best of the situation. 
A colony was formed, houses and shelters 
erected and the beginnings of a settlement 
formed. It was La Salle's intention to search 
for and find the river from this place. After 
numerous attempts he became convinced that 
he was so far from the river and so ignorant of 
its po-sition and direction that he could not 
any longer hope to be successful in his search. 
The colony in the meantime was in a deplor- 
able condition. Food supplies were limited; 
the region in which they were was barren and 
inhospitable. Many members of the expedi- 
tions were dissatisfied and hostile to their 
leader. 

At last La Salle formed a desperate resolu- 
tion. He despaired of finding the river. He 
saw that the colony could not long survive. 
No help could be expected from France direct. 
He determined to go overland to Canada and 
there secure ships and provisions for saving 
his men. On foot, then, accompanied by a 
few members of the expedition to set ovit a 
walk a tliousand miles through an unknown 
country, to cross rivers and lakes, to meet the 
Indians and to confront all the dangers of the 
wilderness. Nothing shows better the uncon- 
querable determination of the man than this 
la.st projected journey. He had gone but a 
little way until he was shot and killed by one 



32 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ]\IISSOURI 



of those accompanying him. This man had 
cherished a secret grudge against La Salle 
and had foiind an opportunity for satisfying 
his hatred. 

So there died, in the prime of his life and 
in the midst of the execution of great plans, 
the greatest of the French explorei-s. Had 
he lived to carry out his plans and had the 
French government caiight something of his 



idea and his entluisiasm, it is quite probable 
that the history of the Mississippi valley would 
have been quite diflEerent. It was long, how- 
ever, before the government of France came 
to have much appreciation of the great terri- 
tory of Louisiana. She regarded it with little 
care or concern ; left it without attention, or 
granted it with careless indifference to vari- 
ous applicants. 



CHAPTER IV 

INDIAN HISTORY 

Importance of Indians in Oue Histoky — Indian Trade — Indians in Southeast Missouri 
When DeSoto Came — The Capahas — The Siouan Family and its Branches — The 
OsAGES — Their Homes — Their Farms — Osage Houses — Furniture and Clothing — 
Polygamy — Weapons — Peculiar Customs op the Osages — Painting op the Body — 
Their Government — Wars With Other Indians — Defeated by Sacs and Foxes — Their 
Removal From the State — Delawares and Shawnees — Their History Outside Mis- 
ouRi — Why the Spaniards Brought Them to Missouri — Character — Their Villages — 
Tecumseh's Sister — Chilletecaux — Witchcraft Delusion — The Mashcoux Tribe — 
Treaties With the Indians — Indian Education. 



Constaut reference has been made in earlier 
chapters to the Indians, as the aboriginal in- 
habitants of America were incorrectly named 
by Columbus, and other early explorers, be- 
cause they believed America to be the In- 
dies. These Indians are intei'esting as be- 
ing the earliest inhabitants of the country 
and also because they played a considerable 
part in its history after the white man came 
here. They were always to be taken into 
consideration. Whether friendly or hostile, 
whether disposed to help or hinder those who 
came, they were always to be reckoned with. 
It is difficult, perhaps impossible, for us who 
live in the security of the present, even to 
imagine the time when the savage warwhoop 
of the Indians was a sound of terror, often 
heard and always to be dreaded. AVe cannot 
reconstruct, except imperfectl.y, the condi- 
tions of life, here, when trade with the In- 
dians was one of the prime motives for the 
coming of white people to this part of the 
world. 

Vol. 1—3 



And yet, difficult as it is to realize these 
things, both of these conditions once existed 
There was a time in Southeast Missouri when 
every home was in some ways a fortress, 
when the inhabitants listened for the war- 
whoop, and when life and property were not 
safe from the savage attacks of the red men. 
It is true that the depredations committed 
here were not so extensive as those suifered 
by the people of the eastern part of this 
couutr.y, but they were sufficient in number 
to form a bloody chapter in our history. 

There was time, also, when trade with the 
Indians was very profitable. The western 
country was once the home of many fur- 
bearing animals. Perhaps nowhere else in 
the world did there ever exist such a great 
number of animals valuable for their fur or 
for their flesh as in the western part of 
North America. Until the coming of the 
white people the Indians had done little to 
destroy these animals. It is true thej^ lived 



33 



34 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



largely by hunting, but they hunted only to 
supply the immediate needs for food, and so 
vast was the animal life of the country that 
its natural increase more than compensated 
for all the Indians killed for food and skins. 
But when the Indians found it possible to 
trade furs to the whites for those things 
which they desired, they became the agents 
for the destruction of the game of the coun- 
try. It was relentlessly pursued and vast 
quantities of furs were every year bartered 
away to the traders. The fur trade was ex- 
ceedingly profitable to the white men engaged 
in it, for it was possible to buy with a 
hatchet, a string of beads, some calico, or 
other inexpensive articles, valuable furs. To 
secure this trade and hold it became a prize, 
contended for, not alone by individuals and 
companies, but by nations themselves. A 
part of the colonial policy of France, of Eng- 
land, and of Spain was directed by a desire fo 
secure or hold the trade in furs. 

In order to accomplish these objects set- 
tlements were made, expeditions and wars 
carried on. Some of the early settlements in 
the state were made as trading points. This 
is true of Cape Girardeau. Here Louis Lori- 
mier early established himself to carry on 
trade with the Indians. New Madrid was 
originally a trading post of the La Sieurs. 

It is clear that much of the early history 
of this part of the state was determined and 
given course by the presence of the Indians. 
It is the purpose of this chapter to give an 
account of the various tribes that lived here, 
their character, habits, manner of life, rela- 
tion to the settlers, and the final disposition 
made of them. 

When DeSoto came to Southeast Missouri 
he found living within its borders at least 
three tribes of Indians. Those whose princi- 



pal place of dwelling was in the neighbor- 
hood of New Madrid he called Casquins. 
These we believe to have been identical with 
the Kaskaskias later found on the other side 
of the river in what is now the state of Illi- 
nois. If this is correct the Casquins were a 
part of the great Algonquin group of Indians 
who were formerly to be found scattered over 
a considerable part of the eastern portion of 
the United States. Their removal from New 
]\Iadrid county to Illinois is not a matter of 
surprise, for such removals were not at all 
uncommon among the Indians. In fact it 
was a custom with most of them to change 
their place from time to time. This was due, 
in part, to their roving disposition and con- 
stant love of change; in part, to the neces- 
sity of finding new hunting grounds where 
proper supplies of food might be had ; and, in 
part, to the constant and bitter warfare 
^^aged between Indians of different tribes. 

It was probably some such war which 
caused the Casquins to abandon their seat in 
Southeast Missouri and migrate to the other 
side of the great river. In fact we know that 
between them as Algonquins and the Siouan 
family (represented by the Osages, the Kan- 
sas, the Missouris and others) there was bit- 
ter hatred and constant warfare. It was the 
interference of DeSoto in the quarrel of the 
Casquins that bought him into contact with 
the Capahas. 

These Capahas were doubtless living in the 
neighborhood of Cape Girardeau. They be- 
longed, it seems, to the great Siouan family. 
It was a tradition among the Siouan 
Indians Avest of the river that their 
original seat was in the valley of the Ohio ; 
that owing to trouble with other Indians they 
migrated down the Ohio to its mouth. Here 
they divided part of them turning to the 
south and others to the north. Those who 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



35 



went to the South were called Quapas, Ca- 
pahas, Pacahas, and other similar names; all 
meaning "downstream Indians" and having 
reference to their going down the river from 
the time of their separation. Those who turned 
to the north were called Omahas, meaning 
"upstream Indians." These Omahas made 
their way to the Missouri river, where some of 
them settled and long remained. These were 
called Missouris. Others of them passed up 
this river toward the west. Some of them 
settled on that branch of the Missouri aftei'- 
ward called for them the Osage. These were 
the famous Osage Indians whose doings fill 
such a large part of the aboi'iginal history of 
Missouri. Still others of these Indians pressed 
their way further west to become known as 
the Kansas and Omahas. 

If this legendary account as preserved bj' 
the Indians themselves is correct, there ex- 
isted a close relation between all the Indians 
named. That this relation did exist is shown 
by the similarity of their language. They 
spoke, it is true, different dialects, but these 
were not so dissimilar as to preclude all com- 
munication. Indeed it was possible for one 
speaking either of these various dialects to 
learn the others in a very short space of time. 

The third tribe of Indians found by DeSoto 
were these Osages, who at this time lived in 
the great bend of the Missouri, but whose 
hunting ground extended east to the Missis- 
sippi and south to the Arkansas. 

Wlien the French came, the Casquins had 
migrated to a new seat on the Illinois river, 
if indeed the Kaskaskias of Illinois were 
identical with the Casqiiins described by De- 
Soto. The Capahas had moved down the 
^lississippi to the Arkansas where they con- 
tinued to reside. Others think, however, that 
their principal seat was on the St. Francois 



and that one of their villages, called Tori- 
man, was in Dunklin county. This is the con- 
clusion of Houck who has given the matter 
very careful study. ( Houck 's "History of 
Missouri, " Vol. I, p. 173). 

Of all these early aboriginal inhabitants of 
Southeast Missouri none are more interesting 
than the Osages. A part as we have seen of 
that great Siouan family which at an early 
date migrated from their original home in the 
valley of the Ohio to its mouth where they 
divided; the Osages, at the time of the 
French, were living on the Missouri and the 
Osage. From here their hunting parties 
went out to cover that great stretch of terri- 
tory extending east to the Mississippi and 
south to the Arkansas. They continued to 
reside on the Osage until, with the Missouris, 
the tribe which for a time lived near the 
mouth of the Missouri but which afterward 
moved up the stream and united with the 
Osages, they came into conflict with Sacs 
and Foxes. A deadly strife ensued between 
these Indians, and later, between the Osages 
and the Cherokees when the latter were 
moved to this side of the river by the govern- 
ment. The Osages resented the coming of the 
Cherokees to their hunting grounds and 
tried to drive them out. They gradually 
degenerated, however, and finally disap- 
peared from the Missouri country. 

During the time of their prosperity they 
had been induced by the Indian traders to 
found some settlements on the Arkansas, and, 
when the pressure of other tribes and the 
whites became too strong for them, the rem- 
nant made their way to the south. Some of 
their descendants reside yet in Oklahoma. 

These Indians lived principally by hunt- 
ing, but they also cultivated little patches of 
soil. Usually each band of them had two or 
more places of residence. Near one of them 



36 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



they had some cleared land. Here, usually 
in April, they planted maize and squashes, 
or pumpkins and beans. When this planting- 
was made, they then set out on a hunting ex- 
pedition which lasted for two or three 
months. Returning usually in August they 
harvested their crops which, during their 
absence, had been uncultivated. The corn 
was usually shelled and stored in pots or hol- 
low trunks of trees, the squashes and pump- 
kins were dried, the latter being cut into long 
strips and hung in the upper part of their 
houses. Beans were also kept by being 
shelled and stored. The crop harvested and 
stored for winter, the Indians were accust- 
omed to depart again for another hunting ex- 
pedition. The meat procured on these expe- 
ditions, such as was not immediately used, 
was dried or jerked, or else was partly 
cooked and covered with grease from the fat 
of some animal, usually the bear or deer. 
Tlie skins which they secured were prepared 
for trading at the nearest post, for beads, 
hatchets, calico, powder, guns, or whiskey. 
This hunt lasted until about January when 
the Indians returned to their villages to re- 
main during the colder wealther of winter, 
living principally upon the stores of food laid 
up during the summer. With the return of 
spring they engaged in still another hunt, 
coming back to the practice of their rude 
agriculture. 

The houses of the Osages were rude cabins, 
not unlike a tent in shape and appearance 
but constructed of poles and matting. Two 
forks each about twenty feet high were 
stuck into the ground, a ridge pole laid 
across these, smaller forks put up on each 
side, and a framework of poles arranged to 
these, furnishing a support for the mats. 
These mats were often woven of rushes or 
reeds, sometimes skins or bark took the place 



of the matting, or even sod was sometimes 
used. Of course not all the houses were alike. 
Some of them were conical in shape. All 
were, without exception, rude in appearance, 
and greatly lacking in comfort. None pos- 
sessed a chimney, the fire being kindled on the 
earth floor in the center of the house, or 
upon a hearth of stones, and the smoke was 
allowed to escape through a hole in the cen- 
ter of the roof. 

The furniture was exceedingly limited, con- 
sisting principally of beds. These were made 
of skins or mats placed upon a shelf built 
along the walls. The beds served as seats in 
the day time, though the Indians, frequently, 
or most often, sat on the ground or on mats 
placed as a sort of carpet. Their household 
implements were those common to most 
American Indians and consisted of pottery 
vessels, stone knives, stones for grinding or 
pounding corn, and similar utensils, most if 
not all of them the product of the skill and 
industry of the Indian women. The men 
felt it to be beneath their dignity as war- 
riors and hunters to engage in manual labor 
of any kind and deputed practically all of 
it, including the building and care of the 
house, the construction of the necessary im- 
plements and the cultivation of the fields, to 
the women. 

These women were not uncomely in youth, 
but their life of toil and hardship brought 
upon them a premature old age. One custom 
concerning the women of the Osages is noted 
by many travellers among them and that is 
the way in which the married woman was 
distinguished from the unmarried. The In- 
dian maiden was accustomed to bestow great 
attention upon the arrangement and adorn- 
ment of her hair. It was arranged in two 
braids and ornamented with strings of wam- 
pum and such other beautiful objects as 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



37 



might be possessed. Upon marriage, how- 
ever, the ornaments were laid aside to be kept 
for a daughter, and the liair was confioed in 
one braid. 

A curious form of polygamy was practiced 
among them. When a man took a wife he ac- 
quired rights over the persons of her sisters, 
and might bestow them in marriage as he 
wished or else add them to his own household. 
In spite of this privilege, monogamy was not 
uncommon among them and there frequently 
existed between husband and wife a strong 
and lasting tie of affection. 

The Osages possessed the ordinary weapons 
of the Indians, the bow and arrow, the war- 
club, the tomahawk, and the scalping knife. 
They soon learned the superior power of the 
gun, and after coming into contact with the 
traders they equipped themselves, where pos- 
sible, with guns. In common with most of 
the Indians of the continent they looked upon 
bravery in war as the chief virtue. Scalping 
was the one act that conferred the greatest 
distinction on a brave, and next to this steal- 
ing the enemy's horses. The young braves 
often spent their leisure time in boasting of 
their skill and prowess in handling the scalp- 
ing knife and in carrying away horses. This 
latter accomplishment was held in high re- 
pute among them, for the Osages were dis- 
tinguished among Indians for their knowl- 
edge of and regard for the horse. They pos- 
sessed large numbers of them and held them 
as their chief riches. Nuttall ("Journal," 
p. 247) records the fact that once they pur- 
chased the temporary friendship of their bit- 
ter enemies, the Outagamies, liy the present 
of a hundred head of horses. "A present," 
Nuttall remarks, "which though valuable was 
not costly to the givers, for in a raid under- 
taken immediately afterward they brought 
back three hundred horses either stolen from 



the Pawnees or else caught wild upon the 
prairies. ' ' 

According to Nuttall ("Journal," p. 238), 
who spent sometime with them, they pos- 
sessed some knowledge of the stars. They 
recognized the pole star and had observed 
that it was stationary in the heavens, they 
called Venus the harbinger of day, they knew 
the Pleiades and the three stars in Orion's 
belt, and they spoke of the Galaxy as the 
heavenly road or way. 

The religion of the Osages was not unlike 
that of many other of the American Indians. 
They believed in a Great Spirit, and looked 
forward to a Happy Hunting Ground after 
death. In accordance with this belief they 
frequently buried with the deceased warrior 
his hunting implements and his weapons of 
war, tliat he might enjoy his favorite pastime 
in the land of the dead. Coupled with this 
religion was a gross form of superstition 
which manifested itself in an observance of 
omens, a belief in the efficacy of charms and 
amulets, and a constant effort to propitiate 
evil spirits. Before going on the war-path 
they were accustomed to spend a night in la- 
mentation and in penitential exercises, in the 
course of which they inflicted upon them- 
selves sundry forms of punishments in an en- 
deavor to ward off misfortune in the time of 
war. 

One of their peculiar customs, seemingly 
unique, was a morning lamentation indulged 
in by some or all of the members of the tribe, 
each morning about sun rise. This custom 
prevailed to the very great annoj'ance of 
their white visitors. Long speaks also of "a 
vesper hymn of doleful sound," chanted at 
sun-down during one his visits. (Long's 
"Expedition," Vol. 4, p. 266). 

In common with other Indians they were 
exceedingly fond of tobacco and attached 



38 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



great importance to the pipe. It formed a 
part of all their great meetings, and no 
treaty was concluded and no formal act re- 
lating to the tribe ever performed without 
recourse to the pipe which was passed from 
hand to hand and smoked by each in turn. 

Their clothing was made from skins, prin- 
cipally deer-skins, which were tanned by the 
women and made into garments for both 
men and women. They also possessed the 
art of weaving, and utilized for this purpose 
lint from the bark of the mulberry, the elm, 
or the paw-paw. Sometimes they wove a 
sort of cloth from feathers, and after they 
began to secure cloth from the white people 
they would frequently unravel an old piece of 
cloth and use the thread again. The men 
usually wore the breech clout made of skins, 
leggings, and moccasins. The women wore a 
short skirt, leggings, and moccasins, and 
sometimes a covering for the upper part of 
the body, either a shirt made of their cloth 
or a blanket. They adorned themselves with 
feathers, worked various patterns into their 
cloth, wore shells and beads, and, as far as 
their conditions allowed, exhibited all the 
signs of vanity of dress found among civilized 
people. The men of the tribe were fond of 
paint. They sometimes painted the entire 
body, staining it with colors derived from 
clay. The face was especially treated and 
was sometimes streaked and painted in a 
dreadful and hideous manner. This was 
true of all who went upon the warpath. 
Indeed the hideous painting of the face 
was usually a sign of war, though some- 
times indulged in during their celebrations 
of various kinds. 

The Indian moccasin deserves a more ex- 
tended notice than any other part of their 
wearing apparel. Perhaps no other footgear 
ever devised, by either savage or civilized 



man, was quite so well adapted to the pecu- 
liar purposes for which it was intended, as 
this moccasin. Made of tanned deer-skin, it 
was soft and pliable, enabling its wearer to 
pass with wonderful celerity and absence of 
noise through the woods and over the rude 
trails, and yet it was durable and lasting. Its 
superiority is shown in the fact that all white 
men who have passed much time among the 
Indians have adopted it in preference to the 
shoe or boot of civilization. 

The government of the Osages was a 
patriarchal despotism. The leader was fre- 
quently, though not always, succeeded by his 
son. This right of heredity was often dis- 
regarded and never was vested exclusively 
in the eldest son. In fact they refused to re- 
gard the right of primogeniture. The chief 
was. first of all, the leader in war. He was 
usually the most daring and ruthless of the 
warriors of the tribe. His retention of the 
leadership depended upon his hold upon the 
respect and confidence of his fellows. This 
could not long be retained, in such a state 
of society as existed among the Indians, by 
any one not recognized as brave and skilful 
in war. The chief was supposed to exercise 
authority over his warriors in time of peace, 
also, but this authority was mainly shadowy 
and vague. The real fact of the matter was 
that the character of the Indians of almost 
every tribe prevented anything like a firm 
government. They could not submit them- 
selves to the rule of anyone else, even thougli 
he was chosen by themselves for that pur- 
pose. It was this fatal defect, coupled with 
their unreasonable delight in war that ren- 
dered all the resistance of the Indians to the 
encroachment of the white men so futile. 
Even the great chiefs, such as Pontiac and 
Tecumseh, found their influence often set at 
naught and their plans wrecked by the per- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



39 



verse and unstable character of their fellows. 
Many of their chiefs retained their hold upon 
their men bj' cunning and a practice of all 
the arts of the political demagogue. Brack- 
enridge, says of Sans Oreille, chief of the 
Little Osages, that he was, "as usual with 
the ambitious among these people, the poor- 
est man in the nation ; for to set the heart 
upon goods and chattels was thought to in- 
dicate a mean and narrow soul. He, there- 
fore, gave away everything he could get, even 
though he should beg and rob to procure it : 
and this to purchase popularity. Such is 
ambition. Little they knew of this state of 
society, who believe that it is free from jeal- 
ousies, from envy, detraction, or guilty am- 
bition. No demagogue, no Cataline, ever 
used more art and finesse, ever displayed 
more policy than this cunning savage. The 
arts of flattery and bribery by which the un- 
thinking multitude is seduced, are nearly the 
same everywhere, and passion for power and 
distinction seems inherent in human nature." 
(Brackenridge "Journal," p. 58), 

In person the Osages were perhaps the 
most finely developed of any of the Indians 
of North America. They were tall, above the 
average height of both whites and Indians. 
Few of the men were under six feet and the\- 
were large and strong in proportion to their 
great height. They were comely in appear- 
ance for Indians, and evoked the admiration 
of most travellers among them. They pos- 
sessed great powers of endurance. Nuttall 
("Journal," p. 246) speaks of their hunting 
and foraging expeditions extending for three 
hundred miles or more, and says that it was 
not uncommon for them to walk from their 
camp on the Verdigris river in Arkansas to 
the trading post on the Arkansas in a single 
da.v. This is a distance of sixty miles. 

As we have said, these Indians established 



themselves on the Osage river in Missouri. 
They early separated into three bands tin- 
Great Osages living on the Osage and num- 
bering at time about one thousand warriors; 
the Little Osages who dwelt further west, 
numbering from two hundred and fifty to 
four hundred ; and the Arkansas band, which 
settled on the Verdigris, a tributary of the 
Arkansas river. These last were induced to 
make settlement there by Pierre Chouteau of 
St. Louis. One DeLisa had secured from the 
government of Spain a monopoly of the In- 
dian trade in Missouri, and Chouteau induced 
a part of the Osages to emigrate to Arkansas 
that he might trade with them. While thus 
the main camps of these Indians were out 
side the territory of Southeast Missouri as 
here defined, they had much to do with the 
historj' of this section of the state, for they 
roamed over all this territory and were for 
many years the dread of all the inhabitants. 
The French were accustomed to deal with 
the utmost leniency with the Indians, and 
this policy was inherited by the Spanish 
when they came into possession here. As a 
consequence the Indians were not forced to 
submit to the authority of either government 
and for years committed many depredations 
upon the inhabitants. They were especially 
troublesome in the matter of horse-stealing. 
Their fondness for horses, as noted else- 
where, caused them to take possession of good 
horses without regard to the ownership of 
them. They had a custom, too, of resenting 
any intrusion on their chosen hunting 
grounds, and many a white hunter and trap- 
per was beaten, his property seized, or de- 
stroyed, because he was found by the Osages 
within territory which they claimed as their 
own. Often, too, these outrages did not stop 
short of the murder of the luckless hunter or 
trapper. This was almost certainly the fate 



40 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of the man caught on their warpaths. These 
they held with tenacity and resented any in- 
trusion upon them. 

Constant struggle was carried on by the 
Osages ^\^th other Indians seeking to come 
into this territory. There was a general 
movement of the Indians from east to west. 
We have seen that the Osages themselves were 
the descendants of Siouan Indians who for- 
merly lived in the valley of the Ohio. Many 
causes impelled this migi'ation toward the 
west. Chief of these was terrible ferocity 
and power of Iroquois or Five Nations of 
New York. These fierce Indians, the strong- 
est and most powerful of all the natives on the 
continent, carried on ruthless war against 
most of the tribes of the north and east. 
IMany of these sought to escape this warfare 
by moving to the west. Those who came afto 
the settlement of white men in Missouri found 
their way barred by the Osages, but little in- 
ferior in prowess and ferocity to the dreaded 
Iroquois themselves. Against these new com- 
ers the Osages waged bitter war. The Peo- 
rias, a little remnant flying across the river 
to find homes, were compelled to live in con- 
stant fear. A little band of thirty of these 
took up their abode under the protection of 
the white men at Ste. Genevieve, but they 
hunted but little we are told, owing to their 
fear of the Osages. The Saukees and Out- 
gamies, or Sacs and Foxes, who settled in 
Iowa and north Missouri, attempted to ex- 
tend their territory south of the ilissouri and 
became involved in a bitter and relentless 
struggle with the Osages. Coming from an- 
other direction were the Cherokees, a part of 
that great nation of the southern Alleghenies. 
With all of these, as well as with the Dela- 
wares and Shawnees, the Osages contended 
with varying fortunes. None of the invad- 



ers surpassed them in braver}', ferocity, or 
skill in warfare, but the Sacs and Foxes 
brought with them the arms of the white men, 
and in the end this superiority of arms pre- 
vailed, and the lessened remnant of the great 
and haughty tribe of Osages made their way 
to the west. A remnant of them still live in 
Oklahoma. 

A melancholy interest attaches to these 
few and feeble descendants of a once power- 
ful and numerous race. The defects of In- 
dian character were many and grave. Their 
society and government was most primitive, 
they inflicted upon the settlers untold suf- 
fering and most barbaric cruelties. Their 
going made way for the civilization and prog- 
ress of the white race. No one would call 
back the Indians even if that were possible, 
but the chapter of history which records the 
dealings of our government with the Indians 
is a most painful one. We cannot forget that 
the Indian was fighting for his home, for his 
hunting grounds, for that state of life and 
society which seemed to him best and most 
desirable, and we cannot close our eyes to the 
fact that the treatment he received from those 
who took his land was often marked by the 
extreme of cruelty and treachery. Perhaps 
it was inevitable that he should disappear be- 
fore the superior gifts of the white man, but 
surely it was not necessary that bad faith and 
cruelty and even treachery should mark our 
treatment of him. 

The Osages were perhaps the most formid- 
able and troublesome of all the savage neigh- 
bors of the people of this section of the state, 
but they were by no means the only Indians 
who were here. The constant drift of the 
aborigines westward across the river brought 
man.y of them through Missouri or near its 
borders, and of these passing through, some 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



41 



remained. Thus we find constant reference 
in the annals of the time to Creeks and Che- 
rokees, Pawnees, Peorias and others of the 
many tribes of the western Indians. Some of 
these made their residence within the borders 
of the section, others were only occasional 
visitors, whose hunting or trading parties 
came and went as the whim seized them. 
These, as they traded or hunted or pursued 
other and less legitimate occupation, entered 
little into the real life of the people and had 
but little influence on the development of the 
country, further than the inducement of set- 
tlers for their trade. 

Two other tribes than those mentioned, 
however, settled within the limits of South- 
east Missouri in considerable numbers, and 
they came into closer relations with the peo- 
ple of this part of the state and probably 
were more important in its early history than 
any others of the savages. These two tribes 
were the Delawares and the Shawnees. Both 
nees. Both of these are Algonquin Indians 
and closely related to each other. 

The Delawares were originally found on 
both sides of the Delaware river in Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware. They were the Indians 
who were dealt with by "William Penn and 
others of the early settlers in Pennsylvania. 
They early came into conflict with the Iro- 
quois, and were subjugated by them. Dur- 
ing the period of their subjugation they lost 
much of their former spirit and courage, and 
lived in a state of abject fear of their red 
masters. They finally moved further west 
into the present state of Ohio. Here they 
recovered their spirit and their love for war 
and became among the most formidable of the 
tribes. Part of them were converted to 
Christianitv through the efforts of Moravian 



missionaries and became known as the Chris- 
tian Indians. Those who refused Christian- 
ity joined with the French in the French and 
Indian wars, and with the British during the 
Revolution. They committed great depreda- 
tions during the war all along the western 
borders, until an expedition under ' ' Mad An- 
thony" Wayne laid waste their country and 
destroyed their power. They gradually 
drifted further west into Indiana and Iowa. 
During the Spanish regime in Missouri they 
were invited to settle in Missouri, or in Up- 
per Louisiana as the country west of the river 
was then called. 

This invitation to settle under the power 
of Spain was prompted by two motives. The 
Spanish wished them to be a bulwark against 
the constant encroachments of the Osages 
whose thieving and plundering expeditions 
harried all of Upper Louisiana and kept its 
inhabitants in a state of constant alarm. 
Spain greatly feared for her colonies, too, be- 
cause of the American desire for the posses- 
sion of the Mississippi. There was a feeling 
along our western border at that time that 
the United States should seize the river, and 
perhaps some of the territory of the western 
side, and hold it. To have the help of the 
savage allies whom she had brought to her 
colonies was one of the motives which 
prompted Spain to bring the Delawares to 
this side. Louis Lorimier. the founder of 
Cape Girardeau, was one of the principal 
agents in the Spanish dealing with the In- 
dians. 

The Shawnees who came to Missouri at the 
same time with the Delawares were quite 
probably an offshoot of the Delawares, who 
had been for some time separated from them 
but who again united with them just before 
their emigration to the west. They resem- 



42 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



bled the Delawares in language and tribal 
habits and acted with them in many of their 
dealings with the white men. 

When these Indians came across the Mis- 
sissippi they settled prineipallj' in the terii- 
tory between the Cinque Honnne and Flora 
creek. Their settlement extends west to 
Whitewater river. Two large villages were 
located on Apple creek, on the north line of 
what is now Cape Girardeau county. There 
were also villages of these Indians along Cas- 
tor river, near the present site of Bloomfiekl 
in Stoddard county, and at Chilletecaux in 
Dunklin county. The.y settled at other places 
in various counties of the district, and most 
of the Indians known to the later settlers in 
this territory belonged to these two tribes, 
or else to the Cherokees concerning whose 
history some facts are given later. These 
Delawares and Shawnees were nearl.y always 
peaceful and inoffensive in their relations 
with the white people. Many of them culti- 
vated little patches of corn or pumpkins, the 
work as was usual with Indians being virtu- 
ally done by the women. They hunted and 
trapped, selling their furs to the various 
traders, using the flesh of animals for their 
food. 

Many places through the lower counties of 
the district have names which perpetuate the 
memory of these Indians. Chilletecaux river 
in Dunklin county, Jim Ease's camp in New 
Madrid, and Seneca slough are a few of them. 
Along Apple creek, where were located the 
principal villages of the Indians, are many 
traces of their residence. 

The lai'gest of the villages on this creek 
contained about four hundred inhabitants. 
The houses were built of logs and the open- 
ings were filled with mud. They were supe- 
rior in some wavs to manv of the tribes of the 



west. Most of them were fine looking well- 
made men, fond of war and the chase. They 
possessed considerable skill in war, and made 
even the fierce Osages respect the prowess of 
their arms. For a long time the Shawnees 
cherished a bitter hatred for Americans. 

This village called Chilleeathee, was situ- 
ated on Apple creek in Cape Girardeau 
county. It was the largest village in the en- 
tire section. More than five hundred Indians 
made their homes here for many years. They 
were prineipallj' Shawnees and Delawares. 
Among these Indians was the sister of the 
celebrated Chief Tecumseh. This Indian wo- 
man, who is said to have been very beautiful 
and possessed of a great fluency of speech 
and considerable eloquence, during a visit to 
an Indian camp at New Madrid, formed the 
acquaintance of a Creole named Francois 
]\Iaisouville. They became attached to one 
another and were married after the Indian 
marriage customs. When Tecumseh heard of 
this he came to New Madrid and forced his 
sister to leave ilaisonville and return to the 
village of Apple creek. However, within a 
few months, while Tecumseh was absent in 
the south attempting to form his great al- 
liance of the southern Indians, his sister re- 
turned to New Madrid and to her husband. 
There are living today, in New Madrid 
county, some of the descendants of Maison- 
ville and his Indian wife. She outlived her 
husband and seemed never to recover from 
her grief for the death of her brother, who 
was killed by Colonel Johnson in Indiana. 

Another one of these Indian villages was 
called Chilletecaux. It was situated on a 
branch of the St. Francois river not far from 
the present site of Kennett, and a third vil- 
lage was located near the present site of 
Point Pleasant in New Madrid county. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



43 



The usual relation of the Indians and the 
white people was one of friendship and good 
feeling, but some times circumstances arose 
which led to trouble. Just before the earth- 
quake of 1811 a war party of Creek Indians, 
under the leadership of a chief named Cap- 
tain George, crossed the Mississippi river four 
miles below Little Prairie. They were on the 
warpath and showed great hostility toward 
the whites. They planned the capture of 
Little Prairie and subsequently New Madrid. 
They were foiled in their efforts by the ac- 
tions of a Delaware Indian. He was a friend 
of the whites, and having discovered the in- 
tention of the Creeks reported their purpose 
to Francois Lasieur and Captain George 
Ruddell. each of whom commanded a com- 
pany of militia. The militia were ordered 
out and all preparations made to repel the 
attack of the Indians. It was just at this 
time, when the whites and Indians were con- 
fronting one another, that the first shock of 
the earthquake was felt. The Indians were so 
alarmed by this that they fled across the 
river, and were doubtless among those who 
were chastised by General Jackson. 

Lasieur in his writing on the early his- 
tory of New Madrid [New Madrid Record, 
1893) calls attention to the fact that the In- 
dians were armed with good rifles which they 
had secured at Kaskaskia, and that they 
never bought any lead. In fact all Indians of 
this district were accustomed to secure their 
supplies of lead from some place in the im- 
mediate vicinity. The Indians remaining in 
the town of Chilleteeaux would depart in the 
morning and return in the evening with bas- 
kets full of lead ore. They went in the direc- 
tion of the St. Francois river. The source 
of their supplies of lead in this part of the 
district has never been discovered. One of 
these Indians named Chookalee, or Corn 



Meal, returned from the reservation to wliidi 
the Indians had been removed, and in 1837 
came to Point Pleasant. He had been in- 
duced to return by the La Sieurs and had 
promised to show them the site of the lead 
mine. Unfortunately he died on the very day 
of his arrival at Point Pleasant and the se- 
cret of his mine died with him. One of the 
famous chiefs of these Indians was Captain 
]\Ioonshine whose son, Billy Moonshine, ap- 
peared in the battle of Big River during the 
Civil war. 

The Indians of this district were seized 
during the close of the eighteenth century by 
a belief in witchcraft. This belief, which was 
widely distributed among them, led to the 
same results as the belief in witchcraft 
among the white people in Salem, Massachu- 
setts. Many persons among the Indians suf- 
fered arrest, persecution and even death, be- 
cause they were accused of being witches. 
The most trivial circumstance was liable to 
draw suspicion upon a person, and, once be- 
ing suspected, he was almost certain to be 
convicted and put to death. It is difficult to 
say how far this delusion would have carried 
the Indians and how many victims it would 
have required had it not been for the fortu- 
nate visit of Tecumseh who was at this time 
organizing the Indians for an assault upofi 
the whites, and in the course of his journeys 
for this purpose came to Southeast Missouri. 
Tecumseh had no belief in wutches, and he 
was unwilling to see the lives of his people 
sacrificed to this delusion. He needed the 
energies of the Indians to assist hira in his 
purpose. Such was his influence and power 
that he brought about the cessation of the 
punishment of those accused of witchcraft. 

Outside of the Osages, the most trouble- 
some Indians to the people of Southeast 



44 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Missouri were, very probably, the members 
of a band of Creeks. De Lassus, in a let- 
ter to Major Stoddard at the time of the 
transfer of Upper Louisiana to the United 
States, says that these Creek Indians had 
been expelled from their tribes on account of 
crimes and that they had spent about ten 
years wandering up and down on both sides 
of the Mississippi river, covering the terri- 
tory from New Madrid to the Llaramec and 
constantly slaying, killing, and burning 
houses. De Lassus calls them the Mashcoux 
Indians. It was some of this band that killed 
David Trotter and burned his house. 

After the punishment of the Indians for 
the killing of Trotter, and some representa- 
tions made by De Lassus to their chief, the 
band seems to have given up the larger part 
of their depredations and no longer to have 
troubled the inhabitants. 

In 1808 the government made a treaty with 
the Osages, by which it was agreed that the 
boundary between them and the United 
States should begin at Port Osage on the 
Mississippi river, run due south to the Ar- 
kansas river and down the Arkansas to the 
Mississippi. All the land east of this line 
was to pass from the Indians to the govern- 
ment of the United States. They also ceded 
to the government their lands north of the 
Mississippi river and two square leagues west 
of this line, to contain Fort Osage. This 
treaty left to the Osages only the western 
part of the territory now embraced in Mis- 
souri. In 1825 the Osages made another 
treaty by which they gave up their rights to 
all the lands in Missouri. 

In 1793 Spain, by action of Baron Ca- 
rondelet, granted to the Shawnees and Dela- 
wares a tract of land situated between the 
Cinque Homme and Cape Girardeau. This 



tract extended as far -ft est as White river. 
This territorj' was claimed by the Osage In- 
dians and was relinquished by them in their 
treaty of 1808. The government of the 
United States, however, did not press this 
claim to this particular tract, for one of the 
clauses in the treaty by which Louisiana was 
ceded to the United States bound this coun- 
try to the fulfilment of all treaties and agree- 
ments between Spain or France and the In- 
dian tribes. In 1815 there began a move- 
ment of the Shawnees and Delawares to the 
west. The}' seemed to have been promised 
other lands in consideration of their removal. 
Some of them went' to Castor and St. Fran- 
cois rivers; some of them settled on White 
river not far from Springfield. In 1825 a 
treaty was made with the Shawnees by which 
they exchanged their Spanish grants in the 
Cape Girardeau district for a tract of fifty 
square miles west of Missouri. They removed 
to these lands in what is now the Indian ter- 
ritory. In 1829 the Delawares gave up their 
title to the Cape Girardeau lands and moved 
further west. In 1832 the allied Delawares 
and Shawnees made a treaty bj' which they 
relinquished the very last of their lands and 
improvements in Southeast Missouri. This 
act extinguished the last title held by the 
Indians to the territory of Missouri. 

While the Indians', lands were all trans- 
ferred by this date (1832), not all the In- 
dians themselves disappeared from this sec- 
tion of the state at that time. There are 
many persons now living who well remember 
when there were scattered bands of the In- 
dians in Southeast ]\'Iisso\iri. One of the last 
of these bands was that at the village of Chil- 
letecaux, near Kennett. They remained here 
until game practically disappeared and it 
became impo.ssible for them longer to live by 
hunting. Some of them died, and the sur- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



45 



vivors moved away, a few at a time, to the 
west. Jlost of them went to the Indian ter- 
ritor}'. 

Some effort was made to educate the In- 
dians, even in the early time. Rev. John 
Ficklin, a Baptist preacher of Kentucky, was 
sent by the Kentucky Mission Society to Mis- 
souri to secure some of the chiklren in order 
to establish an Indian school in Scott county, 
Kentucky. He had an interview with the 
chief of a band of Shawnees and Delawares 
on the Maramec river. This chief was named 
Rogers. He was a white man, but had been 
taken prisoner by the Indians in boyhood and 
had been so trained by them that he Avas 
practically an Indian himself. He had mar- 
ried a young woman, a daughter of the chief, 
and because of his influence and talents had 
succeeded to the office. The Indians, under 
instructions of Captain Rogers, cultivated 
farms and opened a school in the village, 
which was attended by the children of the 
American settlers and of the Indians. These 
children studied their books in school hours 
and then engaged in shooting with a bow and 
arrow and other Indian pastimes, at inter- 
mission. One of the white children who be- 
gan his early education in this mixed school 
was Rev. Louis Williams, who afterwards be- 
came a distinguished minister. 

About the time of the cession Captain 
Rogers and his band had removed to Big 
Spring, at the head of the Maramec river. 
They intended to reside in this place, but the 
country was not suited to them and many of 
them died. Thej^ attributed these deaths to 
the influence of the evil spirit and moved 
away, settling in Franklin county, not far 
south of Union. The sons of Captain Rogers 
and Captain Fish, who succeeded him as 



chief, discussed with Reverend Ficklin the 
question of sending some of their children to 
Kentucky. Louis Rogers, a son of Captain 
Rogers, who could already read and write, 
offered to go to Kentucky, provided he were 
permitted to take his family with him. This 
was assented to, and some of the Indians went 
to Kentucky to this school. Peck ("Life of 
Peck," p. Ill) says that this band of In- 
dians were very thrifty farmers and brought 
the best cattle to the St. Louis market that 
the butchers received. 

The Indian has now disappeared from 
Southeast Missouri. He no longer pursues 
the hunt through the forests, or causes the 
settler to tremble at the sound of the war- 
hoop. His wigwam, his lodge of poles and 
mats, his implements of warfare, his tools 
and utensils no longer exist, or are found 
only in museums and collections of relics. 
The very mounds he reared as places for the 
burial of his dead, as sites for home or tem- 
ple, are no longer sacred to the purposes for 
which he dedicated them, but are desecrated 
by the spade of the explorer and relic hunter, 
and his very erection of them is denied. 

Most of those now living within the bor- 
ders of the state never saw an Indian in his 
native haunts, and cannot reconstruct the 
life of the time when he formed an impor- 
tant part in the making of the history of the 
country. And yet we cannot give more than 
mere casual attention to the story of the de- 
velopment of Southea.st Missouri, without 
discovering that the Indian once played a 
great part here. He has left ineffaceable 
traces of his life, and no one can ever hope to 
come to a complete understanding of our his- 
tory without a study of Indian life and char- 
acter. 



SECTION II 



Under France and Spain 



CHAPTER V 

STE. GENEVIEVE DISTRICT 

The Name Louisiana — The Illinois — The French and Spanish Districts With Their 
Limits — The Appearance and Character op the Country — Ste. Genevieve — Probable 
Date of First Settlement — "The Old Village op Ste. Genevieve" — Original Set- 
tlers — OppiCLiis AND Legal Proceedings — Occupations — The "Big Field" — Indian 
Troubles — Life op the French Pioneers — Population — Pittman's Account — Visit op 
Paul Allioy — As Peck saw the Tovfn — Impressions op Flag — Ferdinand Rozier — 
John James Audubon — John Smith T. — -Henry Dodge — John Rice Jones — New Bour- 
bon — New Tennessee — Table op Settlements — First Settlers in Iron County — The 
Cook and Murphy Settlements — St. Michael's — Old Mines — First Settlers in Jef- 
ferson County — Perry County Settlements — Long's Account. 



La Salle applied to the territory along' the 
Mississippi the name Louisiana. It was early 
divided by the French into two parts, Upper 
Louisiana which was north of the Arkansas 
river and Lower Louisiana which was south 
of the Arkansas. It should be said here 
that the whole territory on both sides of the 
river north of the Ohio was frequently 
called the country of the Illinois, and so va- 
rious settlements and rivers were spoken of 
as being in the Illinois. They applied differ- 
ent names, also, to the rivers of the district. 
Thej^ called the Mississippi the river St. 
Louis, the Missouri they named the St. 
Philip, and the Wabash was called the St. 
James. 

Upper Louisiana was divided into five dis- 
tricts: first, the district of St. Louis between 
the Missouri and the Maramec ; second the 
district of Ste. Genevieve between the Mara- 
mec and Apple Creek; third the district of 
Cape Girardeau extending from Apple Creek 

Vol. 1—4 



to Tywappity bottom ; fourth the disti'ict of 
New Madrid which reached south to the Ar- 
kansas river; and fifth the district of St. 
Charles which lay north of the Missouri 
river. All of these districts fronted on the 
Mississippi and extended an unknown dis- 
tance to the west. 

This country of Upper Louisiana, at the 
time the French began their settlements, 
was one of wonderful beauty and attractive- 
ness. All explorers and travelers who visited 
it were enraptured with the country and the 
prospects of its development. Its hills and 
forests, its streams and springs were all of 
unusual beauty. The openness of the woods, 
the comparative absence of undergrowth 
made the woods both attractive and easy to 
travel through. The alluvial plains not yet 
changed by the earthquakes with their wide 
stretches of level woodland, with their great 
trees, were esteemed by many of the early 
travelers as the choicest part of all Upper 



49 



50 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Louisiana. The country possessed many at- 
tractions for the French and especially for 
the French Canadians. The climate was 
milder than that of Canada, the rivers were 
open during the most of the .year, and the 
forests abounded with game. Buffalo, deer, 
and turkeys were the most important of 
these. The streams were full of fish and the 



tracted by all of these opportunities for ac- 
quiring wealth, planted settlements. The 
earliest of these were grouped about the 
mines. They were transient in nature. The 
first permanent settlement was made at Ste. 
Genevieve. 

It is not possible to fix the exact date of 
the first settlement of Ste. Genevieve. Our 




First Brick House Built West op the Mississippi 
(Used as a Court House in 1785) 



whole country swarmed in season with almost 
incredible flocks of geese, ducks, swans, and 
wild pigeons. It was a hunter's paradise, 
and to it were attracted many men because of 
the abundance of wild game. But there were 
other more solid attractions for the settlers. 
The district of Ste. Genevieve was exceed- 
ingly rich in minerals; that of New Madrid 
in fine soil and timber. 

Within Upper Louisiana the French, at- 



records are not sufficient for us to determine 
the precise year in which it was founded. 
But while this is impossible we are able to 
carry the history of the town back to a date 
previous to that of any other settlement in 
the state, so that it is evident that here was 
made the first settlement of white men within 
the limits of Missouri. Not only is this true, 
but it was, in fact, the first French settle- 
ment west of the river and one of the first in 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



51 



the valley of the Mississippi. Kaskaskia, 
Viueennes, and a few others are older, but 
only a few of them. Before there was a set- 
tlement at St. Louis, or St. Charles, or Cape 
Girardeau, or New Madrid, Ste. Genevieve 
was a thriving and prosperous village. 

The original town was not located on the 
present site of Ste. Genevieve, hut in the 
great common field about three miles south 
of the present town. This old town was 
called "le vieux village de Ste. Genevieve" — 
the old village of Ste. Genevieve. The site on 
which it stood has been swept away by the 
river. This old site was -abandoned in 1785 
owing to an unprecedented rise in the river 
which overflowed the entire town. So great 
was the flood and so vivid the impression it 
made on the people that this year was ever 
afterward known as the year of the great 
flood. By 1791 the removal to the new site 
was completed and the place where the old 
village had stood was gradually washed away 
by the river. 

It is a matter of regret that we cannot fix 
the precise time when the first settlement 
here was begun. This, as has been stated, is 
not possible. Several considerations, how- 
ever, enable us to fix the approximate date. 

In the year 1881 there was discovered an 
old well on the bank of the river in the Big 
Field of Ste. Genevieve. The river had eaten 
away the earth from about the well until it 
stood up like a stone chimney. On a stone 
in the top of this well was the date 1732. A 
part of the stone containing the date was 
chipped off by Leon Jokerst, who discovered 
the old well, and preserved by him. The re- 
mainder of the old well was swept away by 
the currents of the river. This old well evi- 
dently belonged to some house in the out- 
skirts of the old town, and the date is very 
probably the year in which the well was con- 



structed. If this is the case then the first 
settlement was made sometime prior to 1732.* 
There is still to be seen in the office of the 
recorder of deeds an affidavit made in 1825, 
by Julien Labriere, in which he deposes that 
he is fiftj^-six years of age, that he was born 
in the old village of Ste. Genevieve, that he 
remembered to have seen as a small child 
the first settler in the village, one Baptiste 
La Rose, then very old. The affidavit sets 
out also the recollections of Labriere concern- 
ing the removal to the new site. 

Pittman who visited Ste. Genevieve in 
1765 says that the first settlers came to Ste. 
Genevieve about twenty-eight years ago from 
Cascasquias attracted by the goodness of the 
soil and the plentiful harvests, t 

Mrs. Menard of Ste. Genevieve as late as 
1881 had in her possession what was perhaps 
the oldest legal document relating to the 
town. It was an account of the sale of a 
house and lot belonging to the estate of Lau- 
rent Gabouri. Jean Baptiste St. Gem was the 
purchaser. The property is described as lo- 
cated in the village of Ste. Genevieve which 
must have been an established village at the 
time of the transfer. The bill of sale is 
dated in December, 1754. The terms used in 
describing the property leave no doubt that 
the settlement was an old and well estab- 
lished one at that remote date and had been 
in existence for many yeai-s.J 

In the collection known as the Guibour 
Papers now in the Missouri Historical So- 
ciety files are to be seen copies of petitions to 
the commandants of the district for land. 
In one of these Francois Rivard asks for a 
grant of land, which from the terms of the 
petition, must have been located near the vil- 

* "History of Southeast Missouri," p. 241. 

+ "Mississippi Settlements," p. 95. 

i Houck, ' ' History of Missouri, ' ' Vol. I, p. ?39. 



52 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



lage for the petitioner promises to set aside a 
certain part of it for a chui-ch. The grant 
was made as requested and is dated 1752. 
It appears that at this time one Chaponga 
cultivated a part of what is now the Big Field 
of Ste. Genevieve. In the same year one 
Geneaux prays for a grant of land along the 
Saline Creek adjoining the land of one Dor- 
lac who must have been in the Big Field also. 
' A fort named Fort Joachim was located in 
the old village during the year 1759. A ref- 
erence to this old fort is to be found in the 
register of the Catholic church of Ste. Gene- 
vieve. V Numerous other references to old 
events are found scattered through church 
records, in court proceedings and the letters 
and books of private persons. None of them 
give an exact date for the founding of the 
town, but all of them indicate that it was 
settled early in the eighteenth century. 

The original settlers of the old village of 
Ste. Genevieve were Francisco Valle, Jean 
Baptiste Valle, Joseph Loisel, Jean Baptiste 
Maurice, Francois Maurice, Francois Cole- 
man, Jaques Boyer, Henri Maurice, Parfait 
Dufour, Joseph Bequette, Jean Baptiste Tho- 
mure, Joseph Govreau, Louis Boldue, Jean 
Baptiste St. Gem, Laurent Gabouri, Jean 
Beauvais, B. N. Janis and J. B. T. Pratte. 

Of these settlers the Valle family were very 
prominent, Francois Valle, Sr., and his sons 
Francois, Jr., and Jean Baptiste were all 
commandants of the post at various times. 
Francois, Jr., lived for many years in a large 
one story frame building on South Gabouri 
Creek. This house is still standing and is a 
typical French residence of that time. It is 
low but has large porches making it comfort- 
able. The wife of Francois Valle was Louise 
Carpentier whom he married in 1777. They 



reared a number of children. One of the 
daughters of the family married Robert T. 
Brown of Perry county, another married Dr. 
Walter Fenwick who was afterward killed 
in a duel, a third daughter became the wife 
of Joseph Pratte, and the fourth married 
Captain Wilkinson. Francois Valle, Jr., died 
March 6, 1804, and was buried under his 
pew in the old Catholic church. 

Jean Baptiste Valle, the brother of Fran- 
cois, Jr., married Jane Barbau. He was a 
prosperous merchant and lived in Ste. Ge- 
nevieve for a number of years. Another of 
the sons of Francois Valle, Sr., was named 
Charles. He married Pelagic Carpentier in 
1769, and Marie Louise Valle the only daugh- 
ter of Francois Valle, Sr., was married to 
Francois LeClere in 1776. 

Another of the influential families of the 
old village was the St. Gems, or as they are 
frequently known St. Gem Beauvais a short- 
ening of St. Gem de Beauvais. Some mem- 
bers of the family finally discontinued the 
use of St. Gem in their name and became 
known as Beauvais. The founder of the fam- 
ily in this counti-y was Jean Baptiste, who 
came to Ka-skaskia about 1720 and was mar- 
ried in 1725 to Louise LaCi'ois at Fort 
Chartres. Their family consisted of five sons 
and two daughters. Two of the sons, Jean 
Baptiste, Jr., and Vital St. Gem, or as he 
was often called. Vital Beauvais, removed 
from Kaskaskia when that place was cap- 
tured by Clark, to Ste. Genevieve. The 
former of the two brothers built what was 
perhaps the first grist mill west of the Missis- 
sippi. The house in which he lived for many 
years is still standing in Ste. Genevieve. He 
was an office holder for a number of years be- 
ing one of the first judges of the Court of 
Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions remain- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHExVST MISSOURI 



53 



ing in office until his death. He was the 
father of six sons, Raphael, Joseph M. D., 
Bartholomew, Vital, John B. and August. 
Vital St. Gem, the brother of Jean Bap- 
tiste, lived for a time at the Saline but came 
to Ste. Genevieve in 1791, the house in which 
he lived until his death was afterward oc- 
cupied by Mrs. Menard and is still standing. 
He died in 1816. 

John B. Pratte, who came to Ste. Ge- 
nevieve about 1754, was one of the most suc- 
cessful merchants in the early history of the 
town. He held a number of local offices 
among them the chairmanship of the Board 
of Trustees of the town. His sons were Ber- 
nard, Joseph, Antoine, Bileron and Henry. 
The Pratte family now prominent in Ste. 
Genevieve county are descendents of John 
B. Pratte. 

The Janis family, many of whose descend- 
ants are still to be found in Ste. Genevieve, 
came to the district very early in its history. 
The founder of the family was Nicholas 
Janis, who lived for a time in Kaskaskia. 
His sons were Francois, Antoine and Bap- 
tiste, his daughters were Felicite, who mar- 
ried Vital St. Gem; Catherine, who married 
Stephen Bolduc, and Francoise who became 
Madam Durocher. 

The population of Ste. Genevieve in- 
creased very rapidly after the delivery of the 
territory east of the river from France to 
England. The . French of Kaskaskia, Fort 
Chartres, Prairie du Rocher and Cahokia, 
unwilling to live under the government of 
England removed in large numbers across 
the river to St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve. 
This was from the years 1765 to 1769. Of 
course at this time the territory of Upper 
Louisiana had been transferred to Spain, 
but this change was not known to the French 
in this country, and accordingly they be- 



lieved they were moving back under the flag 
of France. The first legal proceedings at 
Ste. Genevieve were had on the 19th day of 
:\Iay, 1766. In that year Rocheblave was 
Commandant, and M. Robinet was the notary 
and greffier. They were both officers of 
France and held office until November 22, 
1769, when they gave way to the officers of 
Spain. This first legal proceeding was the 
drawing up of a marriage contract between 
Pierre Roy and Jeanette Lalond. 

The court records and the official corre- 
spondence of the French and Spanish officials 
both at St. Louis and at New Orleans contain 
abundant evidence that Ste. Genevieve was a 
prosperous and flourishing village during 
the latter half of the eighteenth century. In 
1769 Rui in a report to Governor O'Rielly 
says that the town contains fifty-five or sixty 
citizens, and Piemas in the same year says 
the population is about 600. Other state- 
ments made from time to time to the various 
Spanish Governors indicate that the town 
grew steadily, especially after its removal to 
its present site. 

Among early officials was Phillip Roche- 
blave, who had been commandant at Kaskas- 
kia at the time that post was taken by the 
Americans under George Rogers Clark, and 
after a somewhat adventurous life had made 
his way to St. Louis ; he was there appointed 
commandant both civil and military of the 
post of Ste. Genevieve. He was succeeded 
by Francois Valle a member of one of the 
oldest and most influential families of Ste. 
Genevieve. Valle was succeeded by Fran- 
cisco Cartabona de Oro, and he by Henri 
Peyroux De La Coudeniere. In 1796 Fran- 
cois Valle, Jr., became commandant with 
both civil and military authority. He was 
succeeded by his brother Jean Baptiste who 
held the post until the transfer to the United 



54 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



States and was continued in olBce by Gover- 
nor William Henry Harrison. This Jean 
Baptiste was one of the most interesting char- 
acters in the early history of the town. He 
lived to a very great age and his descendants 
still occupy the old homestead in Ste. Gene- 
vieve. 

The early settlers in Ste. Genevieve, while 
the town occupied the old site in the big field 
and which has long since been swept away by 
the river, were engaged principally in the 
cultivation of the soil of that big field. They 
had been attracted there largely by the rich- 
ness of that soil, and in part by the oppor- 
tunities for trade with the Indians, and in 
part also because of the nearness to the new 
mines then being opened up by Renault 
and his agents. These mines were situ- 
ated on the Maramec river in what is now 
Washington county and at Mine La Motte. 
The lead produced by these mines was car- 
ried on horseback to Ste. Genevieve for 
transportation either down the river to New 
Orleans or else up the river to the Spanish 
post at St. Louis, which was then called Pain- 
court. Owing to the peculiar manner by 
which the pigs of lead were carried to Ste. 
Genevieve they were not cast in the usual 
shape but were moulded into a form resem- 
bling the collar of a horse and were then hung 
on the neck of the horse for transport. One 
of these peculiar pigs of lead was found 
some years ago by the side of the old road 
leading from the mines on the Maramec to 
Ste. Genevieve. It seems that some of the in- 
habitants of the town were engaged in min- 
ing and in the transportation of the lead. 
Others of them were early engaged in mill- 
ing. They shipped flour and meal by way of 
the river to all the posts about them and as 
far south as New Orleans. In 1771 Matthew 



Kenuedj', a merchant at Ste. Genevieve, 
shipped 1200 pounds of flour to a post on the 
Arkansas River. This shows that the trade 
of Ste. Genevieve, even at that early date, 
was extensive. It is a remarkable fact that 
the merchants and traders at St. Louis were 
accustomed to purchase a considerable part 
of their supplies in Ste. Genevieve. 

In common with other settlers in Southeast 
Missouri, the people of Ste. Genevieve were 
much troubled by the Osage Indians. These 
Indians, whose principal camp was on the 
Osage river, extended their hunting and 
plundering operations over all the section, 
and were exceedingly troublesome. They 
were great thieves, being especially fond of 
horse stealing. They were accustomed to 
make raids upon the exposed farms and even 
upon houses in the outskirts of the village, to 
seize the horses and other property which at- 
tracted their attention and to carry it away. 
If resisted they frequently murdered the 
owner and burned his house. To assist in 
protecting themselves against these unpleas- 
ant raids the people of Ste. Genevieve pro- 
cured the settlement of the old band of Pe- 
orias. These Indians from Illinois lived for 
many years in the vicinity of the town and 
took part in the resistance to the raids of the 
Osage Indians. They of course incurred the 
deadly hatred of the fierce and savage Osages 
and lived themselves in constant fear of them. 
They were afraid to venture on hunting ex- 
peditions which took them away from the 
immediate vicinity of the town and bewailed 
the fact that they were compelled to live like 
women on fish and the produce of the soil 
instead of living the life of men and warriors. 
The French, so long as they remained in con- 
trol of the territory treated the outbreaks 
and outrages of the Osages with a great deal 
of leniency, but the Spanish on taking over 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



55 



the territory dealt with a firm hand witli 
these matters and so we find that Barou 
Carondelet while in command in St. Louis 
organized the inhabitants of the various posts 
throughout his territory into companies of 
militia for the purpose of resisting and chas- 
tising the Indians. One of these companies 
was organized at Ste. Genevieve and we find 
records of its actual participation in the In- 
dian troubles. On one occasion induced by 
a particularly flagrant outrage committed 
near New Madrid, all the companies of 
Southeast Missouri assembled for the pur- 
pose of inflicting punishment on the authors 
of the outrage and we find the little army 
composed of companies from St. Louis, Ste. 
Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid 
assembling at Cape Girardeau and making 
its way to the south where the nuirderers 
were apprehended and summarily dealt with. 
Life in Ste. Genevieve in these early years 
was not very diflierent from pioneer life in 
other parts of the country. It was at first a 
typical French village. Some of the inhabit- 
ants were members of the old French fam- 
ilies, but the greater part of them were of the 
peasant class. They were so shut off from the 
world, in the midst of a vast continent their 
nearest neighbors being sixty-five miles 
away at the little village of St. Louis, that 
they were dependent, almost entirely, upon 
themselves. News reached them from Europe 
only after the long voyage across the Atlan- 
tic and the almost equally as long and tedi- 
ous voyage up the Mississippi, and so cut 
off from the world in an isolation difficult 
for us to comprehend, there developed the 
characteristic life of the frontier. The people 
were happy and industrious. They were re- 
ligious by nature and provided liberally for 
the church. Their priests were held in hi"l' 
esteem and religion entered into all the af- 



fairs of their daily lives. They lived the free 
open life of a new country. They tilled the 
soil or voyaged on the river, they hunted or 
trapped in the great woods, or traded with 
the Indians, and somehow from it all they 
managed not only to live in considerable 
comfort, but to accumulate property. We 
find that Lambert La Fleur, who died in 
1771, left an estate of about $14,000.00, all 
of which had been accumulated while a resi- 
dent in Ste. Genevieve. But their industries 
and even their religion did not form all, or 
perhaps even the greatest part, of the life of 
the people of Ste. Genevieve. Being French 
they were fond of pleasure and amusement 
and they found both, even in the midst of the 
life in a frontier town. Their games, their 
social meetings, their dancing, their jests 
amused some of the courtly travelers who 
visited them direct from the King's court at 
Paris. They, no doubt, found all these things 
crude and even disagreeable to cultivated aiid 
refined tastes. Some of these travelers who 
were received by Ste. Genevieve with open- 
hearted hospitality were rude enough to for- 
get the duties of a guest and to write of their 
entertainment in a most sarcastic and cutting 
way. In spite of this, however, the people of 
the town found in their simple amusement 
and pleasure that relaxation from toil and 
care which is necessary to a healthy and sane 
life. 

The first legal proceedings under Com- 
mandant Rocheblave were had on the 19th 
of May, 1766, it was the drawing up of a 
marriage contract between Pierre Roy and 
Jeanette Lalond. After that there was a rec- 
ord of the sale of land, the first sale of land 
was made by Pierre Aritfone to Henri Car- 
pentier. another land sale was by Joseph Le- 
Don to Le Febre du Couquette. In the same 
vear there is a record of tlie sale of salt 



56 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



works on the Saline river with ten negroes 
and a lot of cattle by John LaGrange to one 
Blowin. In the year 1767 an appeal was 
prosecuted from the decision of the Comman- 
dant to the Cabildo at New Orleans. 

One of the peculiar customs of old Ste. 
Genevieve was that of bringing all persons 
charged with crime to church on Sunday 
and exhibiting them before the congregation 
after the service in order that they might be 
known and recognized by the whole com- 
munity. 

The first baptism in the old village of Ste. 
Genevieve was performed by a Jesuit Mis- 
sionary named P. M. Watrin, February 24, 
1760; the first religious marriage was cele- 
brated on October 30, 1764, by Father J. L. 
Meurin the parties were Mark Canada and 
Susan Henn, both of these persons had lived 
among the Indians, the woman for five years 
as a prisoner. This marriage was witnessed 
by Jean Ganion and T. Tebriege. 

The great common field south of Ste. Gene- 
vieve was the most valuable possession of tlir 
inhabitants, this land was fenced at the ex- 
pense of the entire town and at the beginning 
of each year a portion of the field was as- 
signed to each resident who was expected to 
cultivate this and keep the fence in repair 
near his part of the field. If any one aban- 
doned his land it was sold at a public sale 
at the church door. Plowing was done with 
a wooden plow and horses were seldom used 
but generally oxen were attached to the plow. 
Horses were used for pulling the eharrette or 
cart ; this cart had no iron fastenings or iron 
tires, the wheels were usually made of sea- 
soned white oak with the hub of gum. From 
one to three horses were driven to the cart; 
when more than one horse was used they 
were driven tandem, the traces being of 
twisted rawhide. This cart was used for all 



kinds of work as well as for family use ; when 
women traveled in them they were seated in 
chairs that were tied to the rail of the cart.* 

Ste. Genevieve had a population of 945 in 
the year 1799 and 1,300 in 1804, one-third of 
the population were slaves. The trade was 
fairly large in early times, principal things 
bought and sold were lead and furs. The 
commercial men of Ste. Genevieve during the 
period from 1804 to 1820 were remarkably ac- 
tive and successful in their business pursuits. 
Ferdinand Rozier was one of the early mer- 
chants and was very successful in business; 
Louis Bolduc was another merchant who be- 
came very wealthy. It is said that at one 
time an American named ]\Iadden, who was 
also rich, offered to wager that he had more 
money than Bolduc ; the latter, however, re- 
torted by asking IMadden to bring a half 
bushel measure in order to measure the sil- 
ver money in Bolduc 's cellar. Another 
wealthy trading firm was Menard & Valle. 
This firm was established in 1817, the year 
that the first steamboat made its way up the 
Mississippi river. Pierre Menard, one of the 
partners of this firm, was the Indian agent 
and controlled a great amount of trade 
throughout the west. 

Pittman, who visited Ste. Genevieve in 
1769 says that the town was settled 28 years 
previousl.y by persons from Kaskaskia at- 
tracted by the goodness of the soil and the 
plentiful harvest and describes the situation 
of the village as very convenient, being within 
one league of the salt spring, which was for 
the general use of the French subjects. There 
were a number of works at the spring and 
lai'ge ciuantities of salt were made for the 
Indian hunters and other settlers. He says 
also that a lead mine which supplied the 

* Eozier, ' ' History of Mississippi Valley, ' ' p. 123. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^MISSOURI 



57 





Louis Boulduc's House, Ste. Genevieve 




Louis Guibourd's House, Ste. Genevieve 



58 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



whole country with shot was about 15 leagues 
distant. He further saj's: "The village of 
St. Louis is supplied with salt and other pro- 
visions from here. An ofScer appointed by 
the French Commandant as the entire regu- 
lation of the police here, is a company of 
militia commanded by a Mons. Vallet, who 
resides at this place and is the richest in- 
habitant of the country of the Illinois; he 
raises great quantities of corn and provisions 
of every kind, he has a hundred negroes be- 
sides hired white people constantly employed. 
The village is about one mile in length and 
contains about seventy families. Here is a 
very fine water mill for corn and plants be- 
longing to Mons. Vallet."* 

It is possible that the Vallet mentioned 
was a member of the family afterwards 
known as Valle. 

In 1803 Paul Alliot visited Ste. Genevieve 
and says of it : "It is inhabited by twelve 
hundred people who are especially engaged 
in the cultivation of wheat and in the chase ; 
they own lead mines from which they derive 
great profits. In their forests they find 
bears prodigiously fat and large, the oil from 
whicli is much sought after by the inhabi- 
tants, even by those of New Orleans. They 
raise good vegetables and make excellent but- 
ter and cheese. That city is large enough 
and rich enough to support a priest, yet it 
does not have any and the people are dying. 
They are governed by a Commandant who 
always terminates in a friendly manner the 
quarrels which arise among them.t 

Peck, who visited the place in 1819, gives 
the following account of the place. 

Ste. Genevieve is the oldest French Villasre 
in Missouri. When Laclede and the Chouteaus 

* Pittman, "Jfississippi Settlements," p. 96. 
t Eobertson, "Louisiana," Vol. I, p. 103. 



came from New Orleans to establish a trad- 
ing-post at St. Louis, in 1763, they stopped 
at Ste. Genevieve, which contained about 
twelve or fifteen families, in as manj^ small 
cabins, but finding no warehouse or other 
building in which they could store their 
goods, they went on to Port Chartres and 
wintered. We date the commencement of 
Ste. Genevieve as a village from the period of 
the erection of Port Chartres, the second, 
about 1756. Very probably there were pre- 
vious to this, as there were in the lead- 
mining districts, what are called in patois 
French, cabanes, a term expressing the idea 
of "shanties," a cluster of shelters for tem- 
porary purposes. Such cabanes were in the 
lead-mining district when Philip Francis 
Renault had his exploring parties out at va- 
rious points in the upper valley of the Mis- 
sissippi. And, by the way, I find no evidence 
that lead-mining was followed in the mining 
country after Renault, disappointed, and a 
"broken merchant," quit the business about 
17-40, until the possession of Illinois by the 
British about twenty-five years thereafter. 
Many of the French inhabitants who held 
slaves left the Illinois countrj' ; some went to 
the newly established town of St. Louis; 
others to Lower Louisiana. ]\Iany families 
also went to the lead mines in Missouri, 
while others stopped at Ste. Genevieve and 
New Bourbon with their servants. This gave 
an impulse to the former town, which before 
1770 became the depot and shipping-port for 
the lead business. The French at St. Louis, 
as a nom-de-nique, called Ste. Genevieve 
Misere, as they did Cardondelet, Vide Poche ; 
and in their turn received the nick-name of 
Pain Coui't, to indicate they were short of 
bread. 

The old town of which I am writing was 
near the Mississippi, and about one mile be- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



59 



low the ferry and landing. From this point, 
where the rock forms a landing, for seven 
miles down the river, was an extensive tract 
of alluvial bottom about three miles in width. 
On this rich alluvial the French of Ste. 
Genevieve and New Bourbon made one of 
the largest "common fields" to be found 
along the Upper Mississippi. It contained 
within tlie common enclosure from three 
thousand to four thousand acres. The re- 
peated inundations of high water, and es- 
pecially the great flood of 1784, drove the in- 
habitants to the high ground in the rear, 
where they built the old residences of the new 
town, or the existing Ste. Genevieve. Each 
successive flood tore away the rich bottom 
along the river, until that of 1844 about 
"used up" the great common field of the vil- 
lage. No passenger in passing up or down 
the great expansive bend of the river would 
hardly realize that the largest steamers now 
float in a channel that is more than two miles 
from the Mississippi river as it ran in 1780.* 
When Flagg visited the Ste. Genevieve dis- 
trict in 1836, he says that the town then con- 
tained about eight hundred inhabitants 
though its population was once said to have 
exceeded two thousand. Among the persons 
whom he met at that time was Jean Baptiste 
Valle who was one of the chief proprietors 
of jMine La Motte, and though at that time 
more than ninety years of age, was almost 
as active as when he was fifty. Flagg gave 
this description of Ste. Genevieve at that 
time : ' ' Ste. Genevieve is situated about one 
mile from the Mississippi, upon a broad allu- 
vial plain lying between branches of a small 
stream called the Gabourie; beyond the first 
botton rises a second stepped and behind this 
is a third attaining an elevation of more than 
one hundred feet from the water edge. Upon 
*"Life of Peck," p. 78. 



this elevation was erected some twenty years 
since a handsome structure of stone com- 
manding a noble prospect of the river, the 
broad American bottom on the opposite side 
and the bluffs beyond Kaskaskia. It was in- 
tended for a literary structure but owing to 
unfavorable reports with regard to the health 
of its situation, the design was abandoned 
and the structure was never completed, 
is now in a state of ruins and enjoys the 
reputation, however, of being haunted, in 
very sooth its aspect viewed from the river 
at twilight, with its broken windows out- 
lined against the western sky is wild enough 
to wai'rant such an idea or any other. The 
court house and Catholic chapel constitute 
the public buildings. To the south of the 
village and looking upon the river is situated 
the common field originally comprising two 
thousand arpents, but it is now much less 
in extent and is yearly diminishing from 
the action of the current upon the alluvial 
banks. These common fields were granted 
by the Spanish government as well as the 
French to every village started under their 
domination. A single enclosure at the expense 
of the villagers, was erected and kept in re- 
pair; the lot of every individual was separ- 
ated from his neighbors by double furrow. 
Near this field the village was formerly lo- 
cated but in the inundation of 1785, called 
by the habitants, L'annee des grandes eaux, 
when so much of the bank was washed away 
that the settlers were forced to secure a more 
elevated site. The Mississippi was at this 
time swelled thirty feet above the highest 
water mark before known and the town of 
Kaskaskia and the whole American bottom 
was inundated."! 

Flagg says that at the time he visited, in 
1836, the immense eaves of pure white sand, 

t Flagg 's ' ' Far West, ' ' p. 95. 



60 



. HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



at not a great distance from Ste. Genevieve, 
were being opened and quantities of sand 
sent to Pittsburg for the manufacture of 
flint glass. He speaks also of a number of 
beautiful fountains in the neighborhood, one 
of them of surpassing loveliness. 

Flagg also comments on the shot factories 
at Herculaneum and speaks with very great 
delight of the great rocks above Herculaneum 
called "Cornice" rocks. 

One of the prominent citizens of Ste. Gene- 
vieve was Ferdinand Rozier. He was born in 
the city of Nantes, France. He had been in 
the French navy and came to America, set- 
tling first in Philadelphia, afterward in Ken- 
tucky, and finally removing to Ste. Gene- 
vieve in 1812. Rozier engaged in trade im- 
mediately upon his arrival, and continued in 
business to the end of his life. He was a 
man of enterprise and ability and had branch 
stores at Perryville and Potosi. Many of the 
goods bought and sold in those days came 
from the East and in the course of his trade 
Rozier made six trips between Ste. Genevieve 
and Philadelphia on horseback. A single 
trip of this kind at the present date would 
be considered a very great undertaking, to 
say nothing of six of them. Rozier left a 
large family, many of whose members have 
been, and are still, prominent in Missouri. 

Associated with Rozier, for a number of 
years, was the famous naturalist, John James 
Audubon. Like the family of Rozier, his 
family lived in Nantes; the naturalist was 
born, however, in Louisiana, where the fam- 
ily resided for a short time. When John 
James Audubon was but a child, the family 
returned to France, and he was educated in 
the French schools. One of his teachers was 
the famous painter, David. Audubon and 
Rozier entered the navy together during the 



French Revolution. They served in the navy 
for only a short time and finally decided to 
emigrate to America. They first lived in 
Pennsylvania, then in Kentucky, visiting in 
Springfield and Louisville, and spending in 
this state the time from 1807 to 1810. In 
1810 they purchased a keel-boat, loaded it 
with provisions and whiskey and voyaged in 
it to Ste. Genevieve. Audubon's account of 
this voyage up the Mississippi river is a vei-y 
interesting one. He pictures the scenes on 
the river and the slow progress of the keel- 
boat in a very remarkable manner. The two 
men embarked in business in Ste. Genevieve, 
together, and were very successful. The suc- 
cess of the business, however, depended en- 
tirel.v upon Rozier, for Audubon had no taste 
for business at all, but spent his time in the 
woods hunting and painting birds. In 1811 
he sold his interest in the business and re- 
turned to Kentucky. Here he devoted him- 
self for a time to business, but finally gave 
up entirely to the study of nature, becoming 
one of the greatest ornitliologists of the 
world. 

One of the famous men of this period in 
Missouri was the celebrated John Smith T. 
He was a native of Georgia, but had lived 
in Tennessee before coming to Missouri. He 
removed to Ste. Genevieve about the year 
1800 and afterwards lived at a little town 
called Shibboleth, in Washington county. 
Smith was a tall, slender man, of the mildest 
appearance and the most courteous manners, 
the very last man, .judging b.y his appearance 
only, to be considered at all dangerous. He 
was, however, a man of terrible passions and 
when aroused he was one of the most danger- 
ous men in the history of the state. He was 
famous for his skill with the pistol and the 
rifle, and he bad many encounters of a most 
serious and bloody character. His house re- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



61 



sembled an arsenal, for it was filled with 
arms and weapons of every kind. He, him- 
self, was a skilled mechanic, and kept slaves 
who were expert in the making of weapons. 
Smith's principal business was that of min- 
ing. He had at first entered into Burr's 
schemes for invading Mexico, but withdrew 
from that when they were warned by the 
proclamation of President Jefferson. Col. 
Smith was selected at one time to visit Wash- 
ington, and represent the people of the ter- 
ritory before Congress. In 1806 he was ajj- 
pointed one of the Territorial Judges of the 
court of General Quarter Sessions. In spite 
of his. numerous difficulties and duels, and in 
spite of the enemies which he had. Smith 
finally died a natural death, and was buried 
in St. Louis. 

Henry Dodge was born at Vincennes, Oc- 
tober 12, 1782. He was the son of Israel 
Dodge and his wife, Nancy Hunter. Israel 
Dodge, it will be remembered, was one of the 
first American settlers in Upper Louisiana, 
having come to the Ste. Genevieve district 
prior to 1800. The family engaged in the 
manufacture of salt on Saline creek. Henry 
Dodge was a very prominent and influential 
man. He served for a time as sheriff of Ste. 
Genevieve county; his greatest service, how- 
ever, was rendered in a military way. On 
the breaking out of the Indian troubles, 
about the time of the war of 1812, Dodge was 
appointed as a general in the territory of 
militia. During that time he was exceedingly 
active in protecting the frontiers from the 
Indians. He lived in Ste. Genevieve until 
the year 1827, when he removed to "Wiscon- 
sin. During the Black Hawk war, he was in 
command of some of the American troops, 
and defeated Black Hawk and the Indians. 
He also served in the army during the cam- 
paign against the Indians in the south and in 



1835 was in charge of the expedition of the 
west. He was appointed Governor of Wis- 
consin territory for two terms and afterward 
was elected to the senate from Wisconsin. 
During his residence in Missouri he served as 
a member of the constitutional convention, 
and was prominent among those who helped 
to frame the constitution. 

The first resident of Washington county, 
during this period, was a native of Wales. 
This was John Rice Jones, who was born in 
Wales in 1759. He was a soldier in the Revo- 
lutionary army, and assisted George Rogers 
Clark in the capture of Vincennes. Before 
coming to Missouri, he lived for a time in 
Vincennes and also in Kaskaskia. In 1804 
he removed to Ste. Genevieve where he con- 
tinued in the practice of law. He afterward 
fixed his residence at Potosi. He acquired a 
large practice, for he was a good lawyer, and 
full of energy and devotion to his clients. He 
was one of the prominent members of the con- 
stitutional convention, representing Wash- 
ington county. He lived to the age of sixty- 
five, and two of his sons, John Augustus 
Jones and Hon. George W. Jones, were very 
prominent in public life, the latter being, at 
one time. United States senator from Iowa. 

As we have seen Ste. Genevieve was the ad- 
ministrative center of a district and the resi- 
dence of a commandant. This district in- 
eluded a large territory. Within it were the 
present counties of Ste. Genevieve, Perry, 
Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and Iron. 
During the period with which we are now en- 
gaged, extending from the visit of DeSoto to 
1804, settlements were made in all these coun- 
ties. All these settlements were under the 
authority of the commandant of Ste. Gene- 
vieve. Within the present county of Ste. 
Genevieve only two settlements besides Ste. 
Genevieve itself were made at this time. 



62 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



They were "Novelle Bourbon' 
bon and New Tennessee. 



or New Boui' 



odist cbureli. This 
about the year 1800. 



settlement was made 



New Bourbon was situated about two and 
one-half miles from the old village of Ste. 
Genevieve. Its site was on a hill which over- 
looked a strip of plain about one league in 
width, lying between it and the river. The 
settlement here was made in 1793 by order of 
Baron Cardondelet. Cardondelet was at this 
time lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana 
with headquarters at St. Louis. He founded 
this colony and made it a separate adminis- 
trative division in order to give a place to 
Pierre De Hault De Lassus De Luziere who 
was made the commandant of New Bourbon. 
It was the intention to bring to this new set- 
tlement the colony of French nobles who had 
emigrated from France during the Revolution 
and had formed a settlement in Ohio called 
Gallipolis. The scheme for bringing these 
French nobles was never carried into effect 
fully, bi;t some of them came and made their 
home here near Ste. Genevieve. The author- 
ity of the commandant at this place extended 
west to Mine La JMotte. At New Bourbon 
there was a small mill erected in 1793 on the 
creek now called Dodge's creek. The mill 
was built by Francois Valle and afterward 
sold to Israel Dodge. It was the first mill 
west of the Mississippi river. 

The settlement called New Tennessee was 
made in what is now Saline township. The 
first settlers here were Peter Bloom and 
Thomas Madden. Both of them had formerly 
lived at Ste. Genevieve. Others who lived 
in the vicinity were Nicholas Counts, Joseph 
Hughes, Jesse Bryant, William Painter, John 
and Edward "Walsh, Elder Wingate Jackson, 
who was a Bapitst preacher, and John Mc- 
Farland, who was a minister of the Meth- 



The following table gives the larger num- 
ber of the settlements in the Ste. Genevieve 
district made before the transfer to the United 
States in 1804. The dates are as accurate as 
can now be given : 

Ste. Genevieve 1735 

Old J\Iines in Washington county 1748 

]\liue a Breton near Potosi 1775 

In Bois Brule Bottom 1787 

On the Cinque Homme in Perry county. 1788 

New Bourbon near Ste. Genevieve 1793 

Ally's Mines on Big River in St. Fran- 
cois county 1797 

On the Aux Vases in Perry county 1797 

On the Brazeau in Perry county 1797 

On Establishment creek in Perry county. 1797 
The Fenwick Settlement on Apple creek.1797 

In Belle\'ne Valley 1798 

Murphy Settlement now Farmington. . .1798 

Herculaneum 1798 

Cook's Settlement southwest of Farm- 
ington 1799 

On Joachim creek in Jefferson county. .1799 

St. jMichael now Fredericktown 1800 

On the Saline in Perry county 1800 

Between Joachim and the Plattin 1801 

William Reed was the first settler in the 
Bellevue Valley in Iron county. He came in 
1798, having received permission of De Lu- 
ziere the Spanish official in charge at New 
Bourbon. Solomon George came about the 
same time and made his home on the Little 
St. Francois. Elisha Baker came to the same 
settlement from the Bois Brule Bottom in 
1798, being accompanied by his son Elijah. 
Joseph Reed, a nephew of William, was an- 
other of the early settlers. Near the vicin- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



63 



ity of Big River Mills in St. Francois county, 
a settlement, was begun in the year 1796. 
The men who located there at that time 
were John Ally, Andrew Baker, Francis 
Starnater and John Andrews. They had 
marked out their claims two years earlier than 
this. At fii-st they did not erect houses, but 
lived for a time in camps. This settlement 
grew rapidly and soon became one of great 
importance. On the first day of March, 1707, 
Henry Fry and Rebecca Baker, two inhabi- 
tants of this settlement, accompanied bj' a 
number of their friends, set out for Ste. 
Genevieve; they intended to be married at 
that place. There was no one nearer than 
Ste. Genevieve who was authorized to per- 
form a marriage ceremony. While on their 
way in the vicinity of Terre Blue, they were 
met by a party of Osage Indians who stopped 
them and robbed them of everything they 
possessed. These circumstances compelled 
them to return to the settlement and post- 
pone the intended marriage for one year. 
In 1798, Reverend William Murphy, said 
to have been a Baptist minister, living in 
Tennessee, together with his son William and 
a friend named Cyrus George, came to Upper 
Louisiana and received permission from the 
authorities to form a settlement in St. Fran- 
cois county. The site chosen by them is that 
of the present town of Farmington: William 
Murphy returned to Tennessee and died while 
there. In 1801 other sons of William Mur- 
phy came to the settlement and began to open 
farms on the land granted to them. Sarah 
Murphy, the widow of the minister, deter- 
mined to make the trip from Tennessee to 
Louisiana and to take possession of the land 
which had been granted to her husband; 
this she did in 1803. The party with whom 
she came consisted of three sons, Isaac, Jesse 
and Dubart, a daughter, a grand-son, and a 



negro woman. The journey was made in a 
keel-boat down the Tennessee river and then 
up the Mississippi to Ste. Genevieve. It was 
a most arduous undertaking and it was only 
after very great difficulty and dangers that 
the party arrived at the settlement which 
came to be called Murphy's. Mrs. Murphy 
was a sister of David Barton, afterward 
United States senator from Missouri, and was 
a woman of great intelligence and force of 
character. She organized and taught the 
first Sunday school west of the Mississippi 
river. This was probably in the year 1807. 

Some others who early settled in the vi- 
cinity were Michael Hart and his son Charles, 
his son-in-law Davis F. Marks, Isaac Mitchell, 
Isaac Burnham, James Cunningham and 
John Robinson. 

The settlement which came to be called 
Cook's in the southeast part of St. Francois 
county, still bears the same name. The first 
settler here was Nathaniel Cook who came 
in the year 1800. Cook was a prominent and 
influential man, having been one of the first 
judges of the court of Quarter Sessions held 
at Ste. Genevieve and was also elected Lieu- 
tenant Governor of the state at the first elec- 
tion for state officers. He afterward resided 
in Madison county near Fredericktown. 
Others of the early settlers here were James 
Caldwell, William Holmes, Jesse Blackwell, 
Elliott Jackson, and James Davis. 

The first people who came to Madison 
county were miners and their stay was ordi- 
narily transitory; the first men who came to 
settle on a farm within the county was John 
Callaway, who came from Kentucky in 1799, 
and obtained a grant on Saline creek near the 
head of the Little St. Francois about the 
same time the sons of Nicholas Lachance set- 
tled on Castor creek. Their father lived at 



64 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



New Bourbon in Ste. Genevieve county. 
Other early settlers were William Easum and 
James and Samuel Campbell, who at some 
time before 1803, built cabins near the St. 
Francois and cultivated the land. John Wal- 
ther came to the county in 1882 as did Chris- 
topher Anthony, John L. Pettit, Daniel Phil- 
lips and William and Thomas Crawford. 

In 1800 the Spanish authorities granted 
four hundred arpents of land to thirteen in- 
dividuals, the land lying between Saline 
creek and the Little St. Francois. On the 
land so granted a settlement was soon made 
which was called St. Michael; it is now the 
town of Frederiektown. The early residents 
were Peter Chevalier, Paul, Andrew and 
Baptiste De Guire, four brothers, Avhose 
name was Caillot, called also Lachance, Ga- 
briel Nicollo, Pierre Variat and three others 
whose names are not known. These settlers 
all came from other settlements in this dis- 
trict. They engaged in farming and also in 
lead mining at iline LaMotte which is only 
a few miles distant. 

The first settlement in Washington countj' 
was made at Mine a Breton about 1763. 
Those who made this settlement were miners 
interested in working the mine discovered by 
Breton. Near the same time work M'as be- 
gun in the mines known as Old Mines and a 
little settlement of miners sprung up there. 
Jlost of the settlers at both these places came 
from Ste. Genevieve, New Bourbon and Kas- 
kaskia. 

In 1799 the Spanish government made a 
grant of a large tract of land to Moses Aus- 
tin covering a part of Mine a Breton. On 
his part he was to erect a smelter for the re- 
duction of lead ores. By 1804 there were 
about twenty families living in the village 
on his grant. They mined and farmed but 



had no grants from the government. They 
seemed to have been either squatters on gov- 
ernment land or else tenants of Austin. Aus- 
tin brought his family to Mine a Breton in 
June, 1799, and says of the country at that 
time that the whole number of inhabitants 
on Renault's fork of Grand river did not ex- 
ceed sixty-three or sixty-four persons. In 
1802 fifteen French families settled at Old 
Mines and reopened the work there which 
had been suspended. One year later thirty- 
one residents of this place received from Gov. 
Delassus a grant of 400 ai"pents of land each. 
Other mines were opened in the county about 
the same time and a shifting and unstable 
population grew up around each of them. 

Perhaps the first permanent settlement of 
persons intending to make the country their 
home and to engage in agriculture was made 
near the present town of Caledonia in 1798. 
In that year Ananias McCoy, Benjamin 
Crow, and Robert Reed, all from Tennessee, 
settled in the Bellevue valley about twelve 
miles south of Potosi. Others followed them 
and the settlement prospered. These men 
were farmers and the products of their soil 
were carried to Ste. Genevieve on horses or in 
carts. They soon built mills for themselves 
and became unusually prosperous. Their 
situation was very good and they enjoyed the 
advantages of fertile soil, plenty of water 
poM'er and proximity to the mining region. 
By 1822 the county had a population of 2,769. 

The first settler in Jefi'erson county was 
John Hildebrand, who was of French de- 
scent and who made a settlement on the 
Maramec near the farm of Isaac Sul- 
lens, in 1774. Hildebrand received a 
grant of a considerable tract of land 
from the Spanish government which was 
afterward confirmed bv the United States. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



65 



In 1778 this grant passed into the pos- 
session of Thomas Tyler, another of the 
early settlers of the county. In 1776 the King 
of Spain began the opening of a road to ex- 
tend from St. Louis to Ste. Genevieve and 
afterward to New Madrid ; this road, which 
came to be called the King's highway, 
crossed the Maramec river not far from its 
mouth, passed near Kimswiek, Sulphur 
Springs, Pevely, Horine, Rockfort Hill and 
on to Ste. Genevieve. In order to provide a 
ferry across the Maremee river a grant was 
made by the government to Jean Baptiste 
Gomache. In 1776 Gomache located 1,050 ar- 
pents of land at the mouth of the Maramec 
river and established a ferry about one mile 
above the mouth, which he operated for a 
number of years. In 1779 a settlement was 
made near Kimswiek and in the same year 
one near ]Montesano Springs, the latter one 
was made for the purpose of obtaining salt. 
In 1786 Benito Vasquez located at the mouth 
of Saline creek. 

By the close of the 18th century there 
were a number of settlers living along the 
Maramec river; west of the river near the 
settlement made by Hildebrand were John 
Boli, Benito Vasquez, John Cummins, Jac- 
ques Glamorgan, Antonio Soulard. John 
Charpenter, Levi Theel, John Seindre, John 
Remain, James Steward, Baptiste Raniller, 
August Gomache, Jean Baptiste Gomache 
and Hardy Ware ; east of the river were 
William Boli, Gabriel Cerre, Joachim Roy, 
Pierre Tanot, Charles Jones. Joseph Ney- 
bour, Baptiste Riviere, Sophia Shafer and 
Phyllis Bocarie. 

The first mill in Jefferson county was built 
in 1802 on Big river about three-quarters of 
a mile above Morse's mill, by Francis Wide- 
ner. Some of the logs in the old dam are 
still to be seen. 

Vol. 1—5 



The first town laid out in the county was 
New Hartford, which was situated not far 
from Riverside on the Mississippi river, the 
settlers were Christian Witt and John 
Honey, who in 1806 opened a store and built 
a shot tower on the site of their proposed 
town. 

Other early settlers in the county besides 
tliose mentioned, were Peter McCormack who 
settled on the Plattin in 1802, James Head, 
who built a cabin near House's spring in 
1805. A year later Head sold his cabin and 
claim to Adam House for whom the spring 
was afterward named; House was later bru- 
tally killed by some Indians during their raid. 
William Null settled Hematite in 1800 and 
John Boli on Romin's creek in 1788. 

The first Protestant services within Jeffer- 
son county were held at Bates Rock on the 
Mississippi river in 1798 by John Clark, 
Clark was at that time an Independent Meth- 
odist preacher who lived in Illinois, he after- 
ward became a Baptist and preached for 
many years in Missouri and Illinois. The 
first church house was a log cabin erected by 
the Baptists on the land of John Boli at the 
headwaters of Saline creek; in what is now 
known as Maramec settlement, this was not 
far from the place located by John Hilde- 
brand. The date of the building of the first 
meeting house cannot now be determined bni 
it was probably about 1825. In 1836 the- 
Baptists built another log meeting house in 
Upper Sandy settlement and used it until 
1840. 

The oldest Catholic church in the county 
is the church of the Immaculate Conception 
at i\Iaxville, and it was established in 1845. 

A Lutheran church known as St. Johns 
was organized in Rock township in 1843; both 
these churches are still in existence. 



66 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST jNOSSOURI 



The settlements in Perry county were made 
in the Bois Brule Bottom opposite Kaskas- 
kia, along the Cinque Homme, the Saline, the 
Brazeau, the Aux Vases, on Establishment 
creek, and on Apple creek. The Bois Brule 
Bottom is one of the most fertile pieces of 
territory in the district of Ste. Genevieve. 
It was the fertility of this soil which at- 
tracted the early settlers. Some of these 
were John Baptist Barsaloux, who came in 
the year 1787, William Lowry, and on the 
Cinque Homme, Levy Wiggins, John Duval, 
William Boyce, Isadore Moore. Over on the 
Saline were a number of settlers from Ken- 
tucky. In memory of their Kentucky home 
they called the open territory on which they 
settled "The Barrens." Some of these set- 
tlers were Tuckers, Laytons, Moores, Hay- 
dens. Israel Dodge and his son who have 
been mentioned in connection with New 
Bourbon were operating a salt works at the 
mouth of the Saline in 1804. These salt 
works had been in operation more or less 
continuously for a long time, even at that 
early date ; they probably were begun before 
the first permanent settlement in Upper Louis- 
iana. Others on this stream were Thomas 
Madden, Job Westover and John Hawkins. 

Thomas Dodge was, perhaps, the first man 
who lived on the Aux Vases. Other claims 
have been located on this stream before his 
time, but he seems to have been the first 
actual settler. He bought his claim from De 
Guire. 

The Fenwick settlement was made on 
Brazeau creek ; this is not far from the pres- 
ent town of Wittenberg; the grant was made 
to Joseph Manning, but the first settler was 



George A. Hamilton. General Harrison, who 
moved here from New Madrid, also had a 
grant on which is now located the town of 
Altenberg. 

A little below the mouth of the Kaskaskia 
is a creek called the Saline entering on the 
west side a grant of a tract of land one 
league square made by the Spanish govern- 
ment in favor of a Frenchman named Pe- 
greau, the founder of the deserted town called 
New Bourbon. The tract included a valu- 
able brine spring near the mouth of the 
creek. The proprietor built a house near the 
bank of the Mississippi where he resided a 
long time and where he carried on the manu- 
facture of salt, but having occasion to go to 
France he rented his works to a man who for 
want of funds or for some other reason, failed 
to keep them in operation.* 

Long saysf that when he visited ]\Iissouri, 
which was in 1819, that the important pop- 
ulous part of the section was the country 
immediately below the mouth of the Mis- 
souri including the town of St. Louis and the 
villages of Florissant, Carondelet, Hereula- 
neum, Ste. Genevieve, Bainbridge, Cape 
Girardeau, Jackson, St. Michaels and the 
country in their immediate vicinity. The 
lead mine tract, including Mima, Berton, 
Potosi and Bellevue were also populous; be- 
sides these he says there were a number of 
other settlements and small villages in this 
part of the territory. This visit to New Mad- 
rid was made in 1811 just before the earth- 
quake. . 

* ' ' Long 's Expedition, ' ' p. 99. 
t "Long's Expedition," p. 126. 



CHAPTER VI 

CAPE GIRARDEAU DISTRICT 

Its Limits — Life of Lorimier — First Settlement at Cape Girardeau — Influence With 
THE Induns — Grants of Authority and Land — Lorimier's Tomb — Name of Cape Gir- 
ardeau — Cousin — Early Settlers — The Town Laid off — Some of the Early Build- 
ings — First Incorporation, 1808 — Early^ Settlers Within the District — The Ramsays 
— The Giboneys — Other Early Families — Settlements in ViVRious Parts of the 
District. 



The district of Cape Girardeau was estab- 
lished about the year 1793, but its bound- 
aries were not clearly defined. It was sup- 
posed to extend from Apple creek to Tywap- 
pitj' Bottoms. Its western boundary was not 
fixed. Considerable difficulty arose between 
commandants at Cape Girardeau and those 
at New Madrid concerning the boundary be- 
tween their respective districts. The com- 
mandant at New Madrid insisted that the 
Cape Girardeau district extended west only 
to the St. Francois river, and that his author- 
ity extended west of that stream. The south- 
ern boundary of the Cape Girardeau district 
was also in dispute for a number of years. 
The Governor General of Louisiana finally 
fixed this boundary at a point five miles he- 
low the present town of Commerce. This line 
was afterward surveyed by Anthony Soulard 
the Surveyor-General of Louisiana. 

The first settlement witliin the district as 
thus marked out was made early in the year 
1793, by Louis Lorimier. 

Little is known of the early life of Lor- 
imier. For a long time it was not known 
where he was born. We now know that he 



was born near the city of Montreal, Canada. 
Just before the breaking out of the Revolu- 
tionary war, a man whose name was spelt 
"Loromie" and also "Laramie" came from 
Canada to Shelby county, Ohio, and estab- 
lished a trading station between the Miami 
and the Maumee. This station was called 
Pickawilly. It was also called from its 
founder, Laramie Station. Here was carried 
on an extensive trade with the Indians. Furs 
were bought from them, and fire-arms, food, 
ammunition, and whiskey sold to them. The 
man, Loromie, was a Tory and his place in 
Ohio became the headquarters for plots 
against the Americans. The Indians were 
incited here to make raids against the 
Americans. Loromie had great influence 
with them, having married an Indian 
woman and being possessed of great in- 
sight into Indian character. So well known 
was the place as the headquarters for plots 
and raids that, in 1782, General Clark of the 
American ai'my came up from Kentucky with 
a force and destro.yed the place. The follow- 
ing account is taken from the history of 
Ohio : 



67 



68 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



"At the time of the first settlement of Ken- 
tucky, a Canadian Frenchman, named Lo- 
ramie, established a store or trading station 
among the Indians. This man was a bitter 
enemy of the Americans, and it was for a 
long time the headquarters of mischief to- 
ward the settlers. 

"The French had the faculty of endear- 
ing themselves to the Indians, and no doubt 
Loramie was in this respect fully equal to 
any of his countrymen, and gained great in- 
fluence over them. So much influence had 
Loramie with the Indians that, when Gen. 
Clark, from Kentucky, invaded the Miami 
valley in the autumn of 1782, his attention 
was attracted to the spot. He came on, burnt 
the Indian settlement there, and plundered 
and burnt the store of the Frenchman. Soon 
after this Loramie with a colony of the Shaw- 
nees immigrated to the Spanish Territory 
west of the Mississippi and settled in the spot 
assigned them, at the junction of the Kansas 
and Missouri rivers, where the remaining 
part of the natives from Ohio have at dif- 
ferent times joined them." 

This account agrees with the following from 
"Knapp's History of the Miami Valley:" 

"In 1769 a Canadian French trader, named 
Peter Loramie, established a store at Picka- 
willany, situated on the west side of the Great 
Miami river, at the mouth of Loramie 's creek. 
He was a man of energy and a good hater of 
the Americans. For many years he esercitied 
great influence among the Indians. After 
his arrival the place was called ' Loramie 's 
Station.' During the Revolution Loramie 
was in full fellowship with the British. Many 
a savage incursion to the border was fitted 
out from his supply of war material. So 
noted had his place become as the headquai- 
ters of spies, emissaries, and savages, that 



Gen. Clark, of Kentucky', resolved to pay it 
a visit, which he did with a large party of 
Kentuckians in the fall of 1782. The post 
was taken by surprise, and Loramie barely 
escaped being made a prisoner. His store 
was rifled of its contents, and burned to the 
ground, as were all the other habitations in 
the vicinity. Poor Loramie shortly after- 
ward removed with a party of Shawnese to a 
spot near the junction of the Kansas and 
Missouri rivers where he closed his days." 

It will be seen that these two accounts 
agree in saying that this man, whose name is 
given as Peter Loramie, after the loss of his 
property in Ohio removed to Louisiana and 
settled on the Kansas and the Missouri. We 
find, however, that no Peter Loramie was 
known in Louisiana, and no man of that name 
lived at the junction of these two rivers. 
Doubtless these statements are erroneous, but 
they seem to refer to Louis Lorimier. The 
identitj' of Louis Lorimier with the man who 
had a trading post at Loramie 's Station 
seems to be conclusively established by the 
following letter on file in Ste. Genevieve, in 
connection with the suit brought by Lorimier 
against a certain trading company : 

"MiAMis, 4th May, 1787.— Dear Sir: We 
learn from common report that you had left 
Port St. Vincents, with an intention to seize 
Mr. Louis Lorimier 's goods. We have re- 
ceived from him about eight packs, and on 
our arrival here Mr. Sharp went to see him, 
on purpose to know his reasons for leaving 
this country. His reasons appeared to him 
pretty good, and as he had no property along 
with him, on purpose to get his peltry and 
gain his good will, we were induced to ad- 
vance a few things, as he sa.vs, to assist him. 
A few days after Mr. Sharp left him, he got 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



69 



intelligence of your going to seize his goods, 
and he wrote a letter expressing his surprise 
at our duplicity. 

"What we have to say on the subject is 
neither more nor less than this, that the 
Spaniards have invited the Delawares and 
Shawnese to their side of the Mississippi. 
With a tribe of the latter Mr. Lorimier goes, 
and expects the Spaniards will allow him to 
follow them. If this is the case and he well 
inclined, we think he may do better than was 
expected, and as the company means to have 
somebody there to do this business, it might 
in some measure atone for the loss of the Port 
Vincent's (Vincennes) trade, which will 
never be renewed. 

"We wrote you yesterday at some length. 
You will be the best judge how to act in re- 
gard to Lorimier, but we think his intentions 
are honest. 

"Sir, your very humble servants, 

George Sharp. 

Thomas Shepherd. 
"To Hugh Reward, Mouth Illinois." 

We are unable to give many of the details 
of Lorimier 's life previous to his coming to 
Missouri, but after that time we have reason- 
able grounds for believing that we know most 
of events in his life. In 1787 he settled on the 
Saline in Ste. Genevieve county where he 
made his home for six years. 

The Spanish authorities soon recognized 
him as a man having great influence with the 
Indians, resulting in part from his long life 
of trading with them, in part from the real 
power and energy which he possessed. They 
saw in him a fit agent for carrying out their 
plans, which were to induce the Indians to 
settle west of the river. They wanted these 
Indians here because Spain and France were 
engaged in war, and Spain feared very 



greatly that the United States would take 
part in this war on the side of France. The 
Spanish ofScials hoped by securing the help 
of the Indians that they could use them to ' 
harass the Americans in such a way as to 
prevent their giving any assistance to the ■ 
French and they further expected that their 
Indian allies would be very useful to them ■ 
in securing information of hostile movements. ' 
In 1792, the Spanish were in great fear of ' 
an invasion from across the river and Lori- ' 
mier was employed to concert with the Span- 
ish ofScials plans for defense. He was or- 
dered to New Jladrid in that year to confer 
with Portelle the commandant of the post of ■ 
New Madrid. Lorimier had had some un- 
pleasant experiences with Portelle arising 
over some of Lorimier 's trading operations.- 
He was reluctant to trust himself within Por- 
telle 's power at New Madrid and it was dif- 
ficult to persuade him to do so. Finally he 
consented, however, and went to New Madrid 
where steps were taken to protect Spanish 
territory. He spent the fall and winter of 
that year engaged in these matters. He 
crossed the Mississippi, visited Indian chiefs,' 
and induced many of them to come to this' 
side. In all of this work he displayed gi-eat 
adaptability, energy, and loyalty. He was 
successful in his efforts with the Indians and 
large numbers of his friends, the Shawnees 
and Delawares came to Upper Louisiana. 

In recognition of this service the following 
grant of authority was made to him, the text , 
being a translation: "Baron of Carondelet, ; 
follower of the religion of St. John, Colonel 
of the royal armies. Governor, Intendant 
General, Vice-Regent of the Province of 
Louisiana and Western Florida, Inspector of 
the Army, etc. 

"Know all men by these presents, that in 
consideration of the true and faithful serv- 



70 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ices which Louis Lorimier has rendered to 
the state since he became a subject of her 
Catholic Majesty, we permit him to establish 
himself with the Delawares and Shawnese 
who are under his care, in such places as he 
may think proper in the province of Louisiana 
on the west bank of the Mississippi, from the 
Missouri to the River Arkansas, which may 
be unoccupied, with the right to hunt, and 
cultivate for the maintenance of their fam- 
ilies, nor shall any commandant, officer or 
other subject of the king hinder them, nor oc- 
cupy of the land for him and the said In- 
dians, sown, planted or laid out, so much as 
is judged necessary for their maintenance : 
and be it further understood that in case 
they should remove elsewhere, the said lands 
shall become vacant and as for the house, 
which the said Sir Louis Lorimier has built 
at Girardeau, it will remain in his posses- 
sion, nor can he be removed for any causes, 
except those of illicit trade or correspond- 
ence with the enemies of the State. 

"In testimony of which we have given 
these presents, signed with our hand an'' 
the countersign of the secretary of the Gov- 
ernment, and caused to be affixed our official 
seal at New Orleans, the 4th of January, 
1793. 

"The Baron of Carondelet. 

"By order of the Governor, Andres Lopez 
Armesto. ' ' 

This grant of authority was accompanied 
by the following letter from Zeuon Trudeau 
the Lieutenant-Governor : 

"St. Louis, Mo., May 1, 1793.— The within 
is a permit which the Governor-General gives 
you to make your trade with the Delawares 
and the Shawnese. so exteuded that there may 
be nothing more to desire, without fear that 
you will be troubled by any officer of the 



king as long as you do as you have heretofore 
done. He recommends you to maintain or- 
der among the savages, and to concentrate 
them, so that he may he sure that they will 
take position more on the frontier of our set- 
tlements in order to lend lis help in case 
of a war with the whites, and they will thus 
also be opposite the Osages, against whom 
I shall declare war forthwith, a thing I have 
not yet done, because! have to take some 
precautions before that shall reach them. In- 
form the Delawares, Shawnese, Peorias, 
Potawattomies and the other nations which 
presented a memorial, last September, that 
it is on account of the bad treatment that they 
have suffered, that the Governor-General 
has determined upon the war, in order to 
procure quiet for our land ; the Osages are at 
present deprived of aid and harassed by us 
and by them, they will surely be open to 
reason; that consequentl.v all the red na- 
tions must agree to lend a hand; it is their 
good which the Government seeks; and 
it is of that tliat you must convince 
them, so that the offended nations will 
take some steps toward the others to se- 
cure tlieir aid. and particularly that the 
lowas. Sacs and Foxes shall not consent to 
let the Osages come so far as to trade on the 
river Des Moines, and that still less shall they 
allow the English to introduce themselves by 
that river, which is a possibility. 

"Protected bv the Government, you owe it 
your services in closely watching over all that 
tends to its prosperity, and averting every- 
thing which is to its detriment. At this mo- 
ment we fear nothing from Congress, but 
from the ill-disposed which depend upon it, 
posted in advantageous places, to give ad\iee 
of the least assemblage. I am confident that 
as soon as you are cognizant of it you will 
make it known to the commandants with 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



71 



whom you are connected, as much for our 
safety as for our defense. 

"The Governor has approved of the dis- 
tribution of the twenty thousand beads which 
I have given the Delawares, and to which 
you have contributed. It has been my in- 
tention to reimburse you, and to-day I can do 
it with greater facility, because they have 
offered me the means without looking for 
them elsewhere, so you may draw on me at 
the rate of six per thousand, which the king 
has agreed for me to pay. 

"I am told that you are coming to St. 
Louis with your savages. Because I am de- 
prived of all merchandise, their visit will be 
a little embarrassing. Therefore I ask you 
to come by yourself (when your presence 
here is necessary) and attend to it, that when 
the boats arrive you are here to make a suit- 
able present to the savages. 

"May God take you in His holy keeping. 
"Zenon Trudeau. 
"P. s.— I keep your permit for an occasion 
to which I can intrust it. It states that you 
shall not be troubled from the ^lissouri to 
the Arkansas in your trade, also in the set- 
tlements or encampments which you have 
formed with the savages, the Shawnese and 
Delawares. etc. and that you shall be pro- 
tected at Cape Girardeau." 

It will be seen that this grant conferred 
great privileges upon Lorimier. In the 
spring of 1793, in anticipation of this grant, 
he had removed from the Saline to Cape 
Girardeau. Here he built a house and estab- 
lished himself with his Indian friends and 
allies. They settled on unoccupied lands and 
engaged in "hunting over a large part of Mis- 
souri aud Arkansas. 

In 1796, Lorimier made another trip east 
of the river gathering more Indians who were 



brought to this side of the river. He was an 
active and energetic man, and was moved not 
only by devotion to Spain, but also by hatred 
to the Americans. He had never forgotten 
nor forgiven the destruction of his property 
in Ohio, and he seemed to take great pleasure 
in doing everything he could to injure the 
people of the United States. In recognition 
of this aud other services he received from 
time to time grants of land which, by the 
year 1797, aggregated 8,000 arpents. This 
land included the site of the city of Cape 
Girardeau. It will be seen that the Spanish 
had been liberal in their dealings with him. 
He was the owner of large bodies of produc- 
tive land, and he had exclusive right to con- 
trol of the Indians. This meant, of course, 
a monopoly of Indian trade. The only condi- 
tions annexed to the grants of land were that 
the land should be settled within a reasonable 
time and that roads and other public im- 
provements should be made. In 1799 he was 
engaged in building a new house called The 
Red House on the present site of St. Vincent's 
church. Near his house, at the corner of the 
present William and Lorimier streets, was a 
large spring. The hills were covered with 
trees, and on these wooded hills in the vicin- 
ity of this spring, the Indians were accustomed 
to camp when they came for conferences 
with Lorimier. He was appointed comman- 
dant of the post of Cape Girardeau, holding 
this place until the transfer to the United 
States in 1804. He was held in high esteem 
by the Spanish officials, as is shown in the^ fol- 
lowing letter written by De Lassus : "M. 
Louis Lorimier, the commandant at Cape 
Girardeau can neither read nor write, but he 
has a natural genius, since he has always had 
the .iudgment to have some one near him 
able to assist him in regard to his correspond- 
ence. He signs nothing without having it 



72 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



read to him two or three times, until he 
comprehends it, or it must be read again. He 
has maintained order in his post with in- 
credible firmness against some inhabitants 
who designed to mutiny against him without 
cause. He is extremely zealous when em- 
ployed. Although supposed to be interested, 
I have known him to neglect all his business 
to execute a commission which would cause 
him rather expense than profit. He is much 
experienced in Indian matters, particularly 
with the Shawnese and Delawares. It was 
through his influence with the latter tribe 
that the Delaware Indian, who had killed a 
citizen of the United States on the road to 
the Post Vincennes, was taken by his nation 
to Ka.skaskia. I had an incontestible proof 
of his talent with the Indians at New ]\Iadrid, 
where, without his mediation, I would have 
been obliged to employ force to execute the 
Mascoux Indian. He is brave, and extremely 
well posted in the Indian method of war- 
fare, feared and respected by the savages." 
In 1799 he presented a petition to De Lassus, 
setting out the service he had rendered to 
Spain, the expense and worry he had suf- 
fered, and the hardships and dangers he had 
been forced to undergo. He declared that 
for fifteen years he had faithfully served the 
Spanish government in every possible way, 
and that his services had been practically un- 
rewarded. He called to mind the fact 
that it was owing to his efforts and his in- 
fluence with the Indians that Upper Louis- 
iana had received a large influx of Indian 
population. He asked that the governor 
should gi-ant him 30,000 arpents of land, to 
be surveyed when he chose, and to be se- 
lected in any place whatsoever, so long as the 
selection did not interfere with persons hav- 
ing grants already established. This peti- 



tion was granted bj' De Lassus and the land 
prayed for was given to him. 

In 1798, Lorimier had a law suit concern- 
ing this land with Gabriel Cerre. Cerre 
was the ti'ader who had sent the La Sieurs 
to New Madrid. He had extensive dealings 
with the Indians and considerable influence 
with them. The Spanish government recog- 
nized his service and was willing to reward 
him; however, his claim to the land of Lori- 
mier was denied. In the decision, which was 
in Lorimier 's favor, the Governor-General 
said that he was uuAvilling to deprive Lori- 
mier of his land for the reason that his serv- 
ices had been so valuable. He ordered, how- 
ever, that Cerre should be given an equal 
amount of land in another place. 

Lorimier continued to trade with the In- 
dians up to the time of his death. He bought 
the goods, which he sold them, in Kaskaskia. 
Besides trading, he engaged in farming and 
also in the operation of mills. He built a 
water mill on Cape La Croix creek, not far 
from where the Scott county road crosses this 
stream ; later he built another mill on Hubble 
creek. Lorimier claimed as his right all the 
ponies and horses found in the woods on his 
extensive grants. After the cession of Louis- 
iana to the United States an attempt was 
made to deprive him of his land. This grant, 
was afterward confirmed to Lorimier 's heirs 
by the United States by an act dated July 
4, 1826. 

Lorimier was not an educated man ; he 
could not read though he could write his 
name. His signature, which has been pre- 
served on a large number of documents, is 
bold ajid firm, evidently the writing of a man 
of determination and character. All of his 
dealings were characterized by energy and 
perseverance, and he evinced a high degree 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI 



73 



of executive ability. He so conducted af- 
fairs in his district that it became rich and 
populous; he governed the Indians well and 
displayed at various times a great deal of 
military ability. Lorimier was buried in the 
old cemetery, called after him, in the city of 
Cape Girardeau. The graves of him and his 
wife are side by side. They are covered with 
flat slabs of stone and are most interesting 
relics of the old times. The slab above Lori- 
mier 's tomb has this inscription: 

To the Memory of 
Major Louis Lorimier, 
A native of Canada and first settler and 
commandant of the post of Cape Girardeau 
under the government of Spain. He departed 
this life the 26th da.y of June, 1812, aged 64 
years three months. 

Ossa Habeant pacem tumulo cineresque 
sepulti: Immortali animae luceat alma dies. 

These words may be translated: "Peace 
to his bones and his ashes interred in this 
grave; may the eternal day illumine his im- 
mortal soul." 

The tomb of his wife bears this inscription: 

' ' To the Memory of 
Charlotte P. B. Lorimier, 
Consort of Major Louis Lorimier, who de- 
parted this life on the 23rd day of March, 
1808, aged .50 years and 2 months, leaving 4 
sons and 2 daughters. 

Vixit, Chaoniae praeses dignissima gentis ; 
Et decus indlgenum quam lapis iste tegit ; 
Ilia bonum dedicit natura — magistra. Et, 
duce natura, sponte secuta bonum est, Talis 
honos memorium. nullo eultore, quotannis Ma- 
turat frustus mitis oliva sues." 

These words ma.y be translated : ' ' She 
lived the noblest matron of the Shawnese 
race, a native dignity covered her as does this 
slab. She chose nature as her guide and vir- 
tue, and with nature as her leader spontane- 
ousl.v followed good, as the olive, the pride 



of tlie grove without the planter's care, nat- 
urally brings its fruit to perfection. ' ' 

This was Lorimier 's iirst wife, if, indeed, 
he was married to her at all. He spoke of 
her in his will as the Indian woman with 
whom he had lived and whom he regarded 
with atfection. They were probabl.y married 
after the Indian custom. After her death he 
married Marie Berthaume. She was an In- 
dian, or at an.y rate a half breed. After Lori- 
mier 's death his widow was married the sec- 
ond time to John Logan, the father of Gen- 
eral John A. Logan. General Logan, how- 
ever, was the son of another woman, his 
father's second wife. 

Cape Girardeau was possibly named for 
one (iirardot who was an ensign in the com- 
pany of French soldiers stationed at Kas- 
ka.skia in 1704. He was a trader with the In- 
dians and it seems probable that he came to 
the site of Cape Girardeau and traded at 
that place, from which circumstance it was 
called after him. Houck says that the church 
records at Ste. Genevieve show that one 
Girardeau was at Fort Chartres in 1765. It 
should be noted that the name of the place 
in early years wa.s various wa.vs spelled, 
sometimes it was written Girardot, sometimes 
Girardo, and again Girardeau. "We may not 
be certain, but it seems quite probable, that 
it received its name from one of these two 
men. It had been named, it seems, before 
Lorimier settled here in 1793. 

The site for the settlement was well chosen. 
The cit.v is located on the foot-hills of the 
Ozarks and lies also on the border of the al- 
luvial plain. The country about it possessed 
wonderful resources ; there was an abundance 
of the finest timber ; there were a great many 
fur bearing animals and many varieties of 
game ; and more than ffll there was a great 



74 



HISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



deal of the finest aud most fertile soil; the 
district was well watered, having an abun- 
dance of creeks aud springs aud bordered on 
the Mississippi river. No other site along 
the river surpassed this as the place for a 
town. Nature seems to have destined it as 
the site of a considerable city. 

It is a remarkable thing that the settlers 
of Cape Girardeau district were nearly all of 
them Americans. It is said that in 1804 there 
were only five French families in the dis- 
trict. One of the most remarkable of the 
French settlers was Barthelimi Cousin. He 
was the secretary for Lorimier and the offi- 
cial interpreter and surveyor. He was, per- 
haps, one of the most remarkable men ever 
in the district. He was a native of France 
and probably came directly to Cape Girar- 
deau when he emigrated to this country. He 
was a highly educated man, spoke a number 
of languages fluently, was polished, culti- 
vated, and knew the world. He had ability 
to meet people and to make friends with 
them. All the new settlers applied to Cousin 
for assistance. He drew up their petitions 
and their permits and was the means of in- 
diicing many of the early settlers to come to 
the district. He lived near the corner of 
the present Main and Themis streets. He was 
granted a large tract of land on White AVater 
and Byrd's creek. It was said of him that 
he was a careful student of mathematics 
and physics; that he continued his mathe- 
matical studies during his entire life. One 
evidence of his knowledge of physical laws 
was the fact that he built a water mill on two 
flat boats which were anchored in the Missis- 
sippi, the action of the current generated the 
power to drive the mill. He died in 1824. 

Some of the other settlers were Steinback 
and Reinecke who formed a partnership in 



trade. Their house was north of Cousin's, 
standing near the site of the Union Mills. 

Solomon Thorne was a gun-smith, he also 
lived in the town: the town's blacksmith was 
John Rishe; David Wade was the carpenter 
and John Patterson and David Seavers were 
some of the other settlers in town. 

Cape Girardeau was laid off as a town in 
February or March, 1806, by Barthelimi 
Cousin. At this time the entire town was 
owned by Louis Lorimier. As surveyed then, 
and its limits fixed, it extended from North 
street on the North to William street on the 
South, and from the river west to Middle 
street. The streets within its area were the 
same number and width as they are at the 
present time. The first lots were sold at .$100 
each. Among the early purchasers were 
John Risher, John Randol. Solomon Ellis. 
William Ogle, Ezekiel Abel, John C. Harbi- 
son. William White. Some of the other early 
residents were: B. & F. Steinback. Robert 
Blair, Dr. Erastus Ellis, James Evans, Fred- 
erick Gibler, Levy Wolverton, Robert Worth- 
ington. Frederick Reinecke, Joseph McFer- 
ron and George Henderson. 

Louis Lorimier lived in a long, low frame 
house which had been constructed before the 
laying out of the town, on the lot now occu- 
pied by St. Vincent's academy. This house 
was called "The Red House" and was re- 
ported to be haunted. There were four or 
five brothers of the Ellis family who came to 
the district from Georgia. Charles G. Ellis 
built a large, two-story, log house on the 
corner where the Opera House now stands. 
This was for a good many years the leading 
hotel in the town. Ellis was also a merchant 
and carried a general stock of goods. He was 
also instrumental in organizing the Cape 
Girardeau ililling Company. This company 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



75 



built a small mill in the north part of the 
town. It followed the plan first used by 
Cousin in being built out over the water, and 
was propelled by a screw turned by the ac- 
tion of\ the current. Dr. Erasmus Ellis, an- 
other one of the brothers occupied a log 
house which stood at the side of the Baptist 
Church on Lorimier street. Solomon Ellis 
built a brick residence at the corner of Lori- 
mier and Bellevue. D. P. Steinback, who was 
a son-in-law of Louis Lorimier, lived on the 
corner where the Sturdivant Bank now 
stands. He and Frederick Reinecke opened 
one of the first stores in the town. Robert 
Blair was another one of the prominent cit- 
izens. He was Judge of the Covirt of Quarter 
Sessions. He was a native of Ohio, and 
came to Cape Girardeau about the time of the 
establishment of the town. After his death, 
in December, 1810, his widow married George 
Henderson. Henderson, afterward, became 
Judge of the Probate Court, Recorder, Au- 
ditor, Treasurer, and was for a time the 
Judge of the County Court. 

Ezekiel Abel was another one of the prom- 
inent citizens of the old town. By trade he 
was a blacksmith, but his principal busi- 
ness during the years he lived in Cape Girar- 
deau was trading in land and land grants. He 
erected the first public buildings in this dis- 
trict. He had some financial difficulties, but 
finally became wealthy. In 1811 he con- 
structed the first brick house in the town. It 
was finished .just in time to be badly dam- 
aged by the earthquakes of that year. He 
left a large family, consisting of four sons 
and two daughters. His eldest daughter, 
Mary, became the wife of Gen. W. H. Ashley. 
The younger daughter, Elizabeth, married 
W. J. Stevenson. 

The town was incorporated in 1808. The 



petition which was presented to the Court of 
Common Pleas, is as follows : 

"Limits of the town of Cape Girardeau: 
The town of Cape Girardeau extends in front, 
3,058 feet and 9 inches from Botany Street 
(North Street), the northern boundary, to 
the Street of Fortune (William Street), 
the southern limit, inclusively; and its 
depth is 1,773 feet 2 inches exclusive of Water 
Street, i. e. from the front of Water 
Street to the Street of Honor (Middle 
Street), inclusively, containing 126 acres and 
%, nearly, the divers parts and divisions of 
the town to be more particularly designated 
in the plan of the same. 

"July 23rd, 1808. 

(Signed) "Louis Lorimier." 

"To the Honorable Court of Common 
Pleas, For the District of Cape Girardeau: 
Your Petitioners pray that the court will ap- 
point commissioners agreeable to a law, 
passed by the Legislature of the Territory of 
Louisiana, for the incorporating of towns 
and villages within the state. Territory 
agreeable to the above metes and hounds. 
( Signed ) 
John Randol, John C. Harbison. 

James Evans, William White, 

A. Haden, Isaac ]M. Bledsoe, 

Rob't Worthington, Joseph White, 
Charles G. Ellis, J. Morrison, Jr.. 

D. F. Steinback, Ezekiel Abel. 

Levy Wolverton, Frederick Gibler. 

John Tan Gilder." 

The court granted the petition, and or- 
dered that an election be held for the selec- 
tion of five trustees for the town. This elec- 
tion was held August 13tli. 1808. at wliich 



76 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



time Joseph McPerron, Anthony Haden, 
Robert Blair, Daniel F. Steinback and Isaac 
M. Bledsoe were elected. These trustees im- 
mediately entered upon their duties, and 
under their direction the town continued to 
grow and prosper for a number of years. It 
received its first blow in the establishment of 
the county seat at Jackson. This took away 
from the town a great deal of its importance 
and built up a rival near it. It did not re- 
cover from this disaster until the develop- 
mint of the steamboat trade at a later time. 
In LSIS it had only two stores and about 
fifty houses. 

Flagg visited Cape Girardeau in 1836 and 
describes the mills put in motion by a spiral 
water-wheel acted on by a cixrrent of the 
river ; these are doubtless the wheels of which 
it is said that Barthelimi Cousin was the 
inventor. These wheels floated upon the sur- 
face of the water parallel to the shore rising 
and falling with the water and were con- 
nected with the gearing in the mill house by a 
long shaft. At the time of Flagg 's visit there 
was a pottery in operation in Cape C4irar- 
deau using the clay from Tywappaty bottom. 

Long, who visited Cape Girardeau in 1819. 
gives this description of the town and its 
site :* ' ' The town comprises at this time 
about twenty log cabins, several of them in 
ruins, a log jail no longer occupied, a large 
unfinished brick dwelling falling rapidly into 
decay and a small one finished and occupied, 
it stands on the slope and part of the summit 
of a broad hill elevated about 150 feet above 
the Mississippi and having a deep primary 
soil resting on a strata of compact and sparry 
limestone. Near the place where boats 
usually land is a point of white rock jutting 
into the river and at very low stage of water 
'"Long's Expedition," p. 87. 



producing a pereeptilile rapid, these are of 
white liuiestone abounding in the remains of 
marine animals ; if you travel some distance 
they will be found to alternate with the com- 
mon blue limestone so frequently seen in sec- 
ondary districts. Through the substrata of 
this sparry lime-stone the rock is literally di- 
vided by seams and furrows and would un- 
doubtedly effect a valuable marble not unlike 
the Daring marble qarry on the Hudson. 

"The streets of Cape Girardeau are marked 
out with form of regularity intersecting each 
other at right angles but they are in some 
parts so gullied and torn by the rains as to 
be impassable ; others overgrown with such 
thickets of gigantic vernonias and urticlas as 
to resemble small forests. The country back 
of the town is hilly covered with heavy for- 
ests of oak, tulip tree and nyssa intermixed in 
the valleys with the sugar tree and the syl- 
vatica and on the hills with an undergrowth 
of American hazel and the shot bush. Settle- 
ments are considerably advanced and many 
well cultivated farms occur in various direc- 
tions." 

The principal population of the district 
however was outside the town itself. The dis- 
trict was large, embracing the present coun- 
ties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger. AVayne, 
and parts of others. The land, too, on which 
the town of Cape Girardeau was situated be- 
longed to Lorimier who refused to dispose 
of it for a long time and thus kept away some 
settlers who might otherwise have come. 

Besides Cape Girardeau the principal set- 
tlements within the -limits of the present 
county of Cape Girardeau before the transfer 
to the United States in 1804 were the Ram- 
say settlement near ]\It. Tabor, a chain of 
settlements extending from the Big Swamp 
south of Cape Girardeau around to the Jack- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



77 



son road, the Byrd settlement on Byrd's 
creek, the Rodney settlement near Gordon- 
ville, the Randol settlement on Randol creek, 
Gordonville on Hubble creek, a settlement 
near the headwaters of Cape La Crux creek, 
one on the river north of Cape Girardeau, 
the Daugherty settlement south of Jackson, 
and the settlement on Whitewater, now called 
Burt'ordville, but long known as Bollinger's 
Mill. An account of these various settlements 
is here given. 

One of the earliest settlers outside the town 
was Andrew Ramsay who in 1795 settled 
land near Mt. Tabor and immediately ad.ioin- 
ing Lorimier's grant. Ramsay was a Vir- 
ginian, coming to Cape Girardeau from the 
neighborhood of Harper's Ferry. He was re- 
lated by marriage to Daniel Morgan of Vir- 
ginia. He had been a soldier, was among the 
Virginia troops at the time of Braddock's 
defeat, and it is quite probable that he was 
a soldier in the Revolution. He was induced 
to settle in the Cape Girardeau district by 
his acquaintance with Cousin whose scholarly 
ability and friendliness attracted him. Ram- 
say was followed by members of his family 
and friends. 

William Daugherty and Samuel Tipton 
were sons-in-law of Ramsay. They came to 
the district soon after him. Daugherty set- 
tled near his father-in-law and Tipton near 
Jackson. 

Among the fi-iends of Ramsay who settled 
near him were Nicholas Seavers, Jeremiah 
Simpson, Alexander Giboney and Dr. Blevins 
Haydeu. These settlers were very naturally 
followed by their friends and by the year 
1804 their settlements reached from the Big 
Swamp south of the town around to the Jack- 
son road. Stoddard, who visited the district 
in that year said that it was the richest set- 
tlement in Upper Louisiana. 



Ramsay was a leader among these settlers 
and his place became the headquarters for all 
persons who came to the district. They made 
their way first of all to Ramsay's farm. He 
assisted many of them to secure good loea-- 
tions in the near-by country. In fact, it 
seems to have been a custom for the American 
settlers to gather at Ramsay's place, espe- 
cially "on Sunday, where the day was spent 
in the amusements that the country afforded. 
Ramsay became rich, owning the largest tract 
of land in the settlement and having also 
many slaves. He was interested in education 
and was influential in establishing the first 
English sciiool west of the Mississippi river. 
This school was founded in 1799 at Mt. Tabor. 

Ramsay's family was a large one. Besides 
the two married daughters who came with 
their families soon after his location, he had 
three other daughters and five sons. Mar- 
garet Ramsay married Stephen Jones and 
moved to Arkansas; Mary became the wife of 
Peter Craig who was afterward killed at the 
battle of the Sink Hole ; Rachael married 
John Rodney. 

Ramsay's sons were John, who married 
Hannah Lorimier; Andrew and James, who 
married two sisters, Pattie and Rebecca 
Worthington ; AVilliam, who married Eliza- 
beth Dunn and Ellen. The first three sons 
here mentioned subsequently removed to Mis- 
sissippi county. 

Among the settlers the Giboney famil.y was 
prominent and numerous. They came to the 
district prior to 1797. The head of the fam- 
ily Avas Alexander Giboney. He was a Vir- 
ginian and a man of great ability and influ- 
ence. He died, however, shortly after his 
removal to the district, and the care of the 
famil.y fell upon his widow Rebecca (Ramsay') 
Giboney. Mrs. Giboney was a remarkable 
woman, possessing a high degree of intelli- 



78 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



gence, great energy and enthusiasm, and no 
small amount of executive ability. She con- 
tinued to reside upon her plantation which 
was granted by the Spanish in 1797 until her 
death in 1840. 

This plantation is now called Elmwood, and 
is the home of Honorable Louis Houek. Mrs. 
Houek is a grand-daughter of Rebecca Gibo- 
ney. 

Alexander Giboney left seven children, four 
sons and three daughters. One of the sons, 
Robert, lived on an adjoining grant, which 
is still occupied by his descendants. Of his 
daughters, one married Judge W. C. Ram- 
say, and another Dr. Wilson Browne, who 
was prominent in ilissoui-i politics, having 
been at one time state auditor, and at the time 
of his death was Lieutenant Governor of the 
state. 

Another son, Alexander, was killed at the 
battle of the Sink Hole; a third son, whose 
name was Jolm, lived a mile west of the grant 
to his father. His descendants are very nu- 
merous and still live in Cape Girardeau and 
adjoining counties. One of the daughters of 
John Giboney married Doctor Henderson of 
Scott county and another married Colonel 
Solomon G. Kitchen of Stoddard county. The 
youngest son of Alexander Giboney was 
named Andrew, he lived to the age of 82, dy- 
ing in 1874. He was married in 1832 to 
Jlary Hunter ; Mrs. Louis Houek is a daugh- 
ter of these two. 

Of the daughters of Alexander Giboney, 
Arabella married John Jacobs; their descend- 
ants lived in Pemiscot county. Isabella be- 
came the wife of Doctor Ezekiel Fenwick and 
lived in the north part of Cape Girardeau 
county. Margaret Giboney married Lindsay 
De 'Lashmutt. 

Mrs. Louis Painter, who lived for many 
years in Jackson, was a niece of Andrew 



Ramsay. Her father, John Ramsay, came to 
Cape Girardeau accompanied by a large num- 
ber of relatives and friends, but later removed 
to Scott county. She was an intelligent and 
interesting woman. 

Another family that came in early times to 
the district was the Byrd family. Amos 
Byrd, the head of the family, was a native of 
North Carolina. He was born in 1737 and 
lived for a time in Virginia and iu Tennessee. 
In the latter state he located Byrd's Station 
on a fort on the frontier of Knox county. 
One of the neighboring families in Tennessee 
was that of the Gillespies. The acquaint- 
ance between these two families grew until 
no fewer than three sons of Amos Byrd had 
married into the Gillespie family. In 1799 
Amos Byrd accompanied by his family came 
to Upper Louisiana and settled on Bryd's 
creek. He was, doubtless, attracted by the 
easy terms on which land could be secured 
from Spain. The spot chosen by him for the 
settlement was an exceedingly attractive 
one. The sons of the family were Abraham, 
Stephen, John, and Amos, Jr. With them 
came the daughters, Pollie, who had married 
William Russell, Clarissa who afterward 
married James Russell, and Sallie, who after- 
ward became the wife of George Hays. All 
of these settled on, or near, Byrd's creek. 
John Byrd conducted a mill, cotton gin, a 
still, and a blacksmith shop. Abraham and 
Stephen became prominent in political life 
after the transfer to the United States, both 
of them holding at various times important 
offices under the government. They both 
left large families and inter-married with the 
Birds of the New Madrid district and with 
the Horrels, Aliens, Martins and Mintons. 
William Russell, who became the husband 
of Pollie Byrd was a native of Scotland. Be- 
fore coming to Cape Girardeau he had lived 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



79 



for a time in Virginia and in Tennessee. It 
was in Tennessee that he became acquainted 
with the Byrd family. He was the father of 
Plouorable James Russell at one time sherifi! 
of Cape Girardeau county, and member of 
the state legislature. William Russell was a 
man of education, a teacher, and conducted 
the first school in the Byrd settlement. 

The Rodney family was another prominent 
and influential one. They settled about two 
miles southwest of Gordonville. They were 
Germans, the original form of the name seems 
to have been Rodner. The head of the family 
iu this country was Martin Rodney, who came 
about 1801 or 1802. One of his sons mar- 
ried a daughter of Louis Lorimier. 

The first settlement of Randol creek was 
made in 1797 by Enos Randol. His family 
consisted of himself and ten children, seven 
sons and three davighters. Mrs. C. B. Houts 
who lived for a long time in Cape Girardeau 
was a daughter of Anthony Randol the eld- 
est son of Enos. Samuel Randol married 
PoUie Pierrpont. He was an influential 
man, one of the syndics under Louis Lori- 
mier. He built one of the first mills in the 
county. ]\Iedad was the second son, and for 
his second wife he married Thankful Stout, 
in Scott county. After his death she pur- 
chased a farm on Matthews Prairie, and be- 
came a part owner of the city of Charleston ; 
other members of the family continued to re- 
side in the county. 

In 1797 the first settlement was made on 
Hubbell Creek. The creek was then known 
as Riviere Zenon, having been so named in 
honor of Zenon Trudeau, lieutenant governor 
of Upper Louisiana. This settlement was 
made by Ithamar Hubbell. where the town of 
Gordonville is now located. Hubbell had 
been a soldier in the Revolutionary army from 
New York. Andrew Sumners located near 



the head waters of Hubbell creek and in 1800 
Christopher Hays settled on a gi-ant about 
eight miles north of Gordonville. 

Cornelius Arent made an early settlement 
at the mouth of Indian creek. Joseph Chev- 
alier from Kaskaskia settled on the river 
north of Cape Girardeau in 1799, and south 
of Chevalier George Hender.son settled in 
1808. 

William Denny, a native of Wales, came to 
Cape Girardeau from Tennessee in 1808. He 
settled near Gordonville. He was a gun- 
smith and a very fine workman. There were 
seven children in the family; these settled in 
Cape Girardeau, in Stoddard, Scott and New 
JIadrid counties. 

South of Jackson in 1798, there came the 
family of Daughertys. There were four 
brothers of them and they located on adjoin- 
ing farms. William Daugherty was the hus- 
band of Elizabeth Ramsay. He was an orig- 
inal abolutionist and would own no slaves of 
his own and controlled only those inherited 
by his wife. His son, Ralph Daugherty, was 
a son-in-law of George F. Bollinger. 

The first settlement in Bollinger county 
was made by George Frederick Bollinger, a 
native of North Carolina, of Swiss descent. 
He came from North Carolina about 1796 or 
97 and selected a location on Whitewater. 
Lorimier promised him a large tract of land 
on condition that he would bring a certain 
number of settlers to the district. In fulfil- 
ment of this agreement he made a trip back 
to North Carolina and on his return he was 
accompanied by twenty families. They 
crossed the Mississippi river at Ste. Gene-. 
vieve on the first day of January, 1800, and 
later settled along Wliitewater. Some of the 
men who came with him were IMatthias. Jolm, 
Henry, William, Daniel, and Phillip Bol- 
linger, Peter and Conrad Statler, Joseph 



80 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Neiswauger, Peter Crites, Frederick Lim- 
baugh, Leonard Welker and Frederick Slink- 
ard. They were all Protestants, being mem- 
bers of the German Reformed church. In 
1804 Colonel Bollinger induced Reverend 
Samuel Weiberg or Whybark, to come to the 
settlement and to become the minister of the 
colonists. Reverend Whybark remained un- 
til his death in 1833. He preached over very 
extensive districts in Illinois and IMissouri. 

Among these settlers Colonel Bollinger was 
a leader, and was appointed by Don Louis 
Lorimier as captain of the militia. He or- 
ganized a very efifective company, which was 
said by Lorimier to be a model company. 
Bollinger erected a mill after his arrival, 
which was the only one in the section, and it 
served farmers for a long distance aroiind. 

Bollinger was a large and powerful man, 
of generous disposition and very popular. 
He was a member of the Territorial assembly, 
and after the admission of Missouri to the 
Union he became a member of the state senate 
in 1828, and was president of the state sen- 
ate, and a presidential elector in 1836. As 
was elsewhere stated, his only daughter, 
Sarah, became the wife of Ralph Daugherty. 
It is said that she was educated in North 



Carolina and that she was a musician and 
the owner of the first piano brought to Cape 
Girardeau county. 

The next settlement in Bollinger county 
seems to have been made in 1800 on Castor 
river near where Zalma now stands. Irvin 
Asherbramer was probably the first settler 
and he erected a w^ater-mill at this place which 
is still in operation. Other early settlers in 
the same neighborhood were : Daniel Asher- 
bramer, Phillip and William Bollinger, Jo- 
seph Watkins, Robert Harper and Edward 
Hawthorn. 

The first settlement in Wayne county was 
made in 1802 ; this was where the village of 
Patterson now stands and the settlers were: 
Joseph Parish, Thomas Ring, David, Charles 
and Robert A. Logan. Ephraim Stout receiv- 
ing a grant on the St. Francois, below the set- 
tlement made by the Logans, but removed in 
a few years to Iron county and was the first 
settler in Arcadia valley. Jacob Kelly was 
one of the wealthy and influential settlers and 
was the first justice of the peace. Others who 
are mentioned as having lived here in early 
times were : Tilman Smith, James Caldwell 
and Francis Clark. 



\ 



CHAPTER VII 

DISTRICT OF NEW MADRID 

Its Boundaries — "L'Anse a la Graise" — The LeSieurs — Situation of New MjVdrid — 
Colonel George Morgan — Grant to Morgan — His Expectation of Profit — His De- 
scription OP the Site — The Survey op the Town — Opposition of Wilkinson and Miro 
— New Madrid Falls into Hands op Miro — Letter of La Forge — The Commandants 
OP the Post — Emigrants Who Came With Morgan — The LeSieur Family — The La 
Forges — Joseph Michel — Robert McCov — Richard Jones Waters — Tardiveau — Other 
Settlers — Robert Goah Watson — Military Companies — Other Settlements in New 
Madrid County — Little Prairie — Settlements in Scott County — Town Near Sikeston 
— Benton — Joseph Hunter — Tywappity Bottoms — Mississippi County Settlements- 
Spanish Land Grants — The King's Highway. 



As originally defined by the Spanish in the 
grant to Morgan, the District of New Madrid 
extended from the Cinque Homme, south to 
the mouth of the St. Francois, and west a 
distance of ten or fifteen miles, though the 
western lioundary was not exactly located. 
Out of the north part of this district was 
carved the District of Cape Girardeau and 
after this was done New ^Madrid District was 
bounded on the north by Tywappity Bot- 
toms. The exact line between Cape Girar- 
deau district and New Madrid district was, 
however, for a long time a matter of dispute. 
It was finally settled by the governor-general 
and located at a point about five miles south 
of the present town of Commerce. The west- 
ern boundary was left unsettled ; however, 
the district was generally understood to ex- 
tend as far west as there were settlements. 
As we have seen in discussing the boundary 
of the District of Cape Girardeau, there was 



an attempt made by the commandants of 
New Madrid to extend their authority over 
all the territory west of the St. Francois river 
and to confine Cape Girardeau district be- 
tween the St. Francois and the Mississippi. 
The southern boundary of the District of 
New Madrid was generally understood as 
about the present southern boundary of the 
state. It was fixed not liy any order or en- 
actment but by the fact that settlements ex- 
tended only about that far to the south. 

The first settlement in this district was 
made in 1783 by Francois and Joseph Le- 
Sieur, two Canadian trappers and traders 
who had been accustomed to come to the ter- 
ritory about the present site of New Madrid 
for the purposes of hunting and trading 
with the Indians. Other hunters and traders 
also visited this place which is situated in a 
great bend of the river. Before any settle- 



81 



82 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



meut existed there, while it was only a tem- 
porary trading post, it was called "L'Anse a 
la Graise." This name, which means the 
"cove of grease," was given it by those who 
came there to trade. Just what reason there 
was for the name is a question. Some have 
said that it came from the fact that stores 
of bear meat were kept there for sale to the 
passing boats; others said that it was named 
because of the fact that the hunters there 
killed an abundance of game, among which 
were many bears. A third suggestion is that 
the name was applied because of the richness 
of the soil. 

Whatever the reason for the early name, 
the settlement was made by the LeSieurs. 
It was situated on the east bank of the Cha- 
poosa creek: this was the early name of St. 
John's Bayou. The situation was a splendid 
one for the town; the great ridge which ex- 
tends from the foot of the Scott county hills 
to the mouth of the St. Francois river is one 
of the most fertile and desirable parts of all 
of Southeast Missouri. This ridge touches 
the river at several places, among them New 
Madrid and Caruthersville. In early times 
it formed a most attractive place for settlers. 
It had immense quantities of timber of the 
finest sorts; within a short distance of New 
Madrid there was a lake of clear, limpid wa- 
ter ; the woods swarmed with game ; the cli- 
mate was mild ; the soil was exceedinglj' rich 
and productive. Those who visited the place 
believed it to be the most attractive site 
along the whole course of the river. These 
advantages had not been overlooked in the 
early times. The whole country about New 
Madrid is dotted over with Indian mounds. 
There are .so many of these that it has been 
conceived by those who believed the mounds 
to have been built by a race preceding the In- 



dians, that New ^Madrid was perhaps the seat 
of government for the extensive empire which 
they believed to have been organized at that 
time. Whatever the truth may be about this, 
there can be no doubt that great numbers of 
people lived here at the time the mounds were 
being built. It was near this place, perhaps, 
that De Soto camped on his expedition. An 
Indian village was situated here at that time 
and even when the French began to come 
here to trade there seems to have been an In- 
dian village still in existence. Along this 
ridge was one of the great Indian roads which 
led from the crossing at Commerce to the 
south as far, perhaps, as the mouth of the St. 
Francois. 

The LeSieurs lived and traded here for 
several years and other hunters and traders 
came, attracted by the advantages of the 
place, until there was quite a settlement. The 
most remarkable thing connected with its 
early histoi-y was the attempt of Colonel 
George Morgan to found a great city which 
should be the capital of a principality. 

JMorgan was an American ; he was fond of 
the life of the woods ; had an adventurous 
spirit ; was bold and daring and far-sighted. 
He visited the West about the time of the 
transfer from France to Spain, paddled up 
and down its rivers, selected promising sites 
for settlements, and doubtless dreamed of an 
empire which might be established in Upper 
Louisiana. He took part in the Revolution- 
ary war and was a man of considerable in- 
tluence and high position in the L^ited 
States. However, he became indignant at tlie 
treatment accorded him by the government 
of the United States. He had acquired from 
the Indians a large tract of land, enough to 
make him independently wealthy, but tlie 
policy of the LTnited States government was 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



83 



never to recognize the validity of an Indian 
transfer. In the view of the government, the 
Indians had no power or authority to alienate 
any lands. This invalidated Morgan's claims 
and he became practically penniless. He ap- 
plied to the congress of the United States for 
redress, but this was denied him. He then 
conceived the plan of founding a settlement 
within Si^anish territory. He seems to have 
been moved by a desire for wealth, and 
partly by a desire to revenge himself on the 
United States by helping to build up the 
power of Spain. He came into correspond- 
ence with Don Diego Gardoqui the Spanish 
minister at Washington. He pointed out to 
the minister the immense importance to Spain 
of colonizing her territory west of the IMissis- 
sippi river and of inducing settlers from 
America to emigrate there. His familiarity 
with the West and his real ability caught the 
fancy of Gardoqui who entered into his 
scheme. Under the arrangement entered into 
between these persons, iforgan was to receive 
a grant of land reaching from the Cincjue 
Homme to the mouth of the St. Francois 
river, a distance of about three hundred 
miles. The grant was to extend some twelve 
or fifteen miles westward from the river and 
thus to include between twelve and fifteen 
million acres of land. Jlorgan pointed out 
to the minister that if Americans were to be 
induced to settle on these lands certain things 
must be granted to them. It was accordingly 
agreed that Americans should be exempt from 
taxation and that they should have the right 
to self-government. In addition to these in- 
ducements Mr. Morgan held out to prospec- 
tive colonists cheap land for he expected to 
sell parts of his enormous holdings for ver.y 
small sums. 

It was a part of Morgan 's scheme to induce 
Indians from east of the river to settle in 



Spanish territory. This was to be done, iu 
part, on account of trading with the Indians, 
and, in part, so that they might serve as a 
protection for the Spanish territory, espe- 
cially against the Osage Indians who lived 
on the Alissouri river. He promised Gar- 
doqui that if the grant should be made on the 
terms agreed upon between them that within 
a very few years the population of the dis- 
trict should be at least one thousand pei-sons. 
Morgan seems to have been deceived as to 
the authority of the minister to make the 
graait; he undoubtedly believed that he had 
secured from the Spanish government the 
grant of the lands mentioned. In the winter 
of 1789, he descended the Ohio river with a 
numerous party consisting of Americans and 
of Indians and selected for the site of his 
town the place now known as New Madrid. 
He was led to do this by the beauty of the 
situation and the probabilities that it would 
be a most desirable place for a prosperous 
trading village. Here he left a large part of 
the expedition while he, himself, in company 
with some other members of the party, made 
his way up the river to St. Louis to meet 
the lieutenant-governor of the district who 
resided there. The lieutenant-governor re- 
ceived him with great favor and entered into 
all of his schemes. He then returned and 
proceeded to carry out his plans for the set- 
tlement of the country. 

IMorgan's hope of wealth was founded on 
the expectation that a considerable trade 
would soon be developed at his post, which he 
named New IMadrid, and that he would be 
able to dispose of large bodies of land. He 
evidently expected, also, to engage in the cul- 
tivation of the soil and in addition to this 
he had received a promise that if his scheme 
turned out siiccessfully the Spanish govern- 
ment would grant him a pension in reward 



84 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



for his services. He proceeded to lay out the 
site of his village and to have the surround- 
ing lands surveyed. The surveyors who did 
this work were Col. Israel Shreve, Peter 
Light, and Col. Christopher Hays. It seems 
that his instructions to these surveyors was 
really the beginning of the present system of 
land survey, and that the United States gov- 
ernment adopted the method devised by Mr. 
Morgan, in a subsequent survey of the public 
lands. 

* Morgan thus describes the site which he 
had chosen for his town of New Madrid: 
"We have unanimously resolved to establish 
our new city above-mentioned with the date 
(of this letter) some twelve leagues below the 
above-mentioned Ohio, at the place formerly 
called L'Ance la Graisse, below the mouth of 
the river called Chepousea or Sound river in 
Captain Hutchins's map. Here the banks of 
the Mississippi, for a considerable distance, 
are high, dry, and delicious, and the terri- 
tory west of the San Francisco river is of 
the most desirable quality for corn, tobacco, 
hemp, cotton, flax, and indigo, although ac- 
cording to the opinion of some, too rich for 
wheat, in such manner, that we truly believe 
that there is not a single arpent of uncultiv- 
able land, nor does it show any difference 
throughout the space of one thousand square 
miles. The country rises gradually from the 
Mississippi and is a fine, dry, agreeable, and 
healthful land, superior, we believe, in beauty 
and quality to those of any part of America. 

"The limits of our new city of Madrid 
will extend about four miles south on the 
bank of the river, and two to the west of it, 
so that it is divided by a deep lake of the 
purest fresh water, 80 varas wide and many 

* Houck, "History of Missouri," Vol. II. p. 64. 



leagues long, running north and south and 
empting by a constant and small current into 
the Mississippi after flowing through the 
center of the city. The banks of this lake, 
which is called Santa Anna, are high, beau- 
tiful and pleasant; its watei-s are deep, clear, 
and fresh ; its bottom is of clean sand, with- 
out logs, grass, or other vegetables; and it 
abounds in fish. 

' ' On each side of this fine lake, streets, one 
hundred feet broad, have been marked out, 
and a road of equal width about the same. 
Trees have been marked, which must be pre- 
served for the health and recreation of the 
citizens. 

"Another street, one hundred and twenty 
feet wide, has been marked out on the bank 
of the ^Mississippi, and also the trees noted 
which must be kept for the above-mentioned 
objects. 

' ' Twelve acres have been kept in the center 
of the city for the purpose of a public park, 
whose plan and adornment the magistrates of 
the city will look after; and forty lots of one 
and one-half acres apiece, have been consid- 
ered for those public works or uses whicli the 
citizens may request or the magistrate or 
chief order, and another twelve acres reserved 
for the disposition of the King. A ground- 
plot of one and one-half acres, and a lot of 
five acres, outside the city will be given to 
each one of the first six hundred settlers. 

"Our surveyors are now working on tlie 
extensive plan and proving up the grotmd 
plots of the city and the outside lots, and 
measuring the lands into sections of 320 acres 
apiece, in addition to those which they choose 
for the settlement of the people who may 
come (here). These portions and the con- 
ditions of the settlements are also in accord- 
ance with a plan universally satisfactory. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



85 



which will avoid the interminable lawsuits 
which a different method has caused in other 
countries to the posterity of the first settlers. 

"We have constructed cabins and a store- 
house for provisions, etc., and we are making 
gardens and clearing one hundred acres of 
land in the most beautiful meadow in the 
world, in order to sow corn, hemp, flax, cot- 
ton, tobacco, and potatoes. 

"The timber here is different in some 
kinds of trees from those in the central states 
of America. However, we have found white 
oak, high and straight, of extraordinary size, 
as well as black oak, mulberry, ash, white 
poplar, persimmon, and apples in abundance, 
and larger than those which we have hitherto 
seen. Also hickory, walnut, etc. The sassa- 
fras, very straight and of extraordinary size, 
is commonly 24: inches in diameter. The 
shrubs are principally cane and spice-wood. 

"The timbers unknown to you gentlemen, 
are the cypress, pecan, coffee (sic), cucum- 
ber, and some others. The cypress grows on 
the lowlands at the edge of the river; its 
quality is equal to that of white cedar. We 
have a fine grove of these trees in our neigh- 
borhood which Colonel Morgan has had di- 
vided into shares of a suitable size, in order 
to assign them to each farm. 

"We are satisfied with the climate, and we 
have reason to congratulate ourselves that we 
have at last found a country which conforms 
to our most ardent desires." 

* Slorgan gives this account of the way the 
town is laid out and the manner in which lots 
are to be disposed of: "The first six hun- 
dred persons appl.ying for city and out lots, 
who shall build and reside thereon one whole 
year, or place a family who shall so reside, 
shall have one city lot of half an acre, and 

*Houck, "Spanish Regime," Vol. I, p. 137. 



one out lot of five acres, gratis; paying only 
one dollar for each patent. All other city 
and out lots shall be reserved for sale, to fu- 
ture applicants according to their value. In 
the choice of the city and out lots the first 
applicant shall have the first choice of each; 
the second applicant shall have the second, 
and so on. Forty lots of half an acre each 
shall be reserved for public uses, and shall be 
applied to such purposes as the citizens shall 
from time to time recommend, or the chief 
magistrate appoint ; taking eare that the same 
be so distributed in the different parts of the 
city that their uses may be general, and as 
equal as possible. There shall be two lots of 
twelve acres each laid out and reserved for- 
ever ; viz. : one for the King, and one for pub- 
lic walks, to be ornamented, improved and 
regulated by or under the direction of the 
chief magistrate of the city, for the time be- 
ing, for the use and amusement of the citizens 
and strangers. So soon as these lots shall be 
laid off, the timber, trees and shrubs, now 
growing thereon, shall be religiously pre- 
served as sacred ; and no part thereof shall 
be violated or cut down, but by the pei-sonal 
direction and inspection of the chief magis- 
trate for the time being, whose reputation 
must be answerable for an honorable and 
generous discharge of this trust, meant to 
promote the health and pleasure of the citi- 
zens. There shall be a reserve of one acre at 
each angle of every intersection of public 
roads or highways, throughout the whole ter- 
ritory, according to the plan laid down for 
settlement of the country ; by which means, 
no farm house can be more than two miles 
and a half from one of these reserves, w^hich 
are made forever for the following uses, viz. : 
one acre on the northeast angle or the use of 
a school ; one acre in the northwest angle for 
a church; one acre on the southwest angle 



86 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



for the use of the poor of the district, and the 
remaiaing angle in the southeast angle for the 
use of the King. 

•'In laying out the city, all streets shall 
be at right angles and four rods wide, includ- 
ing the foot-paths on each side, which shall 
be fifteen feet wide, and shall be raised 
twelve or fifteen inches above the wagon road. 
No person shall be allowed to encroach on the 
foot-paths, with either porch, cellar door, or 
other obstruction to passengers. 

"All the oblongs, or squares of the city, 
shall be of the same dimensions, if possible; 
viz. : extending from east to west eighty rods 
or perches, and from north to south twelve 
perches, so that each oblong or square will 
contain six acres, which shall be subdivided 
by meridian lines, into twelve lots of half an 
acre each ; by this means every lot will have 
at least two fronts, and the end lots will 
have three fronts. The lots shall be num- 
bered from No. 1 upward, on each side of 
every street; extending from east to west; 
commencing at the east end. 

"The streets shall be distinguished by 
names in the following manner: the middle 
street shall be a continuation of the middle 
range or road, extending from the first me- 
ridional line to the Mississippi river, and 
shall be called King street; and the streets 
north of this, extending from east to west, 
shall be called first North street, second 
North street, and so on, reckoning from 
King's street or Middle street. In like man- 
ner all the streets south of Kings street or 
Middle street, extending from east to west, 
shall be called first South street, second 
South street, and so on, reckoning from King 
street ; so also, all the streets extending North 
and South shall be distinguished by the 
names of first River street, second River 



street, and so on; i-eckoniug the space be- 
tween the eastmost squares and the river, as 
first or front River street. 

"The space between the eastmost squares 
and the river, shall not be less than one 
hundred feet at any place, from the present 
margin or bank of the river, to be kept open 
forever for the security, pleasure and health 
of the city, and its inhabitants ; wherefore re- 
ligious care shall be taken to preserve all the 
timber growing thereon. 

"The lots of each square shall be num- 
bered from the above space fronting the 
river. The eastmost lot of each square being 
No. 1, and so on, to the westmost lot of the 
whole city ; by which means every lot in the 
city may be easily known and pointed out by 
any person. 

"The two lots No. 1 on each side of King 
street are hereby given forever to the citi- 
zens for market places. The two lots No. 13 
on each side of King street are hereby given 
forever to the citizens ; viz. : that on the south 
side for a Roman Catholic school, and that on 
the north side for a Roman Catholic church. 

"The two lots No. 13 in the fifth North 
street are hereby given forever to the citi- 
zens, viz: that on the south side for an Epis- 
copal school, and that on the north side for 
an Episcopal church. 

"The two lots No. 13 in the fifth South 
street are hereby given forever to the citi- 
zens, viz. : that on the south side for a Pres- 
byterian school, and that on the north side 
for a Presbyterian church. 

"The two lots No. 13 in the tenth North 
street are hereby given forever to the citizens, 
viz. : that on the south side for a Geraian 
Lutheran school, and that on the north side 
for a German Lutheran church. 

"The two lots No. 13 on the fifteenth North 
street are herebj^ given forever to the citizens 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



87 



— that on the south side for a German Cal- 
vanistie school, and that on the north side for 
a German Calvanistic chui-ch. 

"In like manner the two lots No. 13 in 
every fifth North street, and in every fifth 
South street throughout the city, shall be re- 
served and given for churches and schools, to 
be governed by such religious denominations 
as shall settle in New Madrid, on their re- 
spective plans. 

"All these lots, thus given, or reserved to 
be given are to be esteemed so many of these 
forty promised as before mentioned. 

"Every landing on the river opposite the 
city shall be equally free for all persons ; un- 
der regulation, however, of the magistrates 
of the police. 

"No trees in any street of the city, nor in 
any road throughout the country, shall be 
injured or be cut down, but under the direc- 
tion of the magistrates of the police, or an of- 
ficer of their appointment, who shall be ac- 
countable in the premises; and no timber in- 
jured or cut down in any street or road, shall 
be applied to private uses under any plea 
Avhatsoever. 

"The banks of the Mississippi, throughout 
the territory, including a space of four rods 
in breadth, shall be a highway and kept open 
forever as such ; and the trees growing there- 
in shall not be injured, nor be cut down, but 
by the magistrates of the police or their or- 
der, for the reasons given above in relation to 
other roads. 

"No white person shall be admitted to re- 
side in this territory who shall declare him- 
self to be a hunter by profession, or who shall 
make a practice of killing buffaloes or deer 
without bringing all the flesh of every carcass 
to bis own family, or to New ]\Iadrid, or 
carrying it to some other market. This regu- 
lation is intended for the preservation of 



those animals, and for the benefit of neigh- 
boring Indians, whose dependence is on hunt- 
ing principally — this settlement being wholly 
agricultural and commercial, no encourage- 
ment shall be given to white men hunters. 

"No person shall be concerned in contra- 
band trade on any account. Care will be 
taken to instruct the inhabitants what is con- 
traband, that they may not oft'end innocently. 

"Every person having permission to settle 
in this territory shall be allowed to bring 
with him his familj', servants, slaves and ef- 
fects of every kind, but not to export any 
part thereof, deemed contraband to any other 
part of his Majesty's dominions. 

"Every navigable river throughout the 
territory shall be esteemed a highway ; and no 
obstruction to the navigation shall be made 
therein for the emolument of any person 
whatsoever. 

"No transfer of lands within this territory 
shall be valid unless acknowledged, and a I'ec- 
ord thereof be made in an office to be erected 
for that purpose in the district. This is 
meant to prevent fraudulent sales, and not 
to obstruct those made bonafide to any per- 
son whatsoever, being a Spanish subject. 

"All mortgages must in like manner be 
recorded at the same office for the same pur- 
pose ; the fees of the office shall be reasonable, 
and the books, with alphabetical tables kept 
of the buyer and seller, and of the mortgagor 
and mortgagee, shall be open for examin- 
ation. 

"The foregoing regulations and directions 
are meant as fundamental stipulations for 
the government and happiness of all who 
shall become subjects of Spain, and shall re- 
side in this Territoiy. 

Given under my hand at New Madrid this 
sixth day of April, 1789. 

George Morgan." 



88 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



A number of settlers were attracted by the 
generous conditions on wliich land was 
granted and bj' the real desirability of the 
site of New Madrid, and ilorgan steered well 
on the way to the accomplishment of his de- 
sire. He came in conflict however with plans 
that had been formed by Governor Miro the 
Spanish governor of Louisiana whose head- 
quarters were at New Orleans and who was 
engaged in intrigue with General Jauies Wil- 
kinson. Wilkinson was an officer in the army 
of the United States in command of the dis- 
trict along the Mississippi river. He had 
planned with iliro to incite a rebellion among 
the people of the United States west of the 
Alleghanies, with the intention of separating 
this territory from the United States and of 
joining it to the Spanish territory. Wilkin- 
son was drawing a pension from the Spanish 
government and had hopes that his efforts in 
securing a part of the territory of the United 
States for Spain would result in his receiving 
some very great reward. Of course Morgan's 
plan of drawing settlers to New Madrid and 
making that a prosperous and flourishing 
center of trade for Upper Louisiana was in 
direct opposition to the hopes of Wilkinson. 
He saw in Colonel ^Morgan a rival and set to 
work to thwart his plans. He wrote Governor 
Miro that he had applied for a grant in the 
Yazoo country in order to destroy the place 
of a certain Colonel jMorgan. He told Miro 
that Morgan was a man of education and in- 
telligence, but a thorough speculator. He 
also said of Morgan that he had been twice 
in bankruptcy, and that he was very poor, 
but also very ambitious. He also said that 
he had had a spy searching out information 
concerning Morgan and his agreement with 
Don Diego Gardoqui and that he was con- 
vinced that Morgan's scheme would be suc- 
cessful unless steps were taken to counter- 



act it. He assured Miro that their plans 
would be greatly hindered if Morgan would 
be allowed to carry on his settlement. 

Acting on this information Governor Miro 
proceeded at once to try and put an end to 
the operations conducted by Morgan. On 
the 20th of ilay, 1789, he wrote to the Span- 
ish government protesting against the grant 
that had been made to Morgan. He said that 
it formed a state within a state and asked the 
government to cancel this grant ; at the same 
time he wrote to Morgan himself and charged 
him with having exceeded his powers and 
with having acted toward the government of 
Spain in bad faith. He said that ilorgan had 
no authority to lay out a town and provide 
for a government. He informed Morgan that 
it was his intention to construct a fort at 
New jMadrid and to place a detachment of 
soldiers there to control the situation. Mor- 
gan saw that this interference would very 
likely work the ruin of all of his hopes. He 
replied to the letter in a most apologetic man- 
ner, saying that if he had, indeed, exceeded 
his authority he had done so because of his 
zeal in the service of the King of Spain. He 
was unable to conceal the fact, however, from 
those colonists who had come and were com- 
ing to New Madrid, that he had fallen into 
disfavor with the government and they im- 
mediately began to fear that he would be 
unable to carry out his promise. It seems 
too that an emissary of Miro visited New Ma- 
drid and succeeded in stirring up some ill 
feeling against Morgan and his rule. The col- 
onists complained about some of the regula- 
tions and finally sent an agent, one John 
Ward, to present a petition to Governor Miro. 
Acting on this petition Miro carried out his 
threat and sent a company of soldiers with 
orders to construct a fort at New Madrid and 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



89 



to take entire charge of the government of 
the post. This practically destro.yed ilor- 
gan's influence, and with its loss went all his 
hope of making a settlement at New Madrid. 
The post was continued under the govern- 
ment of Spanish officials. 

The officer whom ]\Iiro sent with the com- 
pany of thirty soldiers to take charge of the 
post was Lieutenant Pierre Forcher who laid 
off a town between Bayou St. John and the 
Decyperi. The fort which he built on the 
bank of the river he named Fort Celeste, in 
honor of the wife of Governor Miro. Com- 
mandant Forcher was a man of energj' and 
administrative ability and under his rule or- 
der and prosperity reigned in the community. 
He was succeeded after about eighteen months 
by Thomas Portell. Portell was a man well 
suited to the place, governed with justice, 
and was able to satisfy most of the people. 

A letter is here inserted which was written 
in 1796 by Pierre Antoine La Forge to 
Charles DeHault De La.ssus. De Lassus had 
been appointed military and civil command- 
ment of the post and district of New Madrid. 
Li. Forge was a resident of the post and thor- 
ougiiy acquainted with the entire situation. 
.His i-tter cannot fail to be of interest as it 
PQ^'ers i^g conditions at New Madrid at that 
timt'- 

New r.iAD^ip, Dec. 31, 1796.— To Mr. Chas. 
Dehault DeLassus, Lieutenant-Colonel ad- 
mitted into the Stationary Regiment of Lou- 
isiana and Military and Civil Commandant 
of the Posts and Districts of New IMadrid — 
Sir, the Commandant: — Before handing you 
the first census of New Madrid under your 
commandment, I have ventured upon a sketch 
of the origin of the settlement of this post, 
and the courses which have retarded its 
growth and chiefly its cultivation. If former 



defects have kept it until this time in a spe: 
cies of stupefaction, your sagacious views and 
the zeal you exhibit to second the good will of 
Mr., the Governor General of this Province, 
towards this settlement, can in a little while 
efface the trouble it experienced in its birth. 

I was present, Mr. Commandant, when 
you pronounced with effusion these words, 
which I wish that all of the inhabitants might 
have heard ; words which depicted so frankly 
your kind intention, and the interest which 
Mr., the Governor, takes in us. 

"The Governor," said you, "is surprised 
at the langour exhibited by this settlement 
and its little advance; he desires its pros- 
perity. I will reflect upon its failure, ' ' added 
you, "and will endeavor to remedy it; I ask 
your a.ssistance. If the inhabitants need en- 
couragement, if they stand in need of help, 
let them inform me of their wants, and I will 
convey them to the Governor General. ' ' This 
offer was appreciated by those near you; lit- 
tle accustomed to hear the like, they won- 
dered at you, and appeared to rest content. 

Nevertheless different statements were 
.spread among those who heard you. Why so 
long a silence since your generous offer? Is 
it distrust on their part? Is it mistrust of 
their own misunderstanding? Is it profound 
reflection to better further your views? or 
may it be self interest that induces some to 
remain silent? I am ignorant of their mo- 
tives, and limit myself to the hope that they 
will eventually break their silence and make 
known to you their solitary reflections. 

If my knowledge equalled my desires, I 
would hasten with all my power, sir, the 
commandant, to tender you the homage of my 
services, but they fall too far short to allow 
me to hope that they could be of any utility 
to you. I will confine myself solely to com- 
municate to you such knowledge as I have 



90 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



acquired, and my reflections thereon since I 
have been at this post, and may a series of 
these reflections assist in your benevolent 
heart some happj' idea that may tend to the 
advantage and i^rosperity of this colony. 

Some traders in pursuit of gain, came to 
I'anse a la graissse (cove of fat or grease), 
a rendezvous or gathering place of several In- 
dian nations, and where, as we are told by 
tradition, they found abundance of game, 
and esj^ecially bears and buffaloes, hence the 
name of Tanse a la graissse. A first year of 
success induced them to try a second, and to 
this others. Some of them, determined to es- 
tablish their homes where they found a sure 
trade and unlimited advantages, divided 
there among themselves tlie land. The bayou, 
named since St. John, was the rallying point, 
and the land the nearest to this then became 
settled, therefore we find that Messrs. Fran- 
cis and Joseph Lasieuer, Ambrose Dumay, 
Chattoillier, and others, divided among them- 
selves this neighborhood ; property which Mr. 
Foucher, the fii-st commandant, considered as 
sacred, and which he did not disturb. The 
profits of the trade of I'anse a la graissse hav- 
ing been heard of as far as the Post Vincen- 
nes, the St. Maries, the Hunots, the Racines, 
the Barsaloux, etc., of that place accom- 
plished for some years very advantageous 
trips. They congratulated themselves, more- 
over, that the Indians of I'anse a la graissse 
traded with them amicably, whilst those of 
the United States were treacherous towards 
them, and made them averse to inhabit a post 
where their lives were in constant danger. 

Nevertheless an unfortunate anarchy, a 
singular disorder, prevailed, at I'anse a la 
graissse: all were masters, and would obey 
none of those who set themselves up a heads 
or commandants of this new colony. A mur- 
der was committed by an inhabitant on an- 



other — then their eyes were opened, they be- 
gan to feel the necessity of laws, and some one 
at their head to comjjel their observance. 
They bound the culprit and sent him to New 
Orleans. Everything tends to the belief that 
the commandants of the posts of Ste. Gene- 
vieve and of St. Louis had, during these 
transactions, apprised the Governor-General 
of what was occuring at I'anse a la graissse; 
but a new scene was in preparation. 

One i\Iorgan, having descended the Ohio 
the first year that traders settled at I'anse a 
la graissse, examined, in passing, the land, 
and found it suitable to fix here a settlement 
Returning to America (U. S.), he removed 
and succeeded in bringing down to this post 
several families. He selected for the village 
the elevated ground, where at present are the 
habitations of Jackson and of Waters, near 
the Mississippi. They built some houses on 
the land, and, full of his enterprise and the 
success he expected from it, ilorgan de- 
scended to New Orleans to olitain, not encour- 
agement simply in his plans, but proprietary 
and honorary concessions beyond measure. 
He was baffled in his pretensions, and did no< 
again set his foot in the colony. 

These various occurrances determined '^'^'e 
Governor General to send a command'^*- to 
this post, and M. Forcher was selectee Men 
are not gods, they all possess in some ? sheets 
the weaknesses of human nature ; the pre- 
dominant one of the first commandant was 
self-interest; and who in his place would not 
have been so sent to a desert in the midst of 
savages, to bring the laws of a regulated gov- 
ernment to new settlers as barbaroiis as the 
Indians themselves? "What recomponse would 
he have received for neglecting his personal 
interests? Wliat obligation would the new 
colony have been under to him ? None. 

Mr. Forcher was the man that was wanted 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



91 



for the c-reatiou of this new colony. Busy- 
ing himself at the same time with his own in- 
terests as of those of the inhabitants ; with his 
own amusements as well as theirs, but al- 
ways after having attended first to his busi- 
ness; and by a singular address, if he some- 
times plucked the fowl, he not only did it 
without making it squall, but set it dancing 
and laughing. JI. Foreher remained but a 
very short time at this post, and did a great 
deal. In eighteen months he divided out the 
country, regulated the land necessary for the 
village and that of the inhabitants. He built 
an imposing fort, promulgated the laws of the 
King and made them respected. He was the 
father and friend of all, lamented, regretted 
and demanded again, from the Governor Gen- 
eral down, by the unanimous voice of all the 
inhabitants. 

In all his laboi-s was Mr. Foreher assisted 
by anyone .' Had he overseers at the head of 
the works he presented ? Not at all ; he alone 
directed everything; he laid out the work, 
penetrated the cypress swamps to select the 
useful trees; he walked with the comx^ass in 
hand to align the streets and limit of lots; he 
demonstrated by his example to the perplexed 
workmen h.ow much men with but little main 
strength, but with intelligence and dexterity, 
can multiply the extent of the same, and sur- 
mount obstacles. His administration was too 
brief to ascertain the good he might have 
done, had it continued the ordinary period. 
What ic certain is that, during the eighteen 
months that he was in command, there came 
to New Madrid the largest portion of families 
that are still there, and it was he that at- 
tracted them there. 

M. Portell, siiccessor to M. Foreher, com- 
manded this post during five years; the popu- 
lation did not increase under his administra- 



tion, and the growth of agricultural labors 
was but slightly pei-ceptible. 

M. Portell did not value the inhabitants 
sufficiently to do them a substantial favor, 
nor did he use the proper means to improve 
the condition of the colony. He was not a 
man of the people, and when by chance his 
interest required him to assume the charac- 
ter, he was extremely awkward in it; they 
perceived that he could not play his. part, 
and that a residence in coui't would have 
infinitely better suited him than one in a 
new settlement mostly ill composed. M. Por- 
tell had a good heart, he was by nature noble 
and generous, but his mind was somewhat 
mistrustful and suspicious, and his age 
placed him in a position to be influenced by 
his surroundings. I am convinced that if 
M. Portell had come alone to this colony, he 
would have exhibited much less weakness 
and that his time would have been much more 
to him for the public good than it had been. 

The little progress made by the colony 
must not. however, be attributed to the ap- 
parent indifference which seemed to form the 
base of M. Portell 's character; physical and 
moral courses retarded its advancement. 

At the period when M. Portell assumed 
command he found the inhabitants of this 
post made up of traders, hunters and boat- 
men. Trade was still pretty fair for the first 
two years of his residence here, so that nearly 
everyone, high or low, would meddle with the 
trade and not a soul cultivated the soil. 
It was so convenient, with a little powder 
and lead, some cloth and a few blankets, 
which they obtained on credit at the stores. 
to procure themselves the meat, grease and 
suet neces.sary for their sustenance, and pay 
off a part of their indebtedness with some pel- 
tries. Some of them, but a verv few, seeded. 



92 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



equally as well as badly, about an acre of 
corn, and they all found time to smoke their 
pipes and give balls and entertainments. 
How often have I heard them regretting those 
happy days, when they swam in grease, and 
when abundance of every description was 
the cause of waste and extravagance, and the 
stores of fish from their dragnets gave them 
whiskey at four or five reaux (bit of 121,2) 
a gallon, and flour at four or five dollars a 
barrel, maintained and kept up these fes- 
tivals and pleasures, which only came to an 
end when their purses were exhausted. 

ilr. Forcher, a young man who. during his 
command of the post, never neglected his 
work or business for amusements, yet found 
time to be at them all, and often was the first 
to start them, but M. Portell was not so soci- 
able in this respect. He found fault with this 
giddiness and folly, and judged that a col- 
ony, peopled by such individuals, could not 
attain a very brilliant success. 

At last, game in these parts becoming 
scarcer, the Indians removed themselves fur- 
ther off. and were seldom here; the traders 
knew very well where to find them, but the 
inhabitants waited for them in vain; then 
grease, suet, meat and peltries being no 
longer brought by the Indians, it was only a 
few resident hunters and the traders them- 
selves who provisioned the village : the un- 
fortunate habit of not working had gained 
the day, it was too difficult to overcome it, 
so great distress was often seen in the coun- 
try before they could snatch a few green ears 
of corn from a badl.v cultivated field. Three 
or four Americans, at most, as far back as 
1793. bad risqued the settlement of farms 
on large tracts of land. The Creoles under- 
valued them, did not eat their fill of dry corn 
bread, and smoked their pipes quietly. Tliey 
were, however, surprised to see that, with sev- 



eral cows, they often had not a drop of milk, 
while these three or four Americans gorged 
themselves with it, and sold them butter, 
cheese, eggs, chickens, etc. 

By dint of looking into the matter, and 
waiting in vain for the Indians to supply 
them with provisions, it struck them that the 
most prudent thing they could do would be 
to become farmers. It became, then, a species 
of epidemic, and the malady spreading from 
one to another, there was not a single one of 
them but who. without energy, spirit, animals 
or ploughs, and furnished only with his 
pipe and steel, must needs possess a farm. 

It was towards the close of the year 1793 
that this disease spread itself, and towards 
the spring of 179-1 all the lands in the vicin- 
ity of New Madrid wei'e to be broken up and 
torn into rags, to be seeded and watered by 
the sweat of these new farmers. Who can 
tell how far this newly awakened entliusiasm 
might have been carried? It might have pro- 
duced a salutary crisis, and self-love and ne- 
cessity combined, we should be supplied with 
farmers at all hazards, and whose apprentice- 
ship might, perhaps, have resulted in some 
success. 

An unlooked for occurrence calmed this 
etfervescence ; all were enrolled into a militia 
to be paid from January 1. 1794, and they 
found it uuich ]ileasanter to eat tlie King's 
bread, receive his pay, and smoke his pipes, 
than to laboriously grub some patches of 
land to make it produce some corn and po- 
tatoes. These militiamen were disbanded 
about the middle of 1794; their pay was al- 
ready wasted. They found it a great hard- 
ship to be no longer furnished with bread by 
the King, the largest portion of them had 
neglected their planting, they found them- 
selves at the year's end in want, and clam- 
ored as thieves against the King, saying it 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



93 



was all his fault. M. Portell knew his people 
and disregarded these outcries. 

In the meautiiue five gallies iiad come up 
in the course of this year, and had passed all 
the summer at New Madrid, and they had 
caused a great consumption of food. M. Por- 
tell found nothing in the village for their sub- 
sistence, and drew his supplies for them in 
part from Illinois and from Kentucky. He 
did not let pass the opportunity of making it 
felt b}- those of the inhabitants of long resi- 
dence, that should have been in a condition 
to have furnished a part of these supplies, but 
the blows he struck came too late, and made 
but little impression — the hot fever which 
had occasioned the delirium, where every one 
saw himself a farmer, had now subsided; no 
one thought any more of it, some of them who 
had made a trial of their experience at Lake 
St. Isidor, had so poorly succeeded, that the 
laugh was not on their side, and it needed 
but little for hunting, rowing, and smoking 
the pipe, to resume their ancient authority 
over nearly all the colony. 

In 1795 a new fit of the fever struck the 
inhabitants. The settlement of Ft. St. Fer- 
nando occasioned a hasty cleaning out of the 
little corn there was in the colony. Ken- 
tucky furnished a little, and Ste. Genevieve 
supplied a great deal, even to New jMadrid, 
that fell short after having consumed her 
own supply. This example struck the in- 
habitants; the.y saw that if they had harvested 
extensivel.v, they could now well have dis- 
posed of their surplus — new desires to go on 
farms to raise stock and to make crops. 

During these oeeurrances several Ameri- 
can families came to New Madrid; some of 
them placed themselves at once on farms, ami 
like children our Creoles, from a state of 
jealousy, clamored against the Americans, 
whom thej- thought too wonderful. Jealousy 



stimulated them, and they would also place 
themselves on farms. 

It is in reality, then, only since the year 
1796 that we may regard the inhabitants of 
this post as having engaged in cultivation, 
and that it is but yet absolutely in its in- 
fancy ; a new scarcity they have just experi- 
enced before the last crops has convinced 
them of the importance of raising them, not 
only to provide against such affliction, to en- 
able them also, with the surplus above their 
own consumption, they ma.y procure their 
other indispensable necessaries. 

The population of the years 1794, 1795 and 
1796 is nearly about the same, but the crops 
have increased from year to year, and all 
tends to the belief that this increase will be 
infinitely more perceptible in future years. 

In the year 1794 the com crop was 6,000 
bushels; in 1795, 10,000, and in 1796, 17,000. 

It was in this condition of things that M. 
Portell left his command. 

It was, perhaps, impossible, from the fore- 
going facts, that the settlement at New Ma- 
drid could have made greater progress than 
it has up to this time. It was not husband- 
men who came and laid the foundation, it 
was tradesmen, cooks, and others, who would 
live there with but little expense and la- 
bor, who, being once fixed there, having their 
lands and their cattle, the Indians having re- 
moved tliemselves to a distance, and trade no 
longer within the reach of all the world, ne- 
cessity taught them that to procure the means 
necessary to live, they must resort to tilling 
the soil. The first attempts were difficult, but 
the inducement of disposing with ease of 
their crops determined them to labor. 

The first steps have been taken ; nothing 
remains for a wise commandant, but to man- 
age everything with prudence, according to 
the views of the government, to firmly repel 



94 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



idleness and laziness, to welcome and encour- 
age activity, and exhibit to the industrious 
men that he is distinguished above others and 
has earned the protection of the government, 
in giving him tangible proof, either by pref- 
erence in purchasing from him or some 
other manner of recompense. The honest 
man, the active and industrious man, is sen- 
sible of the slightest proceeding on the part 
of his superior, and it is to him a great ex- 
pansion to reflect that his labors and fatigues 
have not been ignored, and that they have 
given him a claim on the good will and be- 
nevolence of the heads of a Providence. 

What a vast field is open to a commandant 
who would reap advantage by these means, 
and gain the benediction of all the worthy in- 
habitants of a colony. 

I stop here, Mr. Commandant ; what I 
might say further would add but little to the 
good purposes you design for the progress 
and success of the place. I have made a con- 
cise narrative of the origin of the post of 
New Madrid, and the reasons of its slow 
growtli in agriculture. The census which 
follows, will give you a correct view of its 
present situation. It will prove to you that 
courage and emulation need but a slight sup- 
port to emerge from the giddiness where they 
have so long remained. But for certain the 
Creoles will never make this a flourishing set- 
tlement, it will be the Americans, Germans 
and other active people who will reap the 
glory of it. 

Observe, if it please you, sir, that amongst 
the habitations granted long since, those 
given by Francis Racine, by Hunot. Sr., the 
Hunot sons. Paquin, Laderoute, deceased, 
Gamelin. Lalotte. etc., have not yet had a 
single tree cut on them ; that those of the 
three brothers. Saint Marie, Meloche and 
other Creoles are barely commenced. 



You will see, on the eonta'ary, that the 
Americans who obtain grants of land have 
nothing more at heart but to settle on them 
at once and improve them to the extent of 
their ability, and from this it is easy to draw 
conclusions. 

Another observation which will surely not 
escape you, sir, is that the total head of fam- 
ilies amount, according to the census I ex- 
hibit to you, to 159, and that in this number 
there are fifty-three who have no property. 
This, I think, is an evil to which it would be 
easy for you to apply a remedy. In a county 
destined to agricultural pursuits, and to the 
breeding of domestic animals, it is too much 
that one-third of the inhabitants should 
stand isolated from the general interest, and 
that the other two-thirds should be exposed 
to be the victim of a set of idle and lazy peo- 
ple, always at hand at their slightest neces- 
sities to satiate their hunger liy preying on 
the industrious. 

I think, Mr. Commandant, that several 
habitations left by persons who have ab- 
sented themselves from this post for a long 
time should be reunited to the domain. 

The following are of this class: 

One Enic Bolduc, absent for over two 
years, had a place at Lake St. Francis No. 2. 

One John Easton, absent for over three 
years, had a place at Lake St. Eulalie: it is 
now abandoned. One Mr. Waters says he 
has claims on it. What are they? 

One Tourney had a place at Lake St. Isi- 
dor; he associated with to cultivate it one 
Gamard. Tourney returned to France, and 
Gamard had worked for two years at Fort 
St. Fernando. 

One M. Desroclier. why has he not worked 
his place in the Mill Prairie, which he holds 
for over four years? Has he not enough 
with the one he holds at St. Isidor? 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



95 



One M. Chisholm holds tlu-ee places; he 
lives on one he has just commenced' to clear ; 
a second is in litigation, and for over four 
years he has done nothing on a third near 
the village — has he not enough with two? 
Why hold land uselessly, and above all near 
the village? 

The examination you will give the census, 
and the information concerning the property 
of each head of a family w'ill lead you pi-ob- 
ably to other reflections. I append to the 
whole a new maj) of the village and its en- 
virons, as taken after the last abrasion of 
land by the Mississippi; this work claims 
your indulgence ; it is not that of an artist, 
but one of the most zealous subjects of his 
majesty ; and the only merit it may possess 
is to demonstrate to you with correctness the 
number of places that have been conceded in 
tlie village, the houses that are built thereon, 
and the names of the proprietors on the gen- 
eral list which correspond with the same 
numbers as those placed on each conceded 
place. 

I pray you to believe me, with profound 
respect, sir, the commandant, 

Your very affectionate and devoted ser- 
vant,* 

New Madrid, December 31, 1796. 

Pierre Antoine LaForge. 

De Lassus remained as commandant at 
New Madrid until the spring of 1799 when 
he was transferred to St. Louis and became 
the lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. 
De Lassus was, perhaps, the most popular 
official ever in command at New Madrid, as 
he was, indeed, one of the most popular in 
all Louisiana. He was succeeded by Don 
Henri Peyroux who was transferred to the 
post from Ste. Genevieve. Peyroux landed 
* ' ' History of Southeast Missouri, ' ' p. 140. 



in New Madrid in August, 1799, and was in 
command four years. He then resigned and 
returned to France. 

John Lavalle succeeded Peyroux as com- 
mandant of the post and held the place un- 
til the transfer to the United States in March, 
1804. 

The emigrants who came to New ^Madrid 
with Colonel ilorgan were mainly from 
Maryland and Pennsylvania. Among them 
were David Gray, Alex Samson, Joseph 
Story, Richard Jones Waters, John Hemp- 
hill, Elisha Windsor, Andrew Wilson. Sam- 
uel Dorsay, Benjamin HarrLson, Jacob and 
Benjamin Meyers, William Chambers, Elisha 
Jackson, Ephraim Conner, John Hart, 
James Dunn, Lawi-ence Harrison, John 
Gregg, Nicholas and James Gerry, John Wal- 
lace, John Becket, John Summers, Louis and 
Joseph Vandenbeuden, Joseph McCourtney, 
John Pritchett and David Shelby. 

As we have seen the earliest French set- 
tlers were the two LeSieurs, Francois and 
Joseph. They were not only the fir.st, but 
perhaps the most influential of all. Many of 
their descendants are still to be found in 
New Madrid county. These two were the 
sons of Charles LeSieur a native of the south 
of France who had emigrated to Three Rivers 
in Canada. Francois and Joseph came to St. 
Louis in 1785 and entered the employ of 
Gabriel Cerre who was a fur trader. It was 
in his interest that they visited the place 
where the town of New Madrid was after- 
ward located. Joseph died in 1796 and left 
no children. Francois married on ilay IM, 
1791, Cecile Guilbequet, a native of Vincen- 
nes. In 1794 they removed to Little Prairie, 
remaining there until the earthquakes of 
1811 and '12 when they returned to New Ma- 
drid county and made their home at Point 



96 



lllSTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Pleasant. Francois LeSieur died in- 1826; 
lie had been married three times. The chil- 
dren of the first marriage were Francois, 
Jr., whose wife was a LeGrand; Colestiqne, 
who became the wife of Noah Gambol ; Mar- 
guerite, who married Hypolite Thiriat ; God- 
frey, who mari-ied Mary E. Loignon and 
reared a family of eleven children ; Matilda 
who became Mrs. W. B. Nicholas; and Chris- 
tine, who was married to George G. Alford. 
His second wife was a Miss Bowman, and 
their son was named Napoleon. In 1820 he 
was married for a third time to the widow of 
Charles Loignon. Another member of this 
family was Raphael LeSieur who was a 
nephew of the two brothers and came to Ala- 
drid in 1798. 

Another of the other French settlers was 
Pierre Antoine La Forge who came from 
France. La Forge was an aristocrat by birth, 
had been educated to be a priest, but fell in 
love with his coi;sin Margaret Champagne. 
He resided in Paris, but was compelled to 
leave at the time of the Revolution. He 
came to America then. At first he lived in 
Gallipolis, Ohio ; he then removed to New 
Madrid where he was appointed a public 
writer and interpreter. He was also an ad- 
jutant of militia and justice of the peace 
and a notary public. De Lassus thought 
very highly of La Forge and accounted him 
one of the best officers in the service of the 
Spanish. His descendants still live in New 
Madrid county and have always been influ- 
ential citizens. Among them we mention 
Alexander La Forge, A. C. La Forge, Hon. 
William Dawson, Robert D. Dawson, Dr. Geo. 
W. Dawson, and Dr. Walton O'Bannon. 
Others also have attained prominence and 
wealth. 

As we have seen, Francis and Joseph Le- 
Sieur are the first settlers in New Madrid. 



The third was Joseph Michel. Michel's son, 
also named Joseph, who was born in 1800, 
lived to be a very old man, dying in 1895. 
He lived in New ^ladrid until 1829, when he 
moved to Hales Point, Tennessee. He was 
a nephew by marriage of Captain Robert 
McCoy who was also his guardian. He mar- 
ried a daughter of John Baptiste Olive one 
of the early settlers in New Madrid. 

Captain McCoy was one of the most promi- 
nent men in New Madrid, he came to the set- 
tlement with Morgan, and became an officer 
under the Spanisli authorities, being in com- 
mand of a Spanish galley, or revenue boat. 
There were several of these galleys stationed 
at New Madrid and they were charged with 
the execution of the Spanish commercial 
laws. All boats passing New Madrid were 
required to stop and to give an account of 
themselves, and to pay the required tax to 
the government. It was while in command 
of one of these boats that McCoy captured 
the celebrated Mason gang of robbers and 
river pirates who for a number of years com- 
mitted depredations on the river commerce. 
Jo.seph Michel who visited New Madrid in 
1887 had a vivid recollection of the encounter 
between McCoy and the Mason gang. The 
Spanish governor at that time was Peyroux. 
He ordered McCoy to Little Prairie where 
he found and captured IMason and his men. 
They were then brought to New Madrid, 
sent from there to New Orleans and were 
then ordered Tip the river again, and on the 
return while their boat was tied at the river 
bank with most of the crew on the bank. 
Mason and his men seized the boat, shot and 
wounded Captain McCoy and made their es- 
cape. McCoy was commandant at post of 
New Madrid in 1799, then he was command- 
ant at Tywappaty Bottom. He died in New 
Madrid in 1840. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI' 



9T 



Another of the early French settlers was 
Etienne Bogliolo who had been a resident of 
St. Louis, but early moved to New Madrid 
and engaged in trading. He secured some 
large grants of laud from the Spanish au- 
thorities, but lost his property and died 
poor. 

Another of the French settlers was John 
B. Olive. He left numerous descendants who 
still live in New Madrid county. Still an- 
other was John LaValle. He came to New 
Madrid direct from France and w^as a man 
of education and of superior intellect. Of 
his descendants, many still live in the eouuty. 

Of the men who came with Morgan, one 
of the most prominent was Doctor Richard 
Jones Waters. Waters was a native of Mary- 
land, he came to New Madrid about 1790 
and began the practice of his profession. 
Besides being a physician he was also a 
trader, mill owner, and land speculator. He 
married the widow of Louis Vaudenbenden. 
The Waters family of New Madrid are de- 
scendants of Richard Jones Waters. He left 
a large estate and was an energetic, enterpris- 
ing man. De Lassus rated him as a good 
officer, but referred to his somewhat extrava- 
gant disposition. 

Barthelemi Tardiveau was a Frenchman 
.who came to New Madrid with Morgan. He 
was a native of France and lived in Holland 
and had been a merchant in Louisville. He 
was a very able, energetic man, and was 
probably the most cultured man in the early 
settlement. He was a master of several dif- 
ferent languages including French, Eng- 
lish, and Spanish, as well as a number of 
Indian tongues. The company with which he 
was associated was, perhaps, the most ex- 
tensive trading company in New Madrid 
district. He came to New Madrid after some 
experience east of the river which satisfied 



him that if the French in America were to 
prosper they must remove to the west side of 
the Mississippi. While living in the east he 
had interested himself in securing large 
grants of land from Congress for the benefit 
of French settlers and in satisfaction of their 
claims which had originated from Indian 
grants. He was fairly successful in this 
matter, but he soon saw that the very land he 
had been granted slipped out of the hands 
of the French and into the possession of the 
Americans. This convinced him that the 
French people would not prosper unless they 
got further away from the Americans. This 
conviction led him to give his assistance and 
influence to the .support of Morgan's scheme. 
He not only followed Morgan to New Madrid, 
but he induced others of his friends and ac- 
quaintances to do the same. 

Steinbeck and Reinecke, the traders whom 
we have noted as being established in Cape 
(jrirardeau, had a trading post at New Ma- 
drid also, they were further interested at 
Little Prairie. Bogliolo was also a trader as 
was the firm of Derbigny, La Forge & Com- 
pany. 

About 1804 Robert Goah Watson, a Scotch- 
man by birth, but who had resided in Vin- 
cennes, Indiana, and also in Nova Scotia 
moved to New- Madrid. He engaged in trade 
and acquired a large fortune. He was a man 
of great energy and ability and had the re- 
spect and confidence of all the people of the 
community. He was noted for his kind and 
charitable disposition and rendered such ser- 
vice to the community that he was aifection- 
ately referred to as the Father of the Coun- 
try. Watson Avas killed on his farm near 
Point Pleasant. He left a large family of 
children, consisting of four sons and five 
daughters. One of his daughters married 
John Nathaniel Watson, another Doctor Ed- 



98 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



iiiund La Valle, a third married Thomas L. 
F'ontaine, a fourth married W. W. Hunter 
aud the fifth daughter married Doctor 
Thomas A. Dow. Many of the Watsous, 
Fontaines, La Valles aud Hunters of New 
Madrid county are descendants of Robert G. 
Watson. 

Shortly, before liis death Judge Watson 
wrote a sketch of his life. It is insei-ted here 
because of the information it contains as to 
conditions existing in this part of the state, 
and especially for its presentation of the 
great difficulty attendant upon travel in tliat 
early day. 

I am a Scotchman by birth. I left Aul- 
dearn, Scotland, a small town east of Iver- 
ness, in March, 1802. I came to this country 
when a lad with an elder brother of mine. 
Wm. G. Watson, under the guardianship of 
an uncle of ours, who had been in this coun- 
try a number of years previous to our ar- 
rival, and was doing business as a merchant 
in Detroit, Michigan, then a small town. We 
took shipping at Greenoch, Scotland, and 
landed at ilontreal, lower Canada, the latter 
part of May. From there we took passage on 
a batteau at a place called Saechine, six or 
eight miles from Jlontreal. We ero.ssed the 
small lake some six or eight miles wide, which 
bi'ought us to the mouth of the river JIagon. 
We proceeded on this batteau, which was 
loaded with merchandise, for Upper Canada, 
there being no other mode of conveyance at 
that period. After being fifteen days on the 
river, contending against a strong current 
and numerous falls, shoals, and other obstruc- 
tions, we arrived at Queenstown on Lake On- 
tario, a small town settled by British subjects, 
with a garrison containing two or three com- 
panies. After remaining there four days we 
took a small vessel for passage to Niagara, a 



small town at the head of Lake Ontario, after 
being out six days. From there we walked 
to Queenstown Heights, a distance of ten 
miles. From Queenstown we took a wagon 
to Fort Erie. When we arrived we found a 
vessel waiting for freight for Detroit and 
Upper Canada. We remained some ten days 
before the vessel got in freight and was ready 
to sail. While waiting we had nothing to do 
only amuse ourselves by hunting and fishing. 
We crossed from Fort Erie to the mouth of 
Buffalo Creek on the American side and found 
there a tribe of Indians encamped on a hunt- 
ing expedition. The city of Buffalo was not 
then spoken of, or had any connection with 
the state of New York, either by railroad, 
canal, turnpike or any other kind of road. 
The whole Lake country was claimed and 
owned by Indians, the only white settlement 
at that period on Lake Erie, was at a place 
then called Presque Isle, near the line di- 
viding the state of New York from Pennsyl- 
vania. It was then the only good harbor on 
the Lake. After leaving Fort Erie we ar- 
rived at Detroit, eight days out in the latter 
part of August. I remained with my uncle. 
Robert Gouie Watson, in Detroit, one year. 
He sent my brother and myself to school dur- 
ing that time, which was prett.v much all the 
school-going we ever received, ily uncle had 
a small trading establishment on the British 
side opposite Detroit, and he sent me over 
there to take charge of it. I remained there 
about a year, he being connected with the 
Indian trade on the American side at San- 
du.sky and Huron river along Lake Erie, then 
a considerable trading country owned and 
claimed by the Indians. I visited that coun- 
try on business for my uncle in the ,vear 
1803. Where Cleveland and Sandusky are 
now located there were no white settlements 
or settlers, with the exception of a few In- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



99 



dian traders. My uncle also had an Indian 
trading establishment at New Madrid, Mo., 
under the management and control of a 
Frenchman by the name of Gabriel Hunot, 
who had numerous connections of that name 
in that place (New Madrid) and Fort Viu- 
cennes, Ind. From some cause my uncle was 
obliged to take charge of the trading estab- 
lishment, and sent me out with an outfit of 
goods imported from London, expressly for 
the Indian trade, to take charge at New Ma- 
drid of the establishment. We left Detroit, 
1 think, in July, 1805, with two pirogues 
loaded with Indian goods, myself, and four 
French Canadians for New Madrid. We 
found the river Maumee very low, making a 
long trip to Fort Wayne. No white inhabi- 
tants were on the banks from the time we 
left the foot of the rapids, with the exception 
of one Frenchman — a baker — at the mouth 
of the river Glase, called Fort Defiance, who 
furnished the Indians and traders who trav- 
eled up and down the river with liread. The 
length of time out in getting to Fort Wayne, 
I do not recollect. We found some Indian 
traders and a company of U. S. troops sta- 
tioned there. We were then obliged to liavil 
our goods and pirogues a distance of ten 
miles to the head waters of Little river, 
which empties into the Waba.sh. Those In- 
dian traders at Fort Wayne were prepared 
witli oxen and wagons to haul our goods and 
boats across, for which we had to pay them 
considerable and sometimes when the waters 
of Little river were very low, we had to haul 
our goods and boats a distance of forty miles, 
to where Little river empties into the Wabash. 
On one occasion I had to haul my goods and 
boats a distance of sixty miles to near the 
Missionary town, an Indian village on the 
Wabash where a Frenchman by the name of 
Godfrey from Detroit had located as a 



trader. The chief of this village was The- 
eomery, brother to the Prophet who held a 
power and sway over the different tribes, un- 
paralleled in the history of Indian nations. 
I got to Vinceunes after encountering ex- 
treme low water, having to carry our goods 
which were made up in small packages ex- 
pressly to be carried from shoal to shoal by 
the hands, distance of one-quarter to one- 
half a mile, sometimes longer, and rolling our 
pirogues on rollers over every rapid until we 
got them in deep water. This was our daily 
occupation. We arrived at Vincennes after 
being out about two months. During our trip 
we were very much exposed, the weather be- 
ing excessively warm and not having any- 
thing to protect us from the hot sun and bad 
weather; not even a tent, which latter was 
not used or hardly known at that early 
period, and being short of provisions, a little 
salt pork and a few hard biscuit and some 
lye hominy composed our diet, no tea, no cof- 
fee, no sugar ; the latter article in those times 
was in but little use and scarcely known. 
From extreme exposure and hard living I 
was taken down violently with chills and 
fever. My hands knew that Gabriel Hunot, 
who was trading for my uncle at New Ma- 
drid, had a sister in Vincennes by the name 
of Pagey. I sent for one of her sons to come 
and see me. He did so, and seeing my criti- 
cal situation invited me to his mother's house, 
and by his request I went there, and fortun- 
ate it was for me I did so. If I had remained 
where I was I must have died. Every care 
and attention and good nursing was given me 
night and day, by Mrs. Pagey and her kind 
sons. I owe my existence now to that kind 
lady's attention to me, which I shall forever 
remember with gratitude and esteem. I re- 
mained at Vincennes for some time to regain 
mv strength. While there I became ae- 



100 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



quainted with a good many of the French set- 
tlers and Indian traders, Rupert Debois, 
Francois Langois, the Lazells, Bamon — In- 
dian interpreter for Gen. Harrison — and a 
number of names not recollected. Not a 
white inhabitant except Indian traders, from 
the time we left Port Wayne till we arrived at 
Vineennes, and from there to the mouth of 
the Wabash — with the exception of Cofifee 
island, some French families lived there of 
the name of Leviletts. We arrived at New 
Madrid in October and found the place set- 
tled principally by the French, and the town 
or village beautifully laid off in lots of two 
and four arpens, each, well improved and 
the streets wide and running parallel with 
the river. The banks of the river then as now 
were encroaching upon the town. The first 
town laid off by the Spanish had all fallen 
in. and at the present writing we are living 
in the third town carefully laid off' back of the 
second, which has also gone. When the en- 
croachments of the river will stop is hard to 
conjecture. After a residence of 50 years in 
the place I find little or no change in the 
caving of the river banks. I have moved 
my possessions back three times and my first 
residence is now in Kentucky. When I ar- 
rived in New Madrid I took possession of my 
uncle's trading establishment and commenced 
trading with the Indians, French, and Ameri- 
cans, the place being a considerable trading 
point principally with the Indians. I con- 
tinued buying peltries and furs during the 
winter until March. I then baled all my 
peltries and furs and shipped them in two pi- 
rogues containing 24 packs each. I started 
them in charge of some Frenchmen up the 
Ohio river, then up the Wabash, some 350 
miles from its mouth to Little river, then up 
that river to its source, where we hauled again 
our pirogues and furs across to Ft. Wayne 



on the Maumee or the lake, and from there 
we proceeded to Detroit where everything 
was delivered up to my uncle. I followed my 
shipment by land by myself some three weeks 
after they started. I went by the way of 
Kaskaskia, 111. After leaving that village, 
settled by French not a sign of a white in- 
habitant did I see until I got to Fort Vin- 
eennes out three nights. I expected at Vin- 
eennes to have found several traders ready to 
leave by land for Detroit. They, like myself, 
generally followed their shipments of skins 
by land. They had left some five days be- 
fore I got there and I was obliged to continue 
the journey by myself. 

When I left Vineennes I took tlie Terre 
Haute roiite. At that place I found an In- 
dian village and two French traders. I spent 
the night with them and the next morning 
proceeded on my journey. I crossed a stream 
not far from Terre Haute, called Vermillion 
and the next place I came to was an Indian 
village where I found a Frenchman, a trader 
by the name of Langlois. The next place of 
note was the Missionary town where I found 
ray old friend Godfrey, spoken of on my trip 
out from there. My next point was Fort 
Wayne. I had then been out six nights from 
Vineennes and four of these nights I lay out 
by myself and from Fort Waj^ne to the foot 
of the rapids, two nights. This was a hazard- 
ous undertaking for a youth of only aboiit 16 
years. From the foot of the rapids to De- 
troit, the country was more or less settled 
by the French. I remained at Detroit some 
two weeks and started back by land the same 
route I went out. I made three trips by wa- 
ter and three by land and worked and 
steered my own pirogues and continued in 
the trade until the war broke out between 
this country and Great Britain in 1812. The 
war stopped all communication between this 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



101 



country and Detroit, and I was then com- 
pelled to seek another channel of trade for 
my peltries and furs. In 18 — I made a large 
shipment of peltries and furs in a keel boat, 
the largest shipment I ever made from this 
country, by the way of Chicago. The keel 
boat left New Madrid in March with a 
freight valued at .$14,000. They went up the 
Mississippi, then up the Illinois, then up a 
stream I think they call Fox river, up that 
to within six miles of Chicago ; my object in 
sending m.y skins that route was to meet a 
government vessel which the government gen- 
erally sent out at the opening of navigation 
in the spring, with provisions and stores for 
the troops stationed there, but, unfortun- 
ately, when my fui-s and peltries got there 
the government boat had been there and left 
some five or six days before for Detroit. The 
hope of getting them to Detroit that season 
was hopeless. No vessels running the lake 
with the exception of one government ves- 
sel, spring and fall. My skins remained there 
all summer expecting to ship them in the 
fall. "When we examined and commenced 
preparing them for shipment we found them 
all destroyed by moths or bugs. I did not 
realize one cent from the amount stored 
there. While at New Madrid trading with 
the Indians and shipping my skins to Detroit 
until 1812, I purchased stock and produce 
from 1808 up to 1825 and shipped it to New 
Orleans in flat boats. M.v first visit to New 
Orleans was in the year 1809 having con- 
signed my first shipment in 1808. I loaded 
two flat boats with assorted ai'ticles of pro- 
duce and steered one of them myself, but un- 
der the control and management of a pilot 
of Pierre Depron. I got to the city on my 
flat boats, but how to get back was the next 
question. No steam boats running at that 
time and but few barges and keel boats on 



the river. I bought a horse and started back 
by land; crossed Lake Ponchartrain in an 
open boat with my horse and took the road 
from Maisonville to Nashville, Tenn., pass- 
ing through the Cherokee and Choctaw In- 
dian country (owned and claimed by them) 
to the Tennessee river. In getting to New 
IMadrid I was out six weeks, suffering much 
for the want of provisions for myself and 
feed for my horse, having to pay $1 per meal 
for myself and $1 per gallon for corn. My 
men had to wait some time at New Orleans 
before an opportunity offered to get back, 
and then the.y had to work their way home on 
a barge. From that period up to the present 
time I have continued visiting New Orleans 
every year and am of course well posted in 
being an eye witness to all improvements 
made in the city and coast since my first visit 
there. In 1810-11 I came up the Mississippi 
river in a pirogue with my hands that I 
had taken down on a flat boat. We left New 
Orleans the latter part of July with scant 
provisions or allowances of any kind for our 
trip having to rely on our guns and fishing 
tackle for a supply, not being particular as 
to what we killed or ate — Hobson's choice, 
that or none. Cranes, pelicans and cat fish, 
we considered a delicacy. We had not a 
tent or umbrella to protect us from the in- 
clemency of the weather; when it rained so 
hard that we could not travel we put ashore 
and peeled the bark off the trees to make 
shelter from the rain. We were out 45 days. 
From 1808 to 1812 but few inhabitants were 
on the river. At Point Chicot we found two 
Frenchmen at White river and one at the 
mouth of St. Francois, Phillips and i\Ir. Joy, 
and a Spaniard on the side opposite Mem- 
phis. (Then Memphis was not known or 
spoken of.) One or two Indian traders were 
there at that time. At that early period the 



102 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



banks of the Mississippi were settled by rob- 
])ers and eoimterfeiters. Flat boats descend- 
ing the river then had to go in eouvo.ys well 
armed and under the lead of some experi- 
enced commander; if thej' did not they were 
sure to be attacked, killed, or robbed of their 
effects by these robbers who were settled at 
different points on the river. In returning 
in a dug out with my hands, in 1810, we were 
followed by one of ^Mason's and Murrell's 
men from a little below Lake Providence un- 
til a few miles below Point Chicot. He came 
up within half a mile of us and no nearer; he 
continued his pursuit by following us two 
days. He was going as we thought to apprize 
some of his colleagues of our approach near 
Point Chicot, and that we were no doubt in 
possession of considerable money, proceeds of 
produce shipped to New Orleans. This rob- 
ber was one of ilason's surviving confeder- 
ates in crime, etc. He was a French Cana- 
dian by the name of Revard, and his location 
was on the island below Lake Providence ; 
there he watched and saw everything that 
passed up and down. We tried to pass in the 
night hoping not to be discovered but we 
could not. He was too watchful of us to 
evade his notice. We had some confidential 
advisers who instructed lis how to act in the 
neighborhood of Lake Providence, where 3Ia- 
son had his general rendezvous, on or near 
Bayou Mason, back of Lake Providence, a re- 
mote and secluded place where he kept his 
headquarters. Nothing saved us that trip 
from being killed by the French robber only 
my crew being French and he. Rivard. being a 
Canadian, disliked attacking, robbing and 
killing us. being French, he having heard my 
French crew singing French songs which was 
a custom among the French boatmen. After 
following us two days he abandoned the 
chase. My long residence at New ^Madrid 



gave me an opportunity of becoming ac- 
quainted with a great many people and their 
acts whether good or bad. Not a daj- from 
1809 to 1815 but some innocent man, the owner 
of some flat boat loaded with produce, had 
been imposed on by some of this class by pui'- 
chasing of them for money, which they called 
good, and on good solvent banks, when in fact 
it was nothing but the basest kind of counter- 
feit money. There was scarcely a day but 
what there was large amounts presented to 
me for examination and inspection. Our 
whole country from Evansville, Indiana, to 
Natchez was full of such people. In fact 
they ruled and controlled the country at that 
period. They had the sway. We were from 
the necessity in the minority the\' being the 
strongest party and to express our opinion 
against them and their actions placed our 
lives and property in a dangerous situation. 
After an elapse of a certain time a better 
population commenced coming in. We saw 
after counting these we considered honest 
and would take an interest in securing and 
driving out of the country the despised class, 
we had from necessity to consult with the citi- 
zens of the country and ascertain from them 
what course we ought to adopt in order to 
get rid of this description of population. 
They put at defiance all laws proving 
themselves innocent of every crime and 
charge brought against them. A general 
meeting of the citizens of the country was 
called and the matter laid before tliem. 
They came to a conclusion and that conclu- 
sion by a unanimous vote of the peojile then 
in public council. "That these people must 
leave the country" and a committee was ap- 
pointed by the meeting to carry the resolu- 
tions into effect, which was done and the 
country cleared of thieves and counterfeit- 
ers. The last difficultv we had with them they 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



103 



had their rendezvous at different places in 
the country, in the interior and on the river ; 
they kept up a constant correspondence night 
and day with their leaders and strikers. 
They were numerous and their acquaintances 
on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers intimately 
connected with them in extending their dis- 
honest operations was unprecedented in the 
history of this or any other country. We 
owe in a measure our complete success of 
clearing the countrj^ of this description of 
population to the energy and perseverance 
and determined action of a few honest and 
resolute men, one of them I will refer to with 
feelings of respect and pride as being one of 
the principal actors in accomplishing our ob- 
ject, that person was the deceased Capt. 
Dunklin, whose virtues and standing as a 
man and citizen is yet recollected and appre- 
ciated by a number of persons, yet in exist- 
ence who were witnesses to his valuable ser- 
vice. 

In the years 1812-18-14 being at New Or- 
leans each of those years, I returned home as 
a passenger on board of a barge or keel boat, 
50 and 60 days out. I preferred this mode of 
getting back to the laud route. In the year 
1815 I vLsited Cincinnati, Ohio, on my way 
to Detroit, Jlichigan. I bought a horse and 
outfit at Cincinnati for my trip. Cincinnati 
was then a small place ; the Court House was 
upwards of a quarter of a mile out of the 
city. I visited the Court House to see what 
was to be done having seen in the morning 
posted up at the different corners of the 
street hand bills that a certain gentleman, a 
lawyer of some distinction, a resident of the 
city, by the name of Binhem, would address 
the citizens at the Court House at a certain 
hour of that day on the subject of charges 
brought against him and published while he 
was absent from the city on professional busi- 



ness. It appears that during the progress of 
the war with Great Britain he was drafted as 
a soldier to join the U. S. Army but from some 
cause he failed to comply with the request of 
the draft and the charges I think made 
against him were cowardice and not willing 
to expose his life in defense of his country. 
In addressing the citizens he proved to them 
conclusively that he had used every exertion 
to raise means to equip himself and proved 
that he was a minor and under the guardian- 
ship of a near relative of his and who had 
control of his person and his means, although 
he had made frequent applications to him for 
means, but in all cases refused to furnish him 
with any and was opposed to his joining the 
army. His appeal to the people was a very 
feeling one and being an able speaker his 
appeal was listened to with every attention. 
His excuse was approved of. The same trip 
I became acquainted with the agent of the 
United States Bank at Cincinnati. The 
bank owned and claimed considerable town 
property, vacant lots on which they built 
family residences and offei-ed them for sale 
through their agent. I was offered one or 
two lots with their improvements on them 
on Second and Third streets for from .'}!l,000 
to $1,200, each lot. The improvements must 
have cost the money. The same property 
cannot now be bought for .$60,000. I had 
means at the time and if I had bought 
this property at the time and let it re- 
main it would have proved a source of con- 
siderable revenue to me now. My object 
was to take General Harrison's road through 
the black swamp to Detroit. Urbana was 
then a frontier town, there was a new county 
laid off and a county seat located at a place 
called Bellefontaine. Some few log cabins 
were put up in place, but there vras no public 
house in tiie place at that time. Next morn- 



104 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ing 1 took the road cut by General Har- 
rison through the black swamp and traveled 
by the Northwestern army, and where he en- 
countered so many difficulties in getting along 
as commander of the Northwestern army. 
His object was to attack and beat back the 
British arm.y that had crossed over and at- 
tacked the American army at the river Rai- 
sin, under General Winchester. I had to 
travel one hundred miles through this swamp 
until I got to Fort Meigs, on the ilaumee 
river, foot of the rapids. I found three 
houses in crossing the swamp, where a trav- 
eller could stay all night about 35 miles 
apart. My ob.ject is to show you the great 
changes in the country now to what it was 
then — comparatively not known. In 1806 I 
visited St. Louis, a small French village. 
Little or no business was done, the principal 
men in the place were two Chouteaus. Their 
descendants are still there, all respectable 
and influential men. Fred Bates filled an of- 
fice about that time under the territorial gov- 
ernment, a recorder of land titles or secre- 
tary of state, under the acting governor. I 
knew him at Detroit, ^Michigan, in 1803 or 
1804, one of those years Detroit was destroyed 
by fire, and I assisted Mr. Bates in saving 
from the devouring elements a few of his 
small effects. He was then a citizen of that 
place. I was intimately acquainted with him 
at St. Louis from his arrival up to his death. 
He was an intelligent business man and a 
gentleman in every sense of the word. The 
earthquakes visited New Madrid county in 
December, 1811. Their effect was felt all 
over the U. S. and more particiilarly in this 
and adjoining counties, and the injury pro- 
duced from the effects was more combined to 
this county than any other, producing alarm 
and distress, depopulating generally the 
whole country. Plantations, stock of all 



kinds, cribs of corn, smoke houses full of 
meat, were offered for horses to live on. 
At that time 1 was carrying on the Indian 
trade pretty extensively. The whole white 
population, or all that could leave as well as 
the Indians, left largely in my debt, leaving 
me considerably indebted to persons here 
and in other places and little or no means to 
pay with. What little was left me I had to 
subsist on and divide w-ith those that re- 
mained and could not get away. We had a 
trying time, our population having all left, 
no business doing and no capital to do busi- 
ness with. Heavy losses at different times at 
Chicago and on the Mississippi river in prod- 
uce sent to New Orleans in flat boats and 
by the earthquakes upwards to $30,000, 
leaving me destitute and without any capi- 
tal to operate on ; and on liaving a small fam- 
ily to support. 1 came to the conclusion, after 
consulting with my wife, to remain in the 
country and await the result of circum- 
stances. To leave without means and move 
to a new country, among strangers and be de- 
pendent on them for support. I could not rec- 
oncile it to myself. I proposed remaining 
and awaiting with patience the result of what 
was to take place, which I have done. I 
never left but stood up and persevered, in 
prosperity and adversity, contending against 
the misfortunes and privations of a new coun- 
try, the Mason and ilurrell counterfeitei's 
and horse thieves, earthquakes, and with all 
these reverses and misfortunes staring me in 
the face, it never produced the least change 
in my general course of conduct, but stimu- 
lated me to additional exertions. The mis- 
fortunes and privations I endured at an 
early period would have driven hundreds to 
acts of desperation. With me they never pro- 
duced the least change. I am what I was 
forty years ago. Nothing ever induced me 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



105 



to resort to dissipation, to take a glass of grog 
or smoke a cigar more than I did then. My 
general habits, if good or bad, are the same 
now, to which a long residence in the country 
and a general acquaintance with those now 
settled in the country, can testify. My 
friends who knew me, and I never deceived 
them, came forward to my assistance and re- 
lief ; to them 1 owe the means I am in jjosses- 
sion of. The staple of this country from 
180") to 1812 was cotton. The average yield 
of an acre was from 1000 to 1200 pounds of 
seed cotton. Since 1812 there has been a 
great change in our climate : tlie winters have 
grown colder and the other seasons more 
changeable. The raising of cotton has been 
entirely abandoned for the last thirty-five 
years; our staple, now, has been principally 
corn. Prejudices to some extent exist now 
in some of the states against this country. At 
an early period they had some grounds to 
speak rather lightly of this country, it being 
sickly and visited by earthquakes : inhabited 
by counterfeiters and horse thieves and l)ut 
few inhabitants in the country. To a cer- 
tain extent our country has been overlooked 
and misrepresented. Things have changed 
since then. The country has become healthy, 
our soil the best in the United States. It 
cannot be surpassed. 

Doctor Samuel Dorsay, a native of Mary- 
land, was appointed .surgeon of the military 
post at New Madrid, a position which he held 
until the transfer to the ITnitcd States. The 
position had attached to it a salary of $30.00 
a month. On January 17, 1795, Dr. Dorsay 
was married to Marie J. Bonneau, a native 
of Indiana. He was afterward married to a 
daughter of Jeremiah Thompson of Cape 
Girardeau district. 

Joseph Story, of ^[assachusetts, was one 



of the surveyors brought by Morgan to New 
Madrid, he assisted Morgan in laying off the 
city. He married a daughter of Jacob Beck 
in 1794. 

Andrew Wilson, a native of Scotland, and 
a minister in the Presbyterian church, was 
also one of the early settlers. He seems to 
liave given up his ministerial work before 
coming to New Madrid. His son, George W., 
was the first sheriff of the district. 

Some of the other early settlers were John 
Summers, Joseph and Louis Vandenbenden. 
These brothers were merchants, and the 
widow of Louis afterward married Richard 
Jones Waters. 

Jacob Meyers, Joseph McCourtney, David 
Gray and John La Valle were other of the 
early settlers. La Valle was the last com- 
mandant under the Spanish government ; his 
descendants still live in New Madrid county. 

Doctor Robert D. Dawson, who was a na- 
tive of Maryland, came to New Madrid at an 
early date and engaged in the practice of 
medicine. He was, for a number of years, the 
leading physician of the town, and was a 
very popular nmn. His activities were not 
confined to the practice of his profession, but 
he had a great interest in politics. For a 
number of years he represented New ]\ladrid 
county in the general assembly of the terri- 
tory, and was elected a member of the Con- 
stitutional convention. 

During the Spanish regime there were 
three military organizations in New Madrid. 
Two of these were companies of militia and 
the other was a dragoon company. One of 
the militia companies liad for its officers 
La Valle as captain. La Forge as lieutenant, 
and Charpentier as ensign. The other militia 
company was officered by Captain ^McCoy, 
Lieutenant Joseph Hunot, and Ensign John 
Hart. Ricliard Jones Waters was captain of 



106 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI 



the eompanj' of dragoons, George N. Reagan 
was lieutenant, and John Baptiste Barsaloiix 
was ensign. 

Cuming, who visited New Madrid in 1808 
gives the following description of the town 
at that time : ' ' New Madrid contains about a 
hundred houses scattered on a fine plain two 
miles square on which, however, the river 
has so encroached during the twenty-two 
years since it was first settled, that the bank 
is now half a mile behind its old bounds and 
the inhabitants have had to move rapidly 
back. They are a mixture of French Creoles 
from Illinois. United States Americans and 
Germans. They have plenty of cattle biit 
seem in other respects to be very poor. There 
is some trade with the Indian hunters of furs 
and peltry but of little consequence. Dry 
goods and groceries are enormously high and 
the inhabitants charge travelers immense 
prices for any common necessaries such as 
milk, butter, fowls, eggs. etc. There is a 
militia the officers of which wear cockades as 
a mark of distinctiion although the rest of 
their dress should be only a dirty ragged 
shirt and trousers. There is a church going 
to decay and no preacher and there are coiirts 
of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions from 
which an appeal lies to the Supreme Court at 
St. Louis, the capital of the territory of Up- 
per Louisiana, which is two hundred and forty 
miles to the northward by wagon road which 
passes through Ste. Genevieve which is 180 
miles distant. On account of this distance 
from the capital New Madrid has obtained a 
right to have all trials for felony held and ad- 
judged here without appeal. The inhabitants 
regret much the change of government from 
Spanish to American but this I am not sur- 



prised at as it is the nature of mankind to 
never be satisfied. ' ' * 

AUiot who visited Louisiana in 1803 says: 
"A hundred leagues farther up the river the 
traveler comes to that charming river known 
by the name of Belle Riviere (the Ohio) 
which, like so many others, pays its tribute 
of respect to the mortal Mississippi by giving 
its limpid waters to it ; at that place is built 
the fort 1' Ance a la Graice where a command- 
ant and 150 soldiers are stationed, there is a 
hamlet there inhabited by three score per- 
sons. That place is so much more remarkable 
in as much as its inhabitants were the first 
along the river to engage in the cultivation of 
wlieat. Excellent meadows are seen there on 
which cows and steers feed, its inhabitants 
rear many hogs and fowls, the forests are full 
of all sorts of game and fallow-deer, "t 

Nuttall who visited New Madrid in 1820 
has this account of the town: "We arrived 
before noon at New Madrid, we found both 
sides of the river lined with logs, some sta- 
tionary and others in motion and we nai"- 
rowly avoided several of considerable mag- 
nitude. New Madrid is an insignificant 
French hamlet containing little more than 
about twenty log houses and stores miserably 
supplied, the goods of which are retailed at 
exorbitant prices, for example, 18 cents per 
pound for lead which costs 7 cents at Her- 
culaneum, salt .$5.00 per bushel, sugar 3114' 
cents per pound, whiskey $1.25 per gallon, 
apples 25 cents per dozen, corn 50 cents per 
bushel, fresh butter 371/2 cents per pound 
and eggs the same price per dozen, pork $6.00 
per hundred, beef $5.00. Still the labor of 
the land seems to be of a good quality but 

* Cuming's "Tour to the West." p. 2S1. 
t Robertson, "Louisians, " Vol. I, p. 133. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



107 



the people have been diseoiu-aged l)y the 
earthquakes which, besides the memorable 
one of 1811, are very frequent experiences, 
two or three oscillations being sometimes felt 
in a da.y. The United States in order to com- 
jiensate those who suffered in their property 
by the catastrophe granted to the settlers an 
equivalent of land in other parts of the ter- 
ritory."* 

Besides those whom we have seen lived in 
the town of New Madrid itself and immedi- 
ately about it, there were other settlements 
within the present territory of New Madrid 
county ; some of these were made on Lake St. 
Ann, along the St. Johns Bayou, at Lake St. 
]Mary and on Bayou St. Thomas. Some of 
the early settlers at these places were : Benja- 
min Meyers, Hardy Rawls, Lewis Van Den- 
benden and Joseph Story. These men opened 
up farms at the places mentioned and some 
of them erected mills and others were engaged 
principally in hunting and trapping. 

The district of New Madrid, as we have 
seen, included not only New Madrid county. 
as it now exists, but also Pemiscot county, 
IMississippi county, Scott county and even the 
counties lying further west. During this 
period which we are studying settlements 
were made within the district in all the coun- 
ties mentioned except those l.ying west of St. 
Francois river. 

The first settlement in Pemiscot county was 
made at Little Prairie, a short distance be- 
low the pi-esent town of Caruthersville. The 
settlement was made in 1794 by Francois Le 
Sieur, who came to Little Prairie from New 
Madrid where he had formerly lived and on 
receiving the grant of land laid out about 
* "Niittall Journal." p. 77. 



two liundred arpents into a town divided into 
lots each containing an arpent. Here a fort 
was also constructed called Fort St. Fer- 
nando. Among tlic early residents of the 
town and country in the immediate vicinity 
were : Francois Le Sieur, Jean Baptiste Bar- 
saloux, George and John Ruddell, Joseph 
Payne, Lewis St. Aubin, Charles Guibeanlt, / 
Charles Loignon, Francis Langlois and Peter 
Noblesse. The site of Little Prairie was well 
chosen it being situated at a place where the 
great ridge, of which w'e have previously 
spoken, touches the river, and the surround- 
ing country W'as rich in soil, timber and game. 
Tiiere was considerable trade w'ith the In- 
dians; and the town, because of these ad- 
vantages, prospered. The population was 
seventy-eight in 1799 and in 1803 it num- 
bered one hundred and three. It continued 
to grow until the earthquakes of 1811 and 
1812 by which it was almost destroyed. This 
earthquake seems to have had its center about 
Little Prairie and the shocks were probably 
more violent here than anywhere else. The 
greater part of the population moved away 
at the time of the earthquake so that the vil- 
lage was practically deserted, the only con- 
spicuous settler who remained in the vicinity 
was ('olonel John Hardeman Walker. 

In 1808 Cuming visited Little Prairie of 
which he gives the following account: "^Ye 
landed at the tow'n of Little Prairie on the 
right containing twenty-foiir little log cabins 
scattered on a fine pleasant plain. Inhabi- 
tants chiefly being French Creoles from Can- 
ada and Illinois, we were informed that there 
were several Anglo-American farmers all 
around in a circle of ten miles. We stopped 
at a tavern and stoi'e kept by European- 
Frenchmen, where we got some necessaries, 
everything is excessively dear here as in New 
Madrid, butter a quarter of a dollar per 



108 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



pound, milk half dollar per gallon, eggs a 
quarter of a dollar a dozen and fowls half 
to three-quarters of a dollar each. ' ' * 

Cuming says that at this time there was a 
camp of Delaware Indians about one mile be- 
low Little Prairie. 

Besides this settlement at Little Prairie 
there were some three or four other settle- 
ments within Pemiscot county. One of them 
was in the vicinity of the town of Gayoso, 
afterward the county seat; another in the 
western part of the county on Little river; 
the third was just north of the lake called 
Big Lake and the fourth was located on Port- 
age Bay. All of these settlements suffered 
greatly from the earthquake and most of 
them were practically depopulated by its ef- 
fects. 

With the opening of the King's Highway 
from Ste. Genevieve to New Madrid in 1789 
there sprung up a number of settlements 
along the line of this road, some of them be- 
ing in Scott county. One of the first of these 
was made in the vicinity of Sikeston by Ed- 
ward Robei-tson and a son-in-law, Moses Hur- 
ley. Robertson was a shrewd and capable 
man. He traded with the Indians and also 
kept a stock of goods which he sold to other 
settlers, but he accumulated the greater part 
of his wealth by land speculation. At his 
death he left a considerable amount of 
property. 

Another one of these early settlements was 
made in Scott county in 1796 near the pres- 
ent town of Benton by Captain Charles 
Friend, who was a native of Virginia. He 
received a grant from the Spanish govern- 
ment near Benton and located there with his 
family. There were nine sons and two daugh- 
* Cuming's "Tour to the West," p. 283. 



ters in his family and most of them remained 
in the vicinity of the Spanish grant. Another 
settler in this neighborhood who came in 1811 
was John Ramsay of Cape Girardeau. 

Perhaps the most distinguished and influ- 
ential family in Scott county in this period 
was the family of Joseph Hunter. He came 
to New Madrid in 1805 and located on a grant 
near New Madrid, but soon afterwards re- 
moved to Big Prairie not far from Sikeston 
and continued to reside in Scott county until 
the time of his death. The family of Joseph 
Hunter was a large one and was always 
wealthy and prominent in this part of the 
state ; he, himself, was a member of the terri- 
torial council after the transfer to the United 
States and his son, Abraham, was one of the 
best known politicians in Southeast Missouri, 
holding ofSce in the state legislature for about 
twenty years. He wa.s the second son an-d 
married Sally Ogden. Their family con- 
sisted of three sons and three daughters; the 
sons were Isaac of Scott county, Joseph of 
New Madrid county, who has recently died, 
and Benjamin F., who lives near Sikeston. 
One of the daughters, Catherine, married 
Marmaduke Beckwith, Mary married Archi- 
bald Price. Another son of Joseph Hunter 
was named James; he married Lucy Beck- 
with. The youngest son of Joseph Hunter 
was Thomas ; he married Eliza Meyers and to 
them were born two children, a daughter wlio 
became the wife of Colonel Thomas Brown, 
and Senator William Hunter of Benton. Of 
the daughters of Joseph Hunter, Mary mai-- 
ried Andrew Giboney of Cape Girardeau, 
their daughter is the wife of Hon. Louis 
Houck, and Hannah married Mark H. Stall- 
eup of New Madrid. 

Another of the early settlers of Scott 
county was Captain William Meyers, who 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



109 



came to Missouri from Tennessee and made 
his home at what is now Benton. 

Settlers began to locate in Tywappity Bot- 
toms as early as 1798 ; among them were 
James Brady, James Curran, Charles Fiud- 
ley, Edmund Hogan, Thomas, John and 
James Wellborn and the Quimbys. Thomas 
W. Waters was the first settler on the site of 
Commerce, arriving there in 1802, here he 
began the sale of goods in partnership with 
Robert Hall and also operated a ferry across 
the Mississippi. 

The first settlement in Mississippi county 
seems to have been made in 1800 by Joseph 
Johnson near Bird's Point. Other early se1> 
tlements were made on Mathews Prairie 
called in the early times St. Charles Prairie. 
Those who lived there were : Edward Math- 
ews and his sons Edward, Charles, Joseph, 
James and Allen, Charles Gray, Joseph 
Smith. John Weaver, George Hector and Ab- 
salom McElmuriy. Johnson sold his land 
in 1805 to Abraham Bird whose name was 
given afterwards to the settlement known as 
Bird's Point. 

All of these settlers whom we have named 
and man}' others whose names we cannot give 
were farmers and traders. Most of them were 
engaged in the actual cultivation of the soil. 
Even those who lived in towns and carried on 
trade with Indians and with other settle- 
ments in Louisiana owned and cultivated 
farms. With the well known liberality of 
the Spanish government, grants of land were 
very easy to secure. Anyone who had per- 
formed a service for the government or who 
promised to perform such a service in the fu- 
ture could obtain a grant of land. These 
grants were also given for the purpose of en- 
couraging the development of industries. It 



is recorded in some cases, in connection with 
these grants, that they were made because the 
grantee expected to cut down timber on the 
land or because he expected to use the wood 
for smelting lead or other ores. These Span- 
ish land grants varied in size. It was a cus- 
tom in the mineral district to give every dis- 
coverer of a mine at least four arpents of 
land. Outside the mineral district large 
grants were frequently made. Twenty thou- 
sand and even thirty thousand arpents was 
not an unusual grant. These grants were 
made without any reference to the French sur- 
veys or to any particular system of lands sur- 
veyed. Generally they followed a line of a 
creek, or the meanderings of a swamp, or 
they included the tillable land in a certain 
valley, or they stretched from hill-top to hill- 
top in a most irregular way. It is a rather 
curious thing that practically the only trace 
of Spanish occupancy in Missouri consists in 
these old land grants. The name of New Ma- 
drid, of course, perpetuates the attempt of 
Morgan to found a great Spanish town and a 
few other settlements bear Spanish names. 
Outside of these, however, few memorials of 
Spain exist. No great public works were un- 
dertaken or carried through, no codes of laws 
were made, no great industries developed, 
only the grants testify to the presence of the 
Spaniard. These Spanish grants, owing to 
the irregularity of their boundaries and the 
apparently careless way in which they were 
recorded have been one of the most fruitful 
sources of legal controversy within the state. 
It has required a great deal of litigation to 
determine the ownei"ship of much of tlie land 
covered by these grants. 

About 1789 the Spanish government laid 
out a road running from New Madrid to St. 
Louis. This road crossed Big Prairie, passed 



110 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



through the "Rieh Woods" across Scott 
county to Cape Girardeau and thence to St. 
Louis by way of Ste. Genevieve. Through 
the greater part of its course it followed the 
old Indian trace along which De Soto very 
probably travelled. The route was deter- 
mined by the Spanish as it had been for the 
Indians by the great sandy ridge which 
stretches from south the "Big Swamp" south 
of Cape Girardeau to Caruthersville in Pem- 
iscot county touching the river at New Ma- 
drid. This road was called by the Spanish 
"el camino real" the King's Highway. 
In 1803 the expedition which De Lassus led to 
New Madrid passed along this road, cutting 
it out wider as they went. In 1808 the Terri- 



torial assembly of the District of Louisiana 
which was the name by which Missouri was 
then known, ordered that a road be opened 
between St. Louis and New Madrid. This 
road, doubtless, followed the old Spanish 
road, the King's Highway. 

Between Cape Girardeau and New Madrid 
the road is still in use for a great part of the 
way. Between Cape Girardeau and Perry- 
ville there is a part of the road still in use; 
that part between the IMaramec river and the 
City of St. Louis is also used now. Its name 
is perpetuated in a Iwulevard in St. Louis, 
called King's Highway. This is, perhaps, 
the oldest road in the state. 



CHAPTER VIII 
GOVERNMENT UNDER FRANCE AND SPAIN 



Louisiana Under La Salle — The Province op Louislvna — Capitals and Governors — Ces- 
sion TO Spain — Providence op Upper Louisiana — Lieutenant Governors op Upper 
Louisiana — Districts and Commandants — Syndics — Authority op Ofpicials — French 
Law Retained — Ch^vkactee op Government — The Cabildo at New Orleans^Organiza- 
tion of Militia — "L'Annee du Coup" Attack on St. Louis — Treachery op Governor 
Leyba — Action op the Ste. Genevieve Company — Expedition to New Madrid — Punish- 
ment of Indians — Orders Concerning Taverns and Sale op Liquor to Indians. 



We have seen somethiiig of tlie roi'iuatiuu 
of the various settlements of Upper Louisi- 
ana, of the character and, life of its people, 
and it is desired in this chapter to give a 
brief account of the government exercised by 
both France and Spain over the territory be- 
fore its transfer to the United States. 

In 1682, when La Salle reached the mouth 
of the JMississippi river, he took possession of 
all the territory drained by it and its tribu- 
taries in the name of the liing of France. 
He bestowed upon tliis vast region, whieli was 
as extensive as the valley of the Mississippi, 
the name of Louisiana, and claimed to exer- 
cise over it authority as commandant of 
Louisiana. 

In 1698 the French organized the province 
of Louisiana with the seat of government at 
Port Biloxi, near New Orleans. The capital 
of the province was kept hei-e until 1701 when 
it was moved to ^lobile, Alabama. There it 
remained until 172;), when it was returned 
to New Orleans. The governors of this prov- 
ince of Louisiana were as follows : SauvoUe. 



16;(8 to 1701 ; Bienville, July 22, 1701, to May 
17, 1713; LaMothe Cadillac, May 17, 1713, to 
1717; De I'Epinay, March 9, 1717, to 1718; 
Bienville, March 9, 1718, to January 16, 1724 ; 
Boisbriant, January 16, 1721, to 1726; Pe- 
rier, 1726 to 1733 ; Bienville, 1733 to May 10, 
1743 ; De Vaudreuil, May 10, 1743, to Febru- 
ary 9, 1753; Kerleree, February 9, 1753, to 
June 29, 1763; D'Abbadie, June 29, 1763, to 
February 4, 1765 ; Aubry, February, 1765, 
acting governor. 

In 1763, France ceded to England all of 
that part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi 
river. She had promised by the secret treaty 
of Udefonso to give to Spain the western part 
of Louisiana, but the fact of this treaty was 
not generally known for many years and 
France continued to exercise authority over 
Louisiana west of the Mississippi river. Just 
before the transfer of the territory to Spain 
the province of Upper Louisiana was organ- 
ized, including all that part of Louisiana 
north of the Arkansas river. It was some- 
times called the countrv o' tlie Illinois. The 



111 



112 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



capital of Upper Louisiana was St. Louis. 
The government was administered by a com- 
mandant. Only one served; lie was Louis 
St. Ange de Bellerive, from July 17, 1765, to 
May 20, 1770 (de facto j. 

On May 20, 1770, the Spanish officials act- 
ing under the treaty of November 3, 1762, 
took possession of Upper Louisiana. They 
styled the commandant of Upper Louisiana, 
the lieutenant governor of the province of 
Upper Louisiana, with capital at St. Louis. 
The following were the lieutenant governors 
of this province: Pedro Piernas, May 20, 
1770, to May 19, 1775; Francisco Cnizat, 
May 19, 1775, to June 17, 1778; Fernando 
De Leyba, June 17, 1778, to June 8, 1780: 
Francisco de Cartabona, June 8, 1780, to 
September 24, 1789 (acting") ; Francisco Cru- 
zat, September 24, 1780, to November 27, 
1787; Manuel Perez, November 27, 1787, to 
July 21, 1792; Zenon Trudeau, July 21, 1792, 
to August 29, 1799 ; Carlos Dehault de Delas- 
sus, August 29, 1799, to March 9, 1804. 

These lieutenant governors of Upper Lou- 
isiana were sometimes called in the Spanish 
official documents, lieutenant governors at St. 
Louis for "San Luis, San Genoveva and the 
District of the Ylinneses, " The lieutenant 
governor of Upper Louisiana was regarded as 
subordinate to the governor and captain gen- 
eral of Louisiana w'ho had his seat at New 
Orleans, 

This province of Upper Louisiana under 
the authority of the lieutenant governor was, 
as we have seen, divided into districts. Over 
each one of these districts was stationed a 
commandant who had both civil and military 
authority. He was regarded as the subordi- 
nate of the lieutenant governor at St. Louis. 
An exception, however, was made in case of 



the commandant at New Madrid. He was a 
sub-delegate, was the direct subordinate of the 
governor general at New Orleans and was 
thus independent of the authority of the lieu- 
tenant governor at St. Louis. Each of these 
commandants had under him one or more 
subordinate officers known as .syndics. In 
each one of the various settlements within the 
district there was appointed a syndic, usually 
the most prominent and influential citizen 
in the settlement, who became a personal rep- 
resentative of the commandant exercising a 
part of his authority. 

Each commandant was charged witli the 
administration of the law in his district. He 
had authoritj- to try minor cases, both civil 
and criminal. His jurisdiction, however, was 
limited by the amount of jsroperty involved, 
All cases which involved a considerable 
amount fell under the direct jurisdiction of 
the lieutenant governor. The commandant 
was also charged with the care of all govern- 
ment papers relating to his district and was 
required to take possession of the estates of 
deceased persons and to make an inventory 
thereof. The commandant was, also, com- 
mander of the military force consisting, usu- 
ally, of one or two companies of militia. 

The law administered by all of these vari- 
ous officials, governors, lieutenant governors, 
commandants and syndics was verj' largely 
French law. When the province of Louisiana 
was granted to Cruzat it was with the express 
understanding that the law of Paris, called 
by the French "coutume de Paris," was to 
extend over Louisiana. It was clearly with- 
in the province of the Spanish authority to 
have entirely changed its law and to have 
substituted for it the Spanish system of law ; 
this, however, they did not do. They made 
certain changes in the law, e.speaially with 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



113 



regard to the granting of land and to the col- 
lection of revenue, but so far as those great- 
provinces of the law which define the rights 
and duties of individuals and the holding and 
transfer of property were concerned, the 
Spanish retained almost unchanged, the 
French law. They did this because the set- 
tlers were, many of them, French ; they were 
acquainted with the law of France ; they had 
acquired and held property under it, and 
it was really less difficult for Spanish officials 
to continue the administration of this law 
than it would have been to make a change. 
They were the more inclined to this course 
because of the fact that the Spanish law and 
French law are quite similar. They were 
both derived from the old Roman civil law 
and in their fundamental principles were the 

same. 

This law derived from the civil law is still 
in force in Louisiana, which is the only one 
of the states in the union where the English 
common law is not in force. The civil law 
differs from the common law in many vital 
respects, and it was this law, whether French 
or Spanish in its form, that was administered 
by the Spanish officials in the province of 
Louisiana. The question of language gave 
considerable trouble. There were three 
principal languages spoken in Upper Louisi- 
ana—Spanish, which was the language of the 
officials, and French, and English, the lan- 
guage of the settlers. Spanish was the official 
language, and trials and other official pro- 
ceedings were supposed to be conducted in 
Spanish, but very frequently, owing to the 
prevalence of the French language, it was 
used even in the official proceedings. In each 
one of the districts there was an official in- 
terpreter who assisted the commandant in the 
hearing of cases by translating from one lan- 
guage to the other as necessity required. 



Cousin, it will be recalled, acted in this ca- 
pacity in Cape Girardeau; he drew up pe- 
titions and other official papers for settlers, 
both French and American; these petitions 
were presented to the commandant, and were 
in French or Spanish, either being acceptable. 
The government exercised by all of these 
various officials was in theory a practically 
absolute despotism; the power being in the 
hands of the officers. In fact, however, the 
rigor of the law was tempered to suit the 
times and occasions and the government was 
often paternal in character. The thing which 
bore most heavily on the American settlers 
and which made them most impatient of 
Spanish control was the dilatory character of 
some proceedings. This statement does not, 
however, apply to the proceedings before the 
various commandants. They were usually 
transacted with commendable despatch. In 
fact, most of the trials and other proceedings 
before the commandants are rather remark- 
able for the speed with which they were con- 
ducted. It was not unusual for the issues to 
be joined and a decision to be rendered within 
a very short time. Execution of the sentence 
was usually summary, but the authority of 
the commandant was sometimes exercised in 
order to postpone proceedings and to prevent 
unnecessary hardship. An instance of this 
is recorded in the life of Lorimier: One, Jo- 
siah Lee, had abandoned his wife and was 
ordered by Lorimier to leave the country. 
All persons were forbidden, under penalty, to 
harbor or help him in any way. Lee, how- 
ever, presented a very humble petition in 
which he confessed his fault and prayed that 
he might be permitted to remain, on condition 
that he should not again offend. This pe- 
tition seems to have been granted, for the 
name of Lee is found on the tax records for 
several years after this incident. It required 



114 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



but little time and no further formalities 
than an expression of the commandant 's 
pleasure to dispose of this infraction of the 
law of the province. 

It was quite otherwise, however, with re- 
gard to those matters which were within the 
jurisdiction of the officials at New Orleans. 
There the governor and captain general of 
Louisiana was assisted in his labors by a cab- 
ildo. This cabildo, or council, was composed 
of eleven persons, including an attorney gen- 
eral, a syndic and other officers. There was 
.also an officer charged with the royal rev- 
enue, who was called the intendant. There 
were many other officers besides the cabildo 
and they enforced the cumbersome restric- 
tions of trade with rigor. The Spanish were 
not a commercial people, and their regula- 
tions with regard to trade were the regula- 
tions of the middle ages. To carry a load of 
merchandise to New Orleans and turn it over 
for shipment to other parts of the world was 
a long and tedious process, so far as comply- 
ing with the regulations of the port was con- 
cerned. These restricting and hampering 
regulations much retarded commerce — in 
fact, more than any other cause, perhaps, 
made the Americans impatient and intolerant 
of Spanish control of the Mississippi river. 

The Spanish government required the 
commandant at each post in Upper Louisiana 
to organize all of the able-bodied citizens into 
military companies. All persons between the 
ages of fourteen and fifty were liable to this 
service and the companies were required to be 
ready for service at any time they were 
called upon. There were small bodies of reg- 
ular Spanish troops maintained at St. Louis 
and New Madrid ; the other posts were de- 
fended entirely by the military companies. 
These companies found employment in de- 



fending the posts from attack by Indians, 
and one purpose of their organization and 
maintenance was to be prepared in case of 
an attack by the Americans. 

The year 1780 was known by the French in- 
haliitauts as "L'Anuee du Coup," (the year 
of the attack). This was during the war of 
the Revolution and the English were stirring 
up the Indians throughout all the west to at- 
tack Americans, and it was rumored in the 
early part of this year that these British and 
Indians were contemplating an attack on 
St. Louis. The connnandant at St. Louis was 
Lieutenant Governor Ferdinand Leyba. He 
was instructed by the Spanish authorities to 
prepare the post against the threatened at- 
tack. He accordingly ordered the military 
comijany at Ste. Genevieve, which at that 
time was the only company outside of St. 
Louis, to be sent to St. Louis. For the piir- 
pose of executing this order, Don Francisco 
Cartobona was sent to Ste. Genevieve. He 
gathered a company together consisting of 
sixty men under the command of Charles 
Valle, and embarked them on a keel-boat for 
St. Louis. The attack upon the town was 
made May 26, 1780. The attacking force 
numbered about fifteen hundred Indians, un- 
der command of a British officer. Governor 
Leyba acted in a very peculiar manner. 
Either he was cowardly and afraid to take 
part in the defense of the town, or else he was 
a traitor. It appears that on the very day 
the attack was made he was intoxicated, and 
instead of making am* effort at defense, he 
merely did all in liis power to pi-evcnt such 
defense. The citizens of the town, however, 
did all in their power to protect themselves. 
There has been a question i-aised regarding 
the conduct of the Ste. Genevieve company 
on this occasion. They have been charged 
with cowardice, but this was untrue. The 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



115 



facts in the case as presented by Gen- 
eral Pirmiu A. Rozier, are these: Just 
before the attack was made, Governor 
Leyba refused to allow the Ste. Genevieve 
company to be supplied with ammunition. 
Captain Valle attempted to supply this lack 
by seizing three kegs of powder in the 
possession of a lady who resided in the town. 
She very reluctantly allowed the powder to 
be taken and conveyed to the company head- 
quarters. While Captain Valle was tem- 
porarily absent, Governor Leyba ordered the 
company to spike their guns and to march up 
into a garret and remain. Captain Valle, 
however, returned and refused to allow the 
order to be obeyed. He and his company, 
then, did all they could to aid the citizens of 
St. Louis in the defense of the town ; their ef- 
forts were successful, and the attack of the 
Indians failed. 

In 1802 there occurred an incident which 
cast a light on the military arrangements of 
the Spanish. That year David Trotter, who 
lived in the New Madrid ,district, was killed 
by some Indians; they were members of a 
band of Creeks who had come from the east- 
ern states and were engaged in thieving and 
plundering on both sides of the Mississippi. 
Through the efforts of Louis Lorimier, five 
of the Indians were captured and one of 
them was condemned to be executed. Lieu- 
tenant Governor De Lassus, who resided in 
St. Louis, determined to be present at the 
execution and to take personal charge of 
the affair. About two weeks before the date, 
he set out from St. Louis for New Madrid. 
On reaching Ste. Genevieve, he ordered the 
three companies of militia at that point to be 
assembled and to accompany him under arms 
to New Madrid. He did the same at Cape 
Girardeau and further increased his army by 



the addition of the three companies at New 
Madrid. He thus had almost a full regiment 
of soldiers for the occasion. 

The order book used by Colonel De Lassus 
on this expedition is still in existence and 
it oontains a great nundjer and variety of 
orders. De Lassus was an officer, trained in 
the Spanish array, and he conducted his ex- 
pedition after the most approved manner of 
Spanish warfare. The most rigid etiquette 
prevailed, and everything was performed 
with the utmost care. The second in com- 
mand of the expedition was Don Francisco 
Valle. Don Joseph Pratte and Don Franr 
Cisco Valle, Jr., and Don Camille De Lassus 
were commanders of companies and the- last 
named was also an adjutant. There was ^ 
bodyguard for the lieutenant governor con- 
sisting of a mounted orderly from each com- 
pany. 

On arriving at New Madrid De Lassus apr 
pointed officers for the thi-ee companies at 
that place. One of these was a company of 
cavalry of which Richard Jones Waters was 
captain; George K. Reagan, lieutenant; and 
John B. Barsaloux, ensign. John La Valle 
was captain; Pierre La Forge, lieutenant, 
and John Charpentier, ensign of the first 
company of infantry. The officers of the sec- 
ond company were Robert McCoy, captain; 
Joseph Ilunot, lieutenant; and John Hart, 
ensign. 

The prisoner then under sentence of exe- 
cution was brought forth and the detail of 
soldiers was ordered out, who proceeded to 
execute the sentence by shooting the pris- 
oner. The corpse was then buried by the 
soldiers and the other four prisoners were 
turned over to the chief of the band under 
his promise that they should not again trou- 
ble the inhabitants of New Madrid district. 
The expedition then returned with the same 



116 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



care for etiquette with wliich it had been 
assembled. 

While on this expedition Governor De Las- 
sus issued some very strict orders regarding 
the sale of intoxicants to Indians. He 
pointed out that the Indians were usually 
peaceful and law-abiding, except when they 
had been inflamed by liquor. Trotter, him- 
self, had been killed by the Indians to whom 
he had unlawfully sold liquor. In view of 
these circumstances the governor ordered 
that there should be only a limited number 
of tavern and dram-shop keepers ; that they 
must have an appointment from the gov- 
ernor, himself, and must be persons of good 
conduct; that under no pretext whatever, 
were they to give or sell liquor to the In- 
dians or slaves. 

They were ordered to give immediate no- 
tice of any disorder in their houses to the 
commandant or nearest syndic. Any person 



found keeping an unauthorized tavern or 
dram-shop, or who should have sold liquor 
unlawfully, was to be both imprisoned and 
fined, and any person who, whether a keeper 
of a tavern or dram-shop or any other, should 
sell or give liquor to Indians was bound to be 
arrested and sent in irons, at his own ex- 
pense, to New Orleans ; all his property was 
to be seized until the matter was decided by 
the governor-general. The commanders of 
posts were held responsible for the enforce- 
ment of these orders. 

At New Madrid the governor licensed John 
Baptiste Olive to keep a tavern, in the same 
district, on the road to Illinois, Mr. Edward 
Robertson, and at Little Prairie, Mr. Charles 
Guilbault. The license tax for these persons 
was to be such a sum as the governor general 
might fix and this tax was very appropri- 
ately to be used in the construction of a 
prison at New Madrid. 



CHAPTER IX 

SOCIAL LIFE 

Population in 1804 — Settlements — Occupations — Differences Between French and 
America Settlements — Houses op the French — Stockades — Food and Cooking — Dif- 
ferences IN the French Produced by Residence in This Country — Social Life — Dress 
—Amusements — La Guignolee — Contented Character of the French — Trade — Amer- 
ican Settlers — Characteristic Life — Houses — Clothing — Food — Law-Abiding Char- 
acters — German Settlers — Absence op Spanish Settlers — Merchants — Prices — Prod- 
ucts — Travel — Roads — River Travejl — ^Kbel-Boats — Religious Conditions — First Ser- 
vices — Restrictive Lava's op Spain — Records of the Catholic Church in Ste. Gene- 
vieve — Fatpier Meurin — Father Gibault — James Maxwell — First Church Buildings 
— Support op Priests — Bishop Dubourg — De Andreis — Founding op St. Mary's Sem- 
inary — Danger op Misunderstanding the Character op the People. 



By the time of the transfer to the United 
States, in 1804, there were living in the terri- 
tory of Louisiana about 10,120 people. Of 
these, the greater number were in Southeast 
Missouri. Each of the five districts into wliicli 
the Spanish had divided the country for pur- 
poses of administration was in a flourishing 
condition. There had been a considerable im- 
migration into the district from the territory 
of the United States across the river, and, as 
we have seen, in a few places there were large 
numbers of French settlers. The following 
table gives as correctly as can be determined 
the population of the principal settlements at 
the time of the Louisiana Purchase : Cape 
Girardeau district, 1,470; Ste. Genevieve dis- 
trict, 2,350 whites and 520 slaves; New Ma- 
drid district, 1,350 whites and 120 slaves. 

By this date settlements had been made in 
most of the present counties of this section. 



There were probably no settlements in Dunk- 
lin, Butler, Ripley, Carter, Stoddard, and Rey- 
nolds counties, but in all the other counties 
there were at least some attempts at settle- 
ment made. There were flourishing towns at 
New Madrid, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Gene- 
vieve. Ste. Genevieve was a distinctly French 
settlement; Cape Girardeau was just as dis- 
tinctly an Amei-ican settlement, while New 
Madrid was in part French and in part 
American. 

As we have seen, these people were attracted 
here by a number of things. It is, perhaps, 
true that the greater number of them came on 
account of the richness of the soil and the pos- 
sibility of obtaining land on easy terms from 
the Spanish government. The settlers were 
largely farmers. This is true of the districts 
of Cape Girardeau and New Madrid ; in fact, 
outside of trading and the running of an oc- 
casional mill, there were no other settled in- 



117 



118 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



dustries besides agriculture. Some of the in- 
habitants depended in part upon hunting and 
trapping, but the greater number of them 
were almost entirely dependent upon agricul- 
ture. It was this fact that led the American 
settlers to open up farms and to scatter out 
over the country iipon these farms, rather 
than to gather together in larger towns and 
villages. We find that in the Cape Girardeau 
district there were settlements in a large num- 
ber of places extending over quite a part of 
the territory of the district. Nearly all the 
pojiulation of the district was to be found on 
scattered farms. This was, in part, due to 
that intense spirit of independence which 
rendered the American impatient of restraint 
and unwilling to be hampei'ed or hindered in 
his activities within the towns. 

The inhabitants of the district of Ste. Gene- 
vieve were, by no means, so entirely depend- 
ent upon agriculture. This was the district 
that contained the mineral region. ^lany of 
the settlers were engaged in mining; in fact, 
it seems true that more than half the people 
of the district were supported in part, at 
least, by the mines. It should be remembered 
that mining was carried on in a most primi- 
tive way. Thej' were all surface mines, 
there having been no deep shafts sunk in the 
district. There was little use of machinery, 
so that the production of even relatively 
small quantities of lead required the work of 
a large number of persons. We find around 
each one of the larger mines a group of 
houses, a little settlement, where there were 
trading posts for the exchange of goods. We 
find, too, that considerable numbers of the 
inhabitants were engaged in transporting the 
lead from the mines to the river and on 'the 
river to the various places to which it was 
.shipped. There were a number, too, who 



were engaged in trading. Commercial en- 
terprises were developed more extensively in 
the district of Ste. Genevieve than any other 
part of the territory. 

Another striking difference between the 
Ste. Genevieve disti'ict and the others, lay in 
the greater concentration of the population 
in the towns and villages. Travelers were 
struck by the contrast in this respect. This 
grouping of the inhabitants was a result of 
the French character. The Fi-ench emi- 
grants to America were in a great majority 
of cases industrious, hard working people. 
They were perfectly willing to undergo hard- 
ships and dangers in their attempts to gain 
wealth, but the French are a distinctly social 
people, and, while these settlers here were 
willing to endui-e privation and to face the 
dangers of the wilderness and to toil unceas- 
ingly for the accomplishment of their pur- 
poses, they were not willing to give up that 
social life which they loved. It was this so- 
cial part of their nature which prevented 
them from scattering over the country and 
developing farms as did the Americans. The 
American family was satisfied to live upon a 
farm a long distance removed from others. 
Not so with the French family. There must 
be society and intermingling of the people. 
While the French developed agriculture and 
carried on farms in a considerable way, we 
find them living not on their farms but 
grouped together in towns. It was this fact 
that accounts for the common fields attached 
to the Freijch towns. The people who lived 
in the town of Ste. Genevieve, many of them, 
were farmers. They were perfectly willing 
to cultivate the soil, provided it could be done 
without causing them to endure the isolation 
of farming life. A great tract of fertile land 
which lies just south of the town of Ste. 
Genevieve, which is now known as the Big 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST iHSSOURI 



119 



Field, was owned in common by the inhabit- 
ants of the town. It was divided up for the 
purposes of cultivation at the beginning of 
the year. It provided an opportunity for 
the pursuit of farming without demanding 
the sacrifiee of social life. 

These differences in the spirit and attitude 
of the French and the Americans was the 
cause of a great dii¥erenee in development of 
tlic two sections of the countrv. It is evi- 



ordinarily a considerable enclosure, in which 
were to be found the family orchard, the gar- 
den in which was grown a variety of vege- 
tables, the cabins for servants or slaves, and 
other buildings for the use and convenience 
of the inhabitants. The amount of ground 
depended, of course, upon the wealth of the 
owner. The well-to-do among the French 
usually enclosed a considerable space for 
these purposes. The house and grounds were 




Old-Time Windlass 



dent, of course, that no new country can be 
thoroughly settled and reduced to the pur- 
poses of agriculture, except by people who 
are willing to settle upon the land itself. 
Here the American settlers possessed a very 
great advantage over the French. 

AVc have referred to the fact that the 
French settlers lived in towns. Most of them 
of the well-to-do class built for themselves 
comfortable houses. These houses usually 
stood near the street or road, the front yard 
being small, Init back of the house there was 



usually surrounded by a stout fence. This 
fence was in reality something of a stockade 
and was strongly built of pickets driven into 
the ground and sometimes reinforced with 
earth and stone. It reall.v served as a means 
of protection against the Indians, for all of 
the people were exposed more or less to the 
danger of Indian assault. The various tribes 
of Indians living in the vicinity of Ste. Gene- 
vieve were accustomed, at times, when they 
came into possession of whiske.y, to take the 
town. On these occasions the inhabitants 
usuallv retired within their houses, closed 



120 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ]\nsS0URI 





Old-Fashioned Gee Hoisters in Action 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



121 



the gates of their yards, barricaded the doors 
and windows and waited until the Indians 
tired of their pranks. 

The houses themselves were usually one 
story in height. They were long and low, 
with a poreh in front and rear and some- 
times entirely around the house. They were 
built of wood, sometimes of logs and more 
often, perhaps, framed together and covered 
with Ijoards running up and down on the 
framing. Plastering was used on the out- 
side of some of these houses, and sometimes 
tliey were weather-boarded, though this was 
unusual. The houses were substantial and 
warmly built. Each room was lighted by 
one window with small panes of glass. 
There was generally no attic, or else if there 
was an attic provided for. it was rarely 
lighted by a window or reached by any per- 
manent steps. The houses were ordinarily 
heated by open tires built in the fire places 
of great chimneys. These chimneys were usu- 
ally made of sticks and earth. Four great 
poles were driven into the earth and drawn 
nearly together at the top and then the struc- 
ture of sticks and earth built up between 
these poles. Sometimes, though, there was a 
stone chimney and fire place connected with 
the house. That the houses were substantial 
is shown by the fact that a number of them 
are still in use in Ste. Genevieve though more 
than a century old. 

One of the differences between the French 
settlers and the American was in the char- 
acter of the food and in cooking. The French 
people are noted for their skill as cooks, and 
the early French settlers in Missouri were no 
exception to the rule. American travelers 
among these French settlers were struck by 
the variety of food that there was prepared. 
Instead of the usual dishes of meat variously 
cooked and corn bread, such as was found on 



the tables of the Americans, the Fi-ench had 
many salads, vegetables and soups. They 
cooked meat, it is true, but it by no means oc- 
cupied so large a place on the bill of fare as 
it did among the Americans. 

It should be said that most of the French 
settlers were French Canadians. Some of 
the families came direct from France. Some 
of these were of tlie nolulity and left Prance 
during the turbulent times of the French 
Revolution. These settled at New Bourbon, 
near Ste. Genevieve, but the greater major- 
ity of the people were descendants of the 
French settlers in Canada. They retained 
many of the characteristics of the French ; 
but long residence in America, in an en- 
tirely different environment, had produced 
some changes in them. This was noted by 
early travelers, especially in their language 
and in their bearing and habits of speech. 
The natural vivacity and liveliness of the 
French, especially those of the higher class, 
was modified among the settlers in ilissouri. 
Tliey were more vivacious than the Ameri- 
cans, it is true, but there was a suppression 
and restraint that was not observable among 
the original French settlers. The language, 
too, had lost something of its sharpness and 
had acquired a softness and nuisicalness in 
this country. 

Contradictory accounts are given by early 
travelers concerning the habits and character 
of these French settlers. They impressed 
some of the early writers by theii- courtesy, 
their careful training of their children, their 
restraint and dignit.y, their openhanded hos- 
pitality and real culture and grace of man- 
ner. Some of these writers declared that 
nowhere else was to be found greater perfec- 
tion of manners or of character than among 
these French. They were said to be very 



122 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



moderate in their use of wine ; most genial 
and kind toward all who eame in contact 
with them; crime was practically unknown 
among them, and the courts had little, even, 
of civil business to transact. Those who saw 
them in this favorable light were impressed 
by the dignity of the people which arose, in 
part, from the feeling of security in which 
they lived. Tliey were in the midst of 
plenty, land was cheap, and the soil produc- 
tive. The woods were full of game, and 
trade with the Indians was profitable. There 
was no reason for any to worry concerning a 
livelihood. From these conditions there 
seems to have developed among them an ease 
of manner and a dignity born of assured po- 
sition that left its impress upon all that they 
did. The women were said to possess un- 
usual refinement, to be devoted to their fam- 
lies and to have uniisual ability as housekeep- 
ers. 

On the other hand, some of the early trav- 
elers saw the French settlers with different 
eyes. They said that they were inclined to 
be slothful ; that they were content with a 
bare living taken from the soil ; that they 
were given to indulgence in strong drink ; 
and that the children were not properly in- 
structed, but allowed a great deal of freedom 
and liberty in their lives. 

The dress of all the French, whether rich 
or poor, was distinguished by its simplicity. 
The men wore a long coat and cape, so de- 
signed that it could be thrown up over the 
head. From these circumstances it was 
called the "capote." They wore shirts of 
various kinds of cloth, usually linen trousers 
and Indian moccasins. The women, too, 
dressed with great simplicity, but tried to 
impress visitors that they were not altogether 
out of the fashion. The centers of fashion 
were many hundreds of miles away ; yet, in 



spite of these conditions, the women of the 
French communities generally managed to 
know something of the styles. They, too, 
wore the Indian moccasins, and it was the 
custom of both men and women to cover the 
head with a handkerchief, usually blue in 
color. It should be said, too, that most of 
them were able to possess, even when they 
were comparatively poor, clothes which were 
set apart for Sunday wear and for holiday 
occasions. The inventory which has been 
preserved of the estate of some of the French 
settlers, discloses that the love of dress was 
present among them. 

All accounts agree that the great majority 
of the French settlers were noted for their 
devotion to truth and for strict honesty in 
their dealings with one another, and even 
with outsiders. 

It is not to be supposed that, even in these 
remote places, amusement w^as not sought 
after with the same eagerness that it is pur- 
sued elsewhere. The French settlements al- 
most universally observed a sort of carnival 
season, when a large part of the time was 
given up to celebrations, and to the pursuit of 
various amusements. 

Of these amiisements, the one most pas- 
sionately followed was dancing. Sunday af- 
ternoon in these settlements was, usually, de- 
voted to dancing. The children and young 
people came together under the supervision 
of their elders, and all of them engaged in 
that pastime which they most thoi'oughly 
loved. Some of the travelers say that these 
Sunday afternoon assemblies were really 
schools for the instruction of the children in 
good manners. Be that as it may, they were 
held, and it was a well known custom in Ste. 
Genevieve and other of the French towns. 

The season of the vear when amusement 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



123 



■was most sought was the beginning of tlie 
year. On New Year's Eve there was a cus- 
tom, among the young men, to gather in a 
numerous group, arrayed in fantastic dress, 
some appearing as clowns, some as negroes, 
and others as Indians, but eaeli carrying a 
bucket, box, basket or other receptacle. 
Thus dressed, the young men made their way 
from house to house, and at each place they 
sang what was called "La Guignolee." This 
was a jocular song in which there was de- 
manded from the master and mistress of the 
house their eldest daughter, and also a con- 
tribution of some sort of food which was 
called "La Guignolee." After the donation 
had been given the young men danced before 
the house and then went on to the next liouse. 
At some central point, before day, the whole 
population of the settlement assembled and 
heard mass. After mass all the children 
and grandchildren made their way to their 
parents where the.y placed themselves upon 
their knees and implored a parental blessing. 
This pleasing custom of submitting them- 
selves to the authority of their parents and 
of imploring a blessing upon them was one 
of the peculiar customs of the French settle- 
ments. 

On Januar.v 6th, of each year, there was 
given at some selected house a supper and a 
dance. A cake was baked for this occasion 
which contained four beans. At some time 
during the festivity the cake was cut into 
small pieces and a piece given to each girl 
present. The girls who were fortunate 
enough to obtain a slice containing one of the 
beans were hailed as queens. Each cjueen 
then selected some young man as king. The 
selection was made known by the presenta- 
tion to him of a bouquet. The four young 
men thus selected were charged with the 
preparation of the next ball. They made ar- 



rangements for it and bore the expenses of 
giving it. The.se balls were called Bals du 
Koi. At each one of them, arrangements 
were made for the holding of the next.* 

One thing concerning the condition of 
these French people, which struck all observ- 
ers, was the absence of anything like a caste, 
or even a class system among them. The 
people were almost all related by blood or by 
marriage, and this fact tended to produce a 
feeling of unity among them which very 
largely prevented the development of the 
class spirit. It was true, of course, that men 
of intelligence and wealth were more highly 
regarded than others, but this regard was 
largely a personal matter and was paid to the 
individual showing great attainments, and 
not to the class itself. 

Innovations were not regarded with 
favor. There was something of a clannish 
spirit among them. Th(\v were satisfied «nth 
their conditions of life and they did not wish 
for changes. Their wants were easily sup- 
plied from the produce of the soil, and from 
the wealth obtained by traffic and from the 
mines. It is true everywhere, that among a 
population no larger than that of the French 
settlement, bound together by ties of blood 
and language in a country where plenty 
abounds for everyone, there is an absence of 
a stinnilus to great progress. This feeling 
that they had no need to display very great 
activity, a feeling of security and well being, 
led some who visited the settlements to re- 
gard the people as lazy. The.v were not lazy 
— the.v were industrious and frugal — but 
they found that they had time for leisure, 
and need not devote all of their energies to 
the acquisition of wealth. They were simple 

' Jlissoiiri Ilistoi-ical Sofietv Collections, Vol. II, 
■So. I, p. 12. 



124 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



people and had little desire for greater 
things than they found about them. That 
progress among them was slow is evidenced 
by the statement of Breekenridge. He was a 
native of Pennsylvania ; and was sent at an 
early age by his father to live for three years 
in Ste. Genevieve, in order to study French. 
His record, in the form of a diary, of those 
years, is very valuable on account of the light 
it casts on the conditions there. He says that 
for many years there was no public bakery 
in all the French settlements ; there was no 
loom or even a spinning wheel ; there was not 
even a churn for butter making. Butter, 
when it was made at all. was made by shak- 
ing cream within a bottle, or a bag. There 
was very little mone.v. These conditions re- 
sulted in all material for clothing being im- 
ported. The French of Loiusiana bought 
the material for their clothing and blankets, 
their flax, their calimanco, in Philadelphia or 
in 'Baltimore. Among them was to be seen no 
home-spun cloth, .such as distinguished the 
American settlement. Their principal trade, 
in the absence of money, was carried on by 
means of liarter and exchange. As a substi- 
tute for money lead was sometimes used and 
more often peltry, or deer skins, supplied 
the place. 

Among these people wealth was almost en- 
tirely in the form of personal property. 
Land was not regarded very highly as a form 
of wealth. This arose from the fact that 
land was aliundant. that it might be had on 
very easy terms and was, consequently, very 
cheap. The principal form of this wealth 
was household furniture, clothing, and slaves. 
Some effort has been made to estimate the 
trade of these settlements. It is difficult to 
determine how extensive that trade was. It 
has been said that from 1789 to 1804 the fur 
trade of Upper Louisiana amounted to $200,- 



000. This amount, however, does not repre- 
sent all of the trade, but only that part of it 
which passed through the hands of the Span- 
ish officials. That large part of the Indian 
trade which went to the English is not in- 
cluded in this sum. Besides the fur trade, 
the settlers exported lead and provisions 
dow^n the river, principally to New Orleans; 
they sent lead to Canada, and lead and salt 
to Philadelphia and Baltimore. It was in 
return for these exports that the settlers re- 
ceived their supplies of clothing and materials 
from the cities. 

Communities situated as these French set- 
tlements were, develojjed a life of their own. 
They were cut off, as we have seen, from the 
centers of French influence by hundreds and 
even thousands of miles. Thej' were divided 
by the river from the American settlements, 
and divided even more distinctly by differ- 
ences in race and language. It is impossible 
to tell how far a civilization distinct in itself 
with social and political institutions might 
have developed in Upper Louisiana, had time 
been given for its development. We cannot 
now say that the French might not have cul- 
tivated institutions similar to those of the 
American colonies. Doubt, however, is cast 
on the probability of this, by the fact that 
they were careless with regard to matters of 
education. There were some private schools 
but they were limited in term and seemed to 
have produced no great results. Instruction 
in these schools was confined to reading, 
writing and a little arithmetic. 

Matthew Kennedy, an American, was in 
Ste. Genevieve in 1771 : John and Israel 
Dodge were in New Bourbon shortly after 
the founding of this settlement about 1794, 
and in 1774 John Hildebrand was on the 
Maramec river. In that same neighborhood. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



125 



a little later, was William Boli. These 
seem to have been the first Amerieaii settlers 
in Upper Louisiana. The great tide of 
American immigration did not hegin until 
about 1790. When Morgan had outlined bis 
scheme for the forming of a great state, with 
its capital at New Madrid, he advertised very 
extensively the attractions of his new settle- 
ment, and induced a number of Americans to 
become interested in Louisiana. The sur- 
veyors whom he brought with him. among 
whom was Christopher Hays, induced many 
of their friends and acquaintances to settle 
in Louisiana. It happened that this scheme 
of Morgan's coincided in time with the great 
western movement into Kentucky. Some of 
the Spanish officials, even before the time of 
Morgan, saw that the probabilities were that 
the Americans would come in large numbers 
to Upper Louisiana, and that they would 
probably be unwilling to live long under the 
rule of Spain. When Americans became ac- 
quainted with the territory and all the ad- 
vantages of life here, they came in large 
numbers. By 1804 half the population of 
the Ste. Genevieve district was American, 
two-thirds of the population of the New Mad- 
rid district was American, and of the popu- 
lation of the Cape Girardeau district, all 
were American with the exception of a few 
families. 

The life of these Americans was quite dif- 
ferent from that of their French neighbors. 
Most of the Americans were men who had 
had experience in a new country. They had 
been pioneers in Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee ; they were accustomed to the life 
of the wilderness ; and they had that bold, 
independent attitude which made them im- 
patient of restraint. They did not possess 
the social nature of the French. They were 
entirely willing to do without ncigliliors and 



to forego the delights of social intercourse. 
We find them scattered about on farms, 
rather than croweded together into the 
towns. They took possession of the country 
and began at once to open up the soil for cul- 
tivation. They were men of energy and vi- 
tality. They seemed to have seen something 
of the future of the country and to have 
appreciated the importance of subduing the 
wilderness. They were not so much in 
sympathy with the Indians, nor with the 
life of the Indians as were the French. 
They did not have such a romantic at- 
tachment for the forest and for the life 
of nature. They liked the wilds of the new 
country, but they liked them on account 
of the possibilities they possessed. Accord- 
ingly, they set themselves to the task of clear- 
ing the land and putting it into cultivation. 
Their settlements lacked the charm that was 
present among the French, but they gave evi- 
dence of prosperity and an energy superior 
to that of the others. Many of the French 
officials who visited the American settlements 
about Cape Girardeau were struck by the 
evidence of thrift and energy. They wished 
the French settlers might exhibit something 
of this enterprising spirit. 

The houses of these American settlers were 
the houses which have been characteristic of 
new settlements all over America. They 
consisted, usually, of two square pens built 
of logs. Between them was an open space 
usually about as large as one of the pens. 
Over all was a single roof usually extending 
far enough in both front and rear to form 
porches. Sometimes the porch at the rear of 
the house was boarded up forming another 
room. The cracks between the logs forming 
the house were filled with mud. There was 
usually one, and sometimes two, doors in 
each of these rooms, besides one or two open- 



126 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



iugs for light. These openings were some- 
times closed with board shutters, and occa- 
sionally were filled with glass. The rooms 
liad puncheon floors. The space between the 
two rooms was left open for the circulation 
of light and air. It was not infrequently 
left without a floor. In each of the rooms 
there was a large fire place. The chimney 
was usually built of mud and sticks, some- 
times of stone. One of these large rooms 



were not nuich concerned about religion, else 
they would not have said themselves to be 
good Catholics. They were most of them will- 
ing to set aside whatever convictions they had 
on religious subjects, in order to be admitted 
to the Spanish territory. The testimony of 
missionaries who traveled among them is that 
they were in a deplorable condition, relig- 
iously. They had no services of their own to 
attend, many of them were unwilling to at- 




HoME OF Our 1i\\thers 



was used for the kitclieii. tlie other was tlie 
family living room. Tlie slaves owned by 
the familj' lived in small cabins in tlie rear of 
tlie house. The American family 's wealth 
and importance was estimated by tlie size of 
the barns and the numl)er of slave caliins on 
tlie place. 

These American settlers were part of tliem 
Catholics, such as the settlers at St. ]\Iichaels 
and many of those who settled in Perry 
comity ; many of the others were Protestants. 
and some of them professed no religion at all. 
It is evident that many of the Protestants 



tend tlie services of the Catholic church, so 
tliey were witliout religious instruction. 
Sunday among them was too often a holiday 
given up to the pursuit of pleasure of one 
kind and another. 

Unlike the French settlers, the Americans 
were people who depended largely upon 
their own resources. Instead of importing 
goods for their clothing from New Orleans. 
Pliiladelpliia or Baltimore, each house of the 
American settler became a factory where 
thread was spun and clotli woven to supply 
the wants of the household. Nearly all of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



127 



the settlers were accustomed to dress in 
the home-spun cloth called "jeans." This 
was woven from thread, spun at the house 
itself, and the garments were made from 
the cloth by the women of the household. 
This famous "jeans" was dyed various 
colors, perhaps the one most favored was 
known as "butter-nut." This cloth was al- 
most indestructible. It was all wool ; there 
was no mixture of cotton and wool such as is 



moccasin was so well suited to the life of the 
woods that it was adopted by practically all 
the people who lived among the Indians. 

The food of the Americans was by no 
means so varied nor so daintily prepared and 
cooked as the food of the French. There 
was an abundance of it and most of it was 
wholesome, but there was not that attention 
to the minor and lighter items of diet that 
the French gave. Instead of soups, salads. 




Home-Made Loom and Operator 



found in Mlmost all the cloth of the present 
time. There was among these people no 
such careful attention to dress as distin- 
guished the French. They were content if 
the.y had a sufficient amount of comfortable 
and presentable clothing. There was but lit- 
tle effort to follow the fashions, and no great 
pride was taken in a large collection of gar- 
ments of one sort or other. The women wore 
the sun-bonnet and the men frequently cov- 
ired the head with a cap made from coon 
skin or bear skin. Moccasins were fre- 
(juently worn by both sexes. The Indian 



vegetables and desserts, the staple items on 
the table of the American settlers were meat 
and corn bread. This meat was the meat of 
wild game, deer, turkey and other varieties, 
or it was the meat of the hog. Bacon was 
one of the favored dishes to be found on al- 
most all tables. 

American settlers were usually strong and 
robust. The men were distingui.shed for 
their strength of body, their vigor and their 
hardiness. These qualities were to be ex- 
pected in a race of men who went out to 
subdue the wilderness. Many stories are 



128 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



told of the feats of strength performed by 
them. They gloried in their strength. 
They were usually content in their hrawls 
and quarrels with the weapons with which 
nature had provided them, and whatever dis- 
turbances took place among them, were usu- 
ally settled by an appeal to personal prowess. 
The American settlers were usually law- 
abiding people. They had something of a 
dread of the Spanish criminal law. There 
were stories told concerning the horrible suf- 
ferings endured by prisoners in Spanish 
dungeons and in Spanish mines where crimi- 
nals were frequently sent. This account of 
Spanish authority had, perhaps, its whole- 
some effect in keeping the population quiet; 
but the thing that more than anything else 
operated to produce quiet and orderly set- 
tlements among the Americans was the law- 
abiding and independent character of the 
people themselves. Experience had shown 
them that people could not expect to be free 
unless they exercised the virtues of self con- 
trol. Accordingly, we find the communities 
of American settlers were very largely self 
governing. They settled their disputes among 
themselves, where that was possible, without 
any appeal to the Spanish authorities or to 
Spanish law. 

Strange as it may seem, nearly all of the 
American settlers were well affected toward 
the authority of the Spanish government, 
and it does not appear that they greeted the 
change from the authority of Spain to that 
of the United States with any great rejoic- 
ing. Spain had dealt liberally with them in 
respect to grants of land, and, so far as those 
of the settlers who were engaged in agricul- 
ture were concerned, the Spanish regulations 
did not hamper them very greatly. Opposi- 
tion to Spain's control of the Mississippi did 



not come in any very large measure from 
west of the river. The opposition which made 
Spain's continued control of the river im- 
possible arose in the states bordering along 
the river to the east. We find even expres- 
sions of dissatisfaction when the flag of Spain 
was replaced by that of the United States. 

Beside the French and American settlers, 
of whom we have spoken, there were a few 
settlements of Germans in Upper Louisiana. 
We have mentioned some of them, especially 
those who came to the district of Cape Gir- 
ardeau. Major Bollinger and the company of 
men who with him settled on Whitewater 
were among the earliest of these German set- 
tlers. They, too, were hardy and industrious 
people. They were distinguished for their 
thrift, for their ability to wring a living from 
the soil, and to accumulate property. 

It is rather curious that in all the years 
from 1762 to 1802, while Spain was in con- 
trol of the Louisiana territory, there were 
very few Spanish people who came to the ter- 
ritory. It seems that the Spanish would have 
seized the opportunity to settle Louisiana 
while it was owned and controlled by Spain ; 
such, however, was not the case. There are 
to be found the names of only two or three 
families in all of Upper Louisiana who seem 
to have been of Spanish origin. There were 
a Jiumber of reasons why the Spanish did not 
settle here. The chief of these was the idea 
that the Spanish held that the new world was 
not a place so much for settlement and coloni- 
zation as it was a place for searching for the 
precious metals. Long before the acquisition 
of the territory by Spain, it had become ap- 
parent that Upper Louisiana, wliile rich in 
lead, contained very little 6f tlie precious 
metals. It was for this reason principally 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



129 



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Pioneer Spinning Wheel 




Eating up the Flax 



130 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



that Spain neglected to colonize the teri-itory. 
Of course there were other causes which 
joined with this to produce the same result. 
One of these was the greater interest which 
the southern part of the United States and 
even South America, had for the Spanish. 
They came from a diiferent climate, and they 
found the warmer parts of the country more 
congenial to them. 

The merchants who traded in these set- 
tlements were very different from the mer- 
chants of to-day. Some of them had very 
small warehouses, but most frequently, the 
goods of every kind were placed in a large 
box. They were brought out for inspection 
only on the demand of the customer. Within 
this box all kinds of things were kept — sugar, 
salt, dry goods, paints, tobacco, gunpowder, 
guns, hatchets ; in fact, the whole store of the 
merchant was usually contained within a 
single receptacle. The merchant was usually 
not very enterprising, and was content to 
wait for the coming of customers and made 
no great effort to extend his trade. One re- 
sult of this system of trading was the pre- 
vailing high prices of everything that was 
bought and sold. This was especially true of 
groceries which were imported from New Or- 
leans, Canada, or the eastern part of the 
United States. Sugar sold at two dollars a 
pound, and tea at the same price ; coffee was 
equally as dear. These high prices extended 
even to the products of the country : butter 
sold for from thirty to fifty cents a pound ; 
eggs, twenty-five cents a dozen : chickens, 
forty to fifty cents a piece. All of the trav- 
elers of the time speak of these high prices. 
Cumings, who visited New Madrid in 1809, 
says that milk, butter, eggs and chickens 
were outrageously high and Bradbury, who a 
few years later made a voyage from St. Louis 



to New Orleans, found similar prices prevail- 
ing. It is probably true that these high prices 
were in part the result of the system of bar- 
ter that prevailed in most parts of the coun- 
try. During the Spanish regime the Spanish 
officials were accustomed to pay for goods, 
which they bought, in currency ; and this at- 
tracted to the west side of the river a con- 
siderable amount of the produce from Illinois. 
These circumstances all combined to render 
the price of articles higher than would other- 
wise have been maintained. 

Nearly all the settlers- of the country were 
engaged in farming, as we have seen, and 
their principal products were cattle, wheat, 
corn, and horses. Other things were grown 
to a limited extent, but these were the staple 
products. "We may well suppose that agricul- 
ture was in the primitive state. It is said 
that in 1804 the entire crop of corn grown by 
the settlers of New Madrid amounted to only 
6,000 bushels. Crops in other settlements 
were proportionately small. The amount pro- 
duced barely provided for the necessities of 
the settlers themselves and left only a small 
amount for export. Whatever surplus there 
was was sent east to New Orleans or to Can- 
ada. Cattle, of course, could be grown with 
little expense, owing to the vast range where 
they lived practically without being fed. 
This was true to some degree of horses also. 
It was noted, however, that both cattle and 
horses deteriorated in Louisiana. No atten- 
tion was given to the breeding of stock and 
they decreased in size and quality. Horses 
were especially valuable on account of the 
fact that almost all travel on land was done 
either on foot or on horseback. 

One of the great hardships endured by set- 
tlers in the new country is the isolation which 



ITTSTORY OF SOUTHEAST iMISSOURI 



131 



is unavoidable. It is difficult for us to im- 
agine the situation of the settlers in New Ma- 
drid, Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve. 
They were separated from one another by 
many miles and they were cut off from the 
centers of wealth and power by hundreds and 
thousands of miles. To reach New Orleans 
or Canada required a journey whose difficul- 
ties cannot be measured by us. There were no 
roads. One who traveled by land must fol- 
low the trails or traces as laid ovit by the In- 
dians and adopted for use by the settlers. 
These trails were simply paths which led 
through the woods. Often it was difficult to 
follow them, owing to their indistinctness; 
sometimes the trees along them were blazed 
to prevent them being entirely lost. There 
were no bridges over the streams ; the trav- 
eler must make his way across these as best 
he might. There were no inns, or otlier pro- 
vision for one who made his way along these 
trails. He must carry with him the supplies 
necessar.y for his subsistence. Travel along 
these trails was necessarily limited either to 
horseback or else on foot. It must have been 
a great undertaking to go fi'om the settle- 
ments in Missouri to Quebec or ilontreal in 
Canada. No matter at what time of year one 
traveled, he met with great hardships and 
dangers. The streams were frequently swol- 
len and dangerous to cross ; there were long 
stretches of country consisting of swamps ; 
wild animals were abundant, and savages 
were still more to be dreaded. There was 
great suffering from cold in winter, and from 
heat and mo.squitoes in summer; and yet. as 
difficult as such a journe.v over land must 
have been, it was frequently made. Tradci's 
found it necessarj' to go from Missouri to 
Canada. Some of them made annual trips 
covering 1,600 to 2,000 miles on land. 

The traveler set out witli his horse. On 



either side of his saddle he placed such things 
as were necessary for his comfort. He pro- 
cured his provisions, in part, by hunting; he 
camped at night under the sky, in the forests 
or on the prairie. In winter time it was fre- 
quently necessary to shovel away the snow to 
find a little dry wood with which to kindle a 
fire. It was always necessary to be on con- 
stant guard against the dangers of the way. 
Strange as it may seem, however, this life 
of travel came to' have the very greatest at- 
tractions for some men. There was a fasci- 
nation about the life of the woods, its hard- 
ships and even its dangers, which drew men 
irresistibly to it. This was true not only of 
men who were reared amid such surround- 
ings ; it was true of Europeans who came from 
the midst of a high state of civilization. They 
found something in the life of the woods 
which made their every-day existence at home 
seem tame and uninspiring by comparison. 
Scarcely a traveler of all of those who left 
a record of their wanderings in the west but 
reveals the influence of this peculiar charm 
of savage life. Some seemed to revel in it ; 
to feel that for the first time they had come 
in contact with nature, and were living the 
life for which men were destined. 

If we turn from travel on land, with its 
lack of roads and its inconveniences, to travel 
on the river, we find conditions improved in- 
deed and yet arduous, still. In the early 
times travel on the river was in the large 
dug-outs called bateaus or pirogues. Nearly 
all of the early vo.vages up and down the 
I'iver were made in these boats. They were 
copied fi'om the Indian boats and were the 
lu)llowed out trunks of large trees. In such 
a boat it required from twenty-five to thirty 
da.vs to make the trip from Ste. Genevieve 
to New Orleans, and it required from three 



132 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



to four mouths to make the trip from New 
Orleans to Ste. Genevieve. One of the Span- 
ish commandants boasted that he had just 
come from New Orleans to St. Louis in one 
of the king's bateaus'in the very short time 
of ninety-three days. It was in boats like 
these that the produce, the lead and food was 
exported from Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans. 
It was not a great while, however, until the 
pirogue gave way, as a carrier of freight, to 
the keel-boat. 

The keel-boat was a large, flat bottomed 
boat, somewhat resembling a canal-boat. It 
was strongly built, equipped with a mast and 
sail, had space for carrying considerable 
cargo, and sometimes accommodation for a 
passenger or two. The bulwarks of the keel- 
boat were flat and usually from fourteen to 
eighteen inches in width, forming a walk en- 
tirely around the boat. It was fitted with a 
large oar, mounted in the rear, by which it 
was steered. It was propelled in a number of 
different ways. Sometimes it was rowed by 
means of oars; occasionally, when the wind 
was favorable, the sail was set and the boat 
propelled by the wind; sometimes it was 
towed as the canal boat was towed. A rope 
was fastened at the top of the mast, then 
brought down through a ring in the bow of 
the boat, and extended to the bank of the 
river where it was grasped by a number of 
men. They walked along the tow path and 
pulled the boat. Perhaps the most charac- 
teristic method of propelling the keel-boat, 
however, was the use of setting poles. These 
were long poles which were used in the fol- 
lowing manner : If the water was of the right 
depth, the men engaged in propelling the 
boat, took their places along the bulwarks 
forming a line on either side as near as pos- 
sible to the bow, with their faces toward the 
stem. Each man grasped in his hand one of 



the setting poles, planted one end against the 
bottom of the river, put the other to his 
shoulder and then the line of men pressing 
against these poles walked toward the rear 
of the boat. The leading man in each line, 
upon reaching the rear, dropped out of line, 
made his way quickly through the boat to 
the bow, took his place at the rear of the line 
of men and again walked toward the stern of 
the boat, pushing as he went. This method 
of procedure gave a continuous impulse to the 
boat and was the method most favored by 
the keel-boat men. 

Whatever method was used for the propul- 
sion of these boats, their progress was slow. 
Twelve to fourteen miles a day was consid- 
ered a fair rate of travel and eighteen miles 
a day, remarkable. If the boats were 
towed by a cordelle or little rope, there 
was constant trouble, owing to the entangling 
of this rope in the ti'ee limbs that lined 
the bank of the river. Constant stops must 
be made for the purpose of untangling 
these lines, and there were many other ob- 
structions to be overcome, too. Very fre- 
quently at short intervals there were great 
rafts extending from the bank out into the 
river, sometimes for a distance of fifty or 
sixty feet formed of drift wood which had 
been caught by some obstruction. Such a raft 
was called bj' the French an emharras. Some- 
times, too, great trees that had been washed 
down by the streams extended out for a dis- 
tance of a hundred feet into the river. The 
keel-boat must make its way around all of 
these obstructions, and there was always 
found a swift and violent current around each 
of these. In spite of all of these difficulties, 
however, the keel boat continued for years 
to be the principal means of travel on the 
river. Large quantities of lead, corn, and 
wheat, and occasionally passengers were car- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



133 



ried from St. Louis to Ste. Genevieve and 
New Orlenns. 

The social life and condition of these peo- 
ple must always be a matter of the very great- 
est interest. It is unfortunate that we do not 
have more complete records of their real con- 
dition. Enough, however, remains for us to 
form some idea of their surroundings, and 
the things in which they took the deepest and 
most vital interest. It is quite evident that 
one of these things was religion. We have 
seen before this time that the first service 
ever held within the limits of the state was 
that celelirated by De Soto and his com- 
panions at the request of the Indians. That 
religious service was held in 1541. It was 
destined to be man.y years before another was 
celebrated. We cannot be certain as to the 
date when the next religious celebration was 
held within the limits of the state. We have 
no accurate account as to the coming of any 
missionaries until, at least, the time of ]\Iar- 
quette. We cannot, indeed, be certain that 
Marquette landed and held services on the 
soil of the state. We know, however, that he 
passed along its border upon the bosom of the 
great river, and we know that he was a most 
devout Christian and sincerely interested in 
spreading the Gospel among the Indians. In 
fact, he had vowed that should he discover 
tlie river, he intended to name it The Immacu- 
late Conception, and to name the first post 
planted within the territory in the same way. 
He fulfilled this vow, and the Mississippi was 
known for a number of years, as the "River 
of the Conception." We may rightfully in- 
fer, from these circumstances, that he did 
land in Missouri and hold religious services; 
but even if such was the case, it was like the 
service held so long before by De Soto, only 



an incident, long separated in time, from any 
regular series of religious services. 

We are unable to fix the date when regular 
religious services were firet held here. We 
may suppose that, as soon as settlers began 
to live about the mines and at Ste. Genevieve, 
the priests at Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres 
came to Mis-souri to hold services. There is 
one reference in the Jesuit Relations which 
seems to confirm this supposition. We do not, 
however, reach a certain period until the be- 
ginning of the church records of Ste. Gene- 
vieve. This was in the year 1759. 

It should be said, of course, that all the 
early religious services held in the section 
were Catholic. The French dominated the 
territory until its transfer to Spain, and so 
long as the PVeneh were here, religious con- 
trol was vested in the priests of the Jesuit 
order. After tlie transfer to Spain an order 
was issued banisliing the Jesuits from Louisi- 
ana and the religious control of the territory 
was claimed by the Capuchin fathers whose 
estal)lishment in this country was in New Or- 
leans. The laws of Spain were very strict 
witli regard to the settlement of Protestants 
in the territory and, of course, forbade under 
penalty the immigration of Protestant clergy- 
men and the holding of Protestant services. 
It must be said, however, that the Spanish of- 
ficials, who were charged with the execution 
of these laws, were very rarely bigoted, and 
they seem to have had little desire to enforce 
the laws in a harsh manner. What these 
laws were, may be ascertained from the fol- 
lowing instructions issued by Manuel Gayoso, 
the governor of Louisiana, to the command- 
ants of the various posts : 

"6. The privilege of enjoying liberty of 
conscience is not to extend be.yond the first 



134 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



generation. The children of those who en- 
joy it must positively be Catholic. Those 
who will not conform to this rule are not to 
be admitted, but are to be sent back out of 
the Province immediately, even though they 
possess much property." 

"7. In the Illinois, none shall be admitted 
but Catholics of the class of farmers and ar- 
tisans. They must, also, possess some prop- 
erty, and must not have served in any public 
character in the country from whence they 
came. The provisions of the preceding ar- 
ticle shall be explained to the emigrants al- 
ready established in the Province who are not 
Catholics, and shall be observed by them." 

"8. The commandants will take particu- 
lar care that no Protestant Preacher, or one 
of any sect other than Catholics, shall intro- 
duce himself into the Province. The least 
neglect in this respect will be a great repre- 
hension. ' '* 

It must be kept in mind, however, that 
these rigid instructions were not rigidly en- 
forced. The commandants of the various 
posts understood the very great desire of 
Spain for settlers in the new territory. That 
desire for settlers extended to the Americans, 
and it was the understanding that Americans 
should be admitted without any too rigid in- 
quiry into their religion. Some questions 
were asked, but those questions could be an- 
swered in the affirmative by almost any be- 
liever in the Christian religion. Any person 
who answered these questions satisfactorily 
was pronounced a good Catholic and per- 
mitted to enter the settlement. This took the 
place, it seems, of a declaration in form that 
the settler was a Catholic. It was explained 
to all of these settlers that their children 
must be brought up in the Catholic faith. Of 
* History of Southeast Missouri, p. 521. 



course the open practice of the Protestant re- 
ligion — the holding of public services — was 
forbidden. It seems, however, that no great 
diligence was exercised to prevent the hold- 
ing of prayer meetings, and other assemblies 
within private houses. Occasionally a minis- 
ter from the settlements of Illinois crossed the 
river and conducted these private services. 
It is said that more than one of these men 
was more than once warned, but the warnings 
usually came at the close of the visit, and no 
great effort was made to arrest or punish for 
the violation of the law. Of course, under 
these circumstances, no Protestant church 
house could be erected and no formal organ- 
ization made. For this reason the early re- 
ligious history of the state is a history of the 
Catholic church. 

That history began, as we have seen, in 
1759, when there began to be kept in the 
village of Ste. Genevieve a record of church 
affairs. The records mentioned show the fol- 
lowing persons to have had charge of the 
church in Ste. Genevieve at the dates given : 
Fathers P. F. Watrin, J. B. Salveneuve and 
John La Morinie, from 1760 to 1764 ; Father 
J. L. Meurin, from 1764 to 1768 : Father Gi- 
bault, from 1768 to 1773; Father Hiliarie, 
from 1773 to 1777 ; Father Gibault, from 1778 
to 1784; Father Loiiis Guiques, from 1786 to 
1789 ; Father St. Pierre, from 1789 to 1797 : 
and Father James Maxwell, from 1797 to 
1814. 

Father Meurin was a Jesuit, and was the 
only priest exempt in the order of 1763 which 
expelled the Jesuits from Louisiana. He re- 
mained in charge, and continued missionary 
work among the settlers and Indians for a 
number of years. He labored under exceed- 
ingly great difficulties. The propert.v of the 
order to which he belonged had been confis- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



135 



eated and tliere were many persons within the 
district who were hostile to him, on account 
of the fact that he was a Jesuit. He was not 
in very good standing with the Spanish of- 
ficials, though, the fact that an exception had 
been made in his favor shows him to have been 
appreciated at least to a degree by them. 
Meurin did not confine his labors to Ste. Gene- 
vieve, but ministered to the settlers on the east 
side of the river, also. He visited Kaskaskia, 
Fort Chartres. Fort St. Phillip and the settle- 
ments in the mining regions in Missouri. He 
was not only a missionary priest, he had been 
commissioned as vicar general of Louisiana, 
and this commission, which he attempted to 
exercise, resulted in a discussion concerning 
the authority under which he was commis- 
sioned. At the time of the transfer of Lou- 
isiana to Spain, the territory was under the 
spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop of Que- 
bec, and it was from him that Meurin had re- 
ceived his commission. While the question 
of sjjiritual jurisdiction seems to have been a 
religious one, it was not so regarded at that 
time. The Spanish authorities considered it 
to be a political question, and they refused 
to concede that an appointee of the bishop of 
Quebec could exercise any spiritual authority 
in the territory of Spain. They no longer re- 
garded the bishop of Quebec as the spiritual 
ruler of the territory, but conceived that place 
to be held by the bishop of San Domingo. In 
1776 they asked for and obtained a formal 
transfer of the territory from the authority 
of the bishop of Quebec to the bishop of San- 
tiago de Cuba. Later this was transferred to 
the bishop of New Orleans, Cardenas. This 
dispute over jurisdiction and the existing hos- 
tility to the order to which he belonged, made 
the work of Father Meurin a difficult and la- 
borious one indeed. 



Of the men mentioned as having been in 
charge at Ste. Genevieve, two, at least, deserve 
a more extended account. Father Gibault 
was a missionary who came to the Illinois 
country from Canada, about the year 1768. 
He bore with him a passport issued by Guy 
Carleton, lieutenant governor and comman- 
der-in-chief of the i^rovince of Quebec. Fa- 
ther Gibault lived in Kaskaskia, but he served 
as the priest of the church in Ste. Genevieve 
from 1768 until 1776, and again from 1778 
until 1784. He did not confine his work to 
Ste. Genevieve, but seems to have visited Old 
Mines, La Salinas and, in fact, all the settle- 
ments on both sides of the river. Gibault de- 
serves a place in history because of the service 
which he rendered to George Rogers Clark, 
on the occasion of Clark's cajjture of Vin- 
cennes. The priest went with Clark from 
Kaskaskia to Vincennes, and used his influ- 
ence among the French people at that place to 
secure their submission to the authority of the 
United States and their adherence to its gov- 
ernment. That this influence was very great, 
we may well suppose, Clark specially ac- 
knowledged the obligation he was under for 
the service rendered. In 1792 Father Gibault 
removed from Kaskaskia to New Madrid 
where he seems to have served as priest un- 
til his death in 1802. He was a man of con- 
siderable ability and energy. He was indus- 
trious and devoted to the work of preaching 
among all of the people of the territory. lie 
was most probably a man of very tender 
heart and great sympathy, for we find that he 
was reproved at times by his superior. Father 
IMaxwell, the vicar general of Upper Louisi- 
ana, for his failure to collect funds for mar- 
riages and other services. This reprimand 
came from Maxwell because he was entitled to 
a part of these fees. 



136 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Soon after Father Gibault's appointment 
to New Madrid and his removal there, he be- 
gan and completed the erection of a build- 
ing for church purposes, and a house for the 
residence of the priest. He has left a de- 
scription of this early church building. It 
was constructed of wood and was ample and 
commodious in size and perfect in its ap- 
pointments for all of the services of the 
church. Of course this building has long 
since disappeared, together with the very site 
on which it was erected. 

The second man noted as among the priests 
of Ste. Genevieve deserving of a further men- 
tion was Father James Maxwell. He was a 
native of Ireland, an educated man and one 
of superior ability. He resided in New Bour- 
bon a short distance from Ste. Genevieve, and 
rode to his services at that place. Hi' was 
appointed vicar general of Upper Louisiana 
in 1792, and held this post for about seven- 
teen years. He was held in the highest es- 
teem and regard by the people among whom 
he labored, and he accomplished a great work 
for the church. He was killed by being 
thrown from the horse while riding home 
from the service at the church in Ste. Gene- 
vieve. Maxwell was very diligent in looking 
after the matter of land grants from the 
Spanish government. It is said that at one 
time he had received grants amounting to 
more than 120,000 arpents of land. The land 
thus claimed by him was scattered over a con- 
siderable part of the district of Ste. Gene 
vieve, but his claim to the greater number of 
these tracts was finally denied and he w:is 
left in possession of only aliout three hundred 
and twenty arpents. 

The first church building in Southeast 
Missouri was erected in the old village of 
Ste. Genevieve at a date which we are iinable 



to fix. It was previous to the great flood, be- 
cause after the year of that flood the village 
was moved to its present site. The church 
which had been erected was moved to the new 
site in 1794. It was a wooden structure, but 
large and well suited to the purposes for 
which it was dedicated. It was used by the 
inhabitants of Ste. Genevieve vintil the year 
1835. It was then so old and dilapidated that 
it was torn down to make way for the erec- 
tion of a larger and more siaitable structure. 

Until the transfer of Louisiana to the 
United States, the priests were supported by 
the government of Spain. The salaries were 
paid in this way and the government also 
looked after the erection and care of the dif- 
ferent buildings. It is said that the ordi- 
nary pay of the priests was about six hundred 
dollars a year. Besides this there was usually 
furnished a priests' house, and there were 
some other minor compensations. This was a 
very small salarj', of course, but considering 
the time and circumstances under which they 
were placed, it was sufScient for the sup- 
port of priests. Of coui"se this government 
support was discontinued with the transfer 
to the L'nited States. From tliat time tlie 
money for buildings and for the pay of 
church officials liad to be secured from the 
congregation itself. As was right, the prop- 
erty of the church was transferred or con- 
firmed to the church. The buildings in Ste. 
Genevieve and New Madrid were in this way 
transferred to the proper officers of the 
church. There was also a tract of land in 
Little Prairie belonging to the church and the 
title to this was confirmed by the government. 
The work of these missionaries and priests 
was. of course, rendered more difificult by rea- 
son of the cutting off of the support of the 
government. They could no longer be as- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



137 



sured that their salaries would be paid regu- 
larly and without any question, they must 
look to the congregation which they served, 
and the only revenues were voluntary gifts 
to the church. Just as the matter worked out 
everywhere, however, the change was made 
and the work of the church carried on in spite 
of this change. 

We cannot fail to perceive that the work 
of the missionaries in Missouri at this early 
time was both arduous and dangerous. There 
were few roads. Those in existence were sim- 
ply paths through the wilderness. The de- 
voted priests often rode for hundreds of 
miles in the course of the year, traveling from 
one settlement to another along these paths 
through the woods and across the streams ; 
they were exposed to all the dangers of the 
wilderness. They were sometimes attacked 
by the Indians, and sometimes in peril from 
the wild beasts. They must have suffered 
great hardships from exposure to the Aveather, 
and from their distance from civilization. 
There has never been a lack, however, of men 
willing to endure hardships and to face dan- 
gers in the work of spreading the gospel. The 
services that these men rendered cannot be 
fully estimated. They helped to redeem the 
wilderness and to plant standards of religion 
and morality in communities that must other- 
wise have been entirely unreclaimed. 

Religious enterprise li.y no means ceased 
with the transfer of Louisiana in 1804. In 
the year 1815 the Reverend W. F. Dubourg, 
who had been an ofificer of the church at New 
Orleans, undertook a journey to Rome and 
while there was consecrated bishop of the dio- 
cese of New Orleans. The territory over 
which he was to exercise spiritual authority 
and .iurisdiction included all of Loiiisiana, 
both Upper and Lower, and stretched from 



the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean. It 
was an enormous task to be undertaken by 
any man, but the new bishop was fitted for 
the work. He possessed industry, learning 
and devotion to the work. He had also, what 
was indispensable to him in the work of his 
position, an insight into human character and 
the ability to select those assistants who 
would be useful to him in his work. While 
he was in Rome he chose a number of men and 
persuaded them to return with him to Louisi- 
ana. He had been greatly impressed at Rome 
by the preaching of Father De Andreis. This 
priest was a most remarkable man. He was 
highly educated, distinguished for his abil- 
ity as an orator and as a teacher, and he oc- 
cupied a high position at Rome. Neverthe- 
less, he yielded to the persuasion of Bishop 
Dubourg and, accompanied by some others, 
among them Father Joseph Rosati, departed 
for the new scene of his labours. 

The bishop, himself, was detained, but Fa- 
ther De Andreis, with the re.st of the party, 
arrived in St. Louis in 1817. They had come 
Ijy way of Bardstown, Kentucky, the resid- 
ence of Bishop Flaget, who accompanied them 
on their trip to St. Louis. After remaining 
some days in St. Louis and making prepar- 
ation for the coming of Bishop Dubourg, the 
party started back down the river. They met 
the bishop at Ste. Genevieve. Here in 1818, 
the Bishop celebrated the first pontifical high 
mass ever celebrated in Upper Louisiana. 
Dubourg fixed his seat at St. Louis and en- 
tered on the work of his great diocese with 
tremenduous energy and zeal. He had from 
at first seen the necessity of the establishment 
of a school for the training of priests. One 
of the purposes he had in mind in persuading 
Father De Andreis to come with him to this 
country was to make use of his great learning 
and abilitv as a teacher in the foundation of 



138 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the seminary which he had iu mind. Accord- 
ingly, six hundred and forty acres of land in 
Perry county near the site of Perryville was 
bought for the suin of eight hundred dollars. 
This was to be the site of the new seminary. 
The first structures located upon it were sim- 
ply log cabins. In 1819 the first students were 
received for instruction. Father De Andreis 
was the first president of the seminary and 
conducted the work of organizing and equip- 
ping it. He served in this position until his 
death, when he was succeeded by Father Jo- 
seph Rosati. 

It is somewhat difficult to avoid getting an 
incorrect notion of these people. It must not 
be supposed that all of them were rude or 
rough and turbulent. There were among 
them many excellent people. Sparks, on his 
biography of Daniel Boone, says that to avoid 
falling into this error people should remember 
that the west received emigrants of various 
sorts. ' ' Small numbers of them had fled from 
the scene of crime," he continues, "but a 
large majority were peaceable, industrious, 
moral and well disposed, who, for various mo- 
tives, had crossed the great river, some from 



love of adventure, some from that spirit of 
restlessness which belongs to a class of people, 
but a much larger number with the expecta- 
tion of obtaining large tracts of land which 
the government gave to each settler for the 
trifling expense of surveying and recording. 

"Under the Spanish government the Ro- 
man Catholic faith was the established re- 
ligion of the province and no other christian 
sect was tolerated by the laws of Spain. Each 
emigrant was required to be wn ho7i Catho- 
lique, as the French express it, yet bj' the con- 
nivance of the commandants of Upper Lou- 
isiana and by the use of a legal fiction in the 
examination of Americans who applied for 
land, toleration in fact existed. 

Many Protestant families, communicants 
in Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and 
other churches, settled in the province and 
remained undisturbed in their religious prin- 
ciples. Protestant itinerant clergymen passed 
over from Illinois and preached in the log 
cabins of the settlers unmolested, though 
they were occasionally threatened with im- 
prisonment ; these threats were never exe- 
cuted. (Spark's Biography, Vol. 23, p. 
166.) 



CHAPTER X 

TRANSFER TO THE UNITED STATES 



Feeling op the French Settlers — Settlements Founded Under the Rule of France — • 
Emigration from the Western States — Why Spain Fostered the Movement op Ameri- 
cans Across the River — Question Over the Navigation op the Mississippi — Restric- 
tions ON Commerce — Treaty of Ildefonso — Negotiations for Purchase op New Or- 
leans — Offer op all Louisiana — Motives op Napoleon in Selling Louisiana — Cere- 
monies Attending the Actual Transfer — Captain Amos Stoddard and His Authority — 
Significance op the Transfer. 



AVe have thus seen that Spain neglected 
Louisiana territory, giving to it practically no 
consideration after the time of De Soto. 
France seized the oi^portunity which was hers 
and took possession of the country, but in 
1759 France lost Canada to England, and 
having lost Canada she lost the key to Lou- 
isiana, lu 1762, by the secret treaty of Fon- 
tainbleau, she ceded to Spain all her posses- 
sions in America ; Spain, however, did not 
take full possession of the territory until in 
1768. This delay was caused by the opposi- 
tion of the French settlers of Louisiana. 
These settlers were unwilling to believe for a 
long time that France had sold them. The 
Spanish officers who came to take over the 
government at St. Louis met with resistance 
and returned to New Orleans without having 
received the countiy from France. Finally, 
however, Spain sent a governor in the person 
of Count O'Reilly, who came equipped with 
sufficient power to compel the acknowledg- 
ment of the authority of Spain. 

It will be .seen tliat French settlements in 
Upper Louisiana were confined to Ste. Gene- 



vieve and a few small settlements around the 
lead mines. St. Louis was founded by the 
French, it is true, but this was not until the 
year 1764, two years after the signing of the 
treaty that transferred the country to Spain. 
Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, St. ilicliaels. 
Cook's Settlement, Murphy's Settlement at 
Farraington, and Herculaneum, were all set- 
tled during the rule of Spain, some of them by 
the French, however, and .some by Americans. 
The town of New IMadrid was laid out by 
Colonel Morgan, an American in the service 
of the Spanish government. He bi-ought to 
his new town a number of Frencli settlers. 
These French who came to Louisiana after 
the transfer to Spain came for the most part 
from east of the Mississippi river. They did 
not wish to live under the power of Great 
Britain or of the United States; they pre- 
ferred to emigrate to Louisiana wjiich had 
once been a possession of France, thougli now 
belonging to Spain. 

One of the motives, as we have seen, was 
to escape the Northwest ordinance of 1787. 
Many people who lived in the Northwest 



139 



140 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



territory were slave owners aud wheu slav- 
ery was prohibited by tlie ordiuauce they 
decided, instead of losing their slaves to emi- 
grate across the river and live under the rule 
of Spain. Many of them doubtless came 
without thinking that in making the change 
they were in reality giving up their allegi- 
ance to the government of the United States 
and falling under the government of Spain. 
There seems to have been a feeling existing 
in the American people that the territory west 
of the river was not destined long to remain 
under Spanish control but that it would event- 
ually become a part of the territory of the 
United States, and so these people, unwilling 
to lose their property and feeling that they 
would probably aid in a movement to secure 
for their country more territory, crossed the 
river and took up their life in Upper 
Louisiana. 

The Spanish government fostered the move- 
ment of both French aud Americans to their 
new territory. They developed the lead in- 
dustry and were diligent in planning new 
settlements and in improving the resources 
aud conditions of the country. It was for- 
tunate for the United States, however, that 
the Spanish did not possess a taleut for col- 
onizing. They held to the "bullion theory" 
that is, that wealth consists in gold and silver 
only ; and they believed that a colony existed 
for the benefit of the mother country. They 
looked to the colonists in Louisiana to produce 
supplies of gold aud silver and other metals 
for the enrichment of Spaniards at home. In 
spite, however, of this false attitude, the 
government of Spain was, perhaps, as well 
adapted to the development of the country as 
was the government of France. Neither of 
these great nations possessed the real coloniz- 
ing ability that distinguished the English. 



The Spanish governed Louisiana from New 
Orleans. Here resided the governor; a lieu- 
enant governor resided at St. Louis ; and Ste. 
Genevieve, St. Charles, Cape Girardeau and 
New Madrid were the centers of districts and 
the places of residence for commandants. 
Very strict enforcement of law was insisted 
upon. We find the settlers at Ste. Genevieve 
afraid to chastise the Indians even when they 
had committed outrages, without at first re- 
ceiving permission from the Spanish officials. 

The period of Spanish rule in Louisiana 
was coincident with the growth of western 
United States. American settlers were pour- 
ing by the thousands into Kentucky and the 
Northwest territory. These settlers soon de- 
veloped the resources of the country and 
came to have many things for export. The 
surplus products of the American settlers in 
the states just east of the ]\Iississippi river 
were considerable in quantity and in value, 
but the w-ay to the east was long; the roads 
led across the mountains; they were rough; 
travel was exceedingly difficult ; the only 
possible method of shipment in large quan- 
tities was upon the river. The surplus prod- 
ucts of the states on the river were loaded 
on flat boats and keel-boats and dispatched 
down the river to New Orleans ; but the Span- 
ish officials at New Orleans greatly hampered 
and restricted this trade. They were jealous 
of the growing power of the United States. 
They were afraid that the Americans on the 
east side would attempt to take possession of 
the territory on the west ; and, too, the Span- 
ish people were not a trading people. They 
had little or no sympathy with the quick and 
efficient American spirit; they were mediae- 
val in their mannera and customs; everything 
that was done must be done according to form 
and ceremony; taxes were imposed: the 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



141 



method of procedure was slow ; all these things 
greatly irritated the Americans who traded 
through New Orleans. They were pushing 
and energetic, impatient of delay, placing a 
small value on forms and not inclined to sub- 
mit to the exactions of the Spanish. It was 
not possible to carry on this trade without de- 
positing goods which came down the river at 
New Orleans and awaiting the arrival of trad- 
ing ships, but the jealousy of the Spanish 
led them to forbid the deposit of goods. Thus 
for a long time trade down the river was 
virtually denied to the Americans. 

Such a situation could have but one result. 
Through the later part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury there arose a strong demand on the part 
of the people of the west that the United 
States should acquire from Spain the free 
navigation of the Mississippi river and the 
control of the port of New Orleans. These 
things were to be secured either by purchase 
or by war. 

In 1800 Napoleon, then at the head of the 
government of Prance, began negotiations 
with the Spanish government for the trans- 
fer of the Spanish possessions in America to 
France, and on October 25th, of that year, 
there was signed a secret agreement between 
Prance and Spain by which Spain agreed to 
transfer Louisiana to Prance in exchange for 
certain territory in Italy. This agreement 
was kept secret, because Napoleon did not 
wish it to become known until he was ready to 
land a large army in New Orleans and thus 
take possession of the country. Some hint of 
this agreement, however, escaped and came to 
England. England, at that time engaged in 
a contest with Napoleon, objected seriously 
to the transfer and made such representations 
to the Spanish government as to prevent the 
consummation of the transfer for nearly two 



years. It was not until in 1802 that the for- 
mal treaty which transferred Louisiana to 
Prance was signed. Even at this date Na- 
poleon was not ready to take possession of his 
new territory. He had decided that the island 
of San Domingo offered the best base for the 
operation of his fleet and army, and had, 
therefore, attempted to take possession of this 
island. His effort to do so was resisted by 
Toussaint L'Ouverture. He had found great 
difficulty in subduing this uprising in San 
Domingo, and was not prepared to enter New 
Orleans in force at the time of the signing of 
the treaty. 

By this time the demand on the part of the 
West that the United States government 
should get possession of New Orleans had 
grown so greatly that it could not any longer 
be resisted. On January 11, 1803, Jeffei-son, 
then President, appointed James Monroe as 
minister extraordinary to Prance. Monroe 
was instructed bj' Jefferson to purchase New 
Orleans and the Ploridas. He was expected 
to pay for this territoi-y the sum of two mil- 
lion dollars. In fact, negotiations had been 
carried on for some time by Livingston, the 
minister to Prance. After Monroe's arrival 
negotiations proQceded, but on April 11, 
1803, Talleyrand, the French minister of for- 
eign affairs, said that he was ordered by Na- 
poleon to offer to the American officials, not 
New Orleans alone, but the whole of Louisi- 
ana. This offer came as a very great surprise. 
It had not been the intention of the Ameri- 
cans to purchase all of Louisiana. The im- 
portance, however, of securing this territory 
for the United States was so felt by Living- 
ston and Monroe that they agreed to the pur- 
chase of the entire territory for the sum of 
fifteen million dollars. 

The motives which induced Napoleon to 
make this offer to the United States were vari- 



142 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST mSSOURI 



ous. He was terribly disgusted with his fail- 
ure in San Domingo ; he needed the funds for 
the prosecution of the Continental system 
which he was carrying on, and he did not like 
to see an alliance formed between England 
and the United States. Such an alliance 
had been threatened, for both countries were 
opposed to the holding of Louisiana by 
France. Perhaps, however, the principal rea- 
son why Napoleon consented to the sale of the 
territory was the fear that it might fall into 
the hands of Great Britain. He was then en- 
gaged in a war with Great Britain and he 
did not possess suffieient naval power to en- 
able him to contest the control of territory 
on the other side of the sea. He is said to 
have remarked, after he signed the treaty 
which transferred Louisiana to the United 
States, that he had given Great Britain a rival. 

On receipt in AVashingtou of news that ar- 
rangements had been made for the purchase 
of Louisiana from Prance, President Jeffer- 
son called an extra session of congress to con- 
sider this question and to ratify the treaty. 
Congress assembled on the 17th of October, 
1803, and proceeded to the ratification of the 
treaty. President Jefferson appointed Gover- 
nor William Claiborne, of Mississippi, and 
Major General James Wilkinson, as commis- 
sioners of the United States to receive the 
transfer of the territory from France. The 
representative of the French government who 
was to receive the territory from Spain was ^1. 
Laussat. M. Laussat arrived in New Orleans 
in November and received from Governor de 
Casa Calvo the transfer of the territory from 
Spain. A considerable delay occurred, how- 
ever, in taking over the territory in St. Louis. 
France did not wish to send a representative 
from New Orleans to St. Louis to receive the 
transfer from Governor De Lassus because of 



tiie time that would be required and the ex- 
pense of the journey. Accordingly it was 
agreed among all the parties that the commis- 
sioners of the United States should designate 
a person with authority to receive the trans- 
fer from France. Governor Claiborne selected 
Captain Amos Stoddard, of the United States 
army. Upon his notification of the selection 
M. Laussat then designated Captain Stod- 
dard as commissioner and agent of France to 
receive the transfer of LTpper Louisiana. He 
then sent to Stoddard, a letter to Lieutenant 
Governor De Lassus containing the demand of 
France for the transfer of that territory. 
This letter also was a credential for Captain 
Stoddard. Stoddard also received instruc- 
tions from Governor Claiborne to proceed to 
St. Louis and to carry out the orders issued 
to him, first as commissioner and agent of 
France to demand and receive possession of 
the country from Spain, and secondly as 
agent of the United States to occupy and hold 
the posts, territories and dependencies which 
had been transferred by France to the United 
States. Stoddard was further instructed by 
Governor Claiborne that until some perma- 
nent regulations could be made by congress 
for the government of the new province, all 
the functions, both civil and military, which 
liad been previously exercised by the Spanish 
commandants of posts and districts would de- 
volve upon him and his subordinates. It was" 
cai-efully explained, however, that there was 
to be no further blending of civil and military 
functions, but that on the other hand they 
were to be kept entirely separate and distinct. 
That this fact might be made clear, Stoddard 
received two commissions, one from Governor 
Claiborne constituting him civil eonnnandant 
of St. Louis and conveying instructions for 
his actions in such place, and also a commis- 
sion from the commanding general of the 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



143 



American army conveying instructions as to 
his actions in military affairs. He was fur- 
ther instructed that in the absence of precise 
definition of powers, he was to consider him- 
self in possession of all authority accustomed 
to be exercised by his predecessors, the Span- 
ish commandants, and was to govern himself 
by the circumstances under which he was 
placed and was given a wide discretion in his 
actions. In accordance with these grants of 
authority, Stoddard, who was at Kaskaskia, 
wrote to De Lassus informing him of his se- 
lection as an agent of France, and notifying 
him of his early arrival in St. Louis. 

On receipt of the reply from Governor De 
Lassus, Stoddard proceeded to St. Louis, and 
on the 9th day of March, 1804, received from 
De Lassus the transfer from Spain to France. 
The occasion was made as dignified and for- 
mal as it was possible to be made under the 
circumstances. The Spanish soldiers were 
drawn up in line, the inhabitants of the town 
assembled in the street in front of the build- 
ing, and Governor De Lassus then issued a 
brief proclamation. In it he set out the fact 
that the flag under which thej' had lived for 
a period of thirty-six years was to be with- 
drawn. He released them from their oath of 
allegiance to Spain and wished them prosper- 
ity. There was then executed a document in 
the nature of a memorial of the transactions 
which had taken place. After this had been 
signed, Governor De Lassus addressed Cap- 
tain Stoddard as agent of the French repub- 
lic, saluted him as such commissioner and for- 
mall,v transferred to him authorit.v over the 
province. After Captain Stoddard's very 
brief response to this address, the flag of 
Spain which was floating from the staff was 
lowered and replaced by the flag of France. 
The Spanish soldiers then fired a salute and 
retired after having received the American 



troops who were in chai'ge of an adjutant of 
Stoddard. When this was done, the flag of 
France was lowered and that of the United 
States was put in its place. 

De Lassus then addreissed a communica- 
tion to the commandants at Ste. Genevieve, 
New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, and the other 
posts in Upper Louisiana informing them of 
the actions whie-h had taken place on that 
(lay. It seems that tlie transfer of the other 
posts were made without any formality, ex- 
cept in the case of New iladrid. Here the 
flag was lowered and a salute was fired, but 
these were the only ceremonies observed, even 
there. 

Captain Stoddard, having come into pos- 
session of the territory, informed his superi- 
ors. Governor Claiborne and General Wilkin- 
son, of the fact and issued a i-ather lengthy 
address to the people of Upper Louisiana. 
This address is found in the archives of 
;\Iadrid and is an interesting document. In 
it Stoddard congratulated the people of Lou- 
isiana on account of the change of govern- 
ment which they had undergone. He in- 
formed the people as to the probable pro- 
visions that would be made for their govern- 
ment, and he pointed out to them some of the 
tlifferences which they would observe in the 
government under the United States. He de- 
scribed the change as a change from subjects 
to citizens and he assured them of his very 
great interest in their welfare and his very 
great desire to conduct affairs, so long as he 
was in charge, to the best interests of the i^eo- 
ple of the province. 

By these acts the territoi\v of Louisiana 
passed forever from the control of Spain. 
The hopes which had been built, first, upon the 
marvellous explorations of De Soto, and la- 
ter upon the treaty of Fontainbleau, were 



144 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



finally dissipated. The dream of a great 
Spanish empire with its capital at New Or- 
leans was dispelled. War between the United 
States and Spain for the possession of the 
Mississippi river was avoided. 

It is quite clear that this transaction was 
one of the most momentous incidents in all 
history. The territory is a vast one embrac- 
ing a million square miles and stretching from 
the Mississippi to the Rockies. The territory 
of Louisiana contained within its borders some 
of the richest mineral districts, some of the 
richest soil, and some of the greatest forests in 
the world and was, even at that date, exceed- 
ingly valuable. Fifteen million dollars was a 
large amount of money for the United States, 
in 1803, but fifteen million is the merest frac- 
tion of the value of Louisiana territory. Its 
value to the United States was not solely to 
be measured by the soil, or its forests, or the 
mineral wealth of the territory. It is difficult 
to say how our country would have become a 
great nation without the possession of Louisi- 
ana. Its possession carried with it the free and 
unobstructed use of the Mississippi river; it 
rounded out our territory; it gave us posses- 
sion of the greatest tract of food producing 
soil in all the world. The Mississippi valley 
is the heart of our country and had the Lou- 
isiana purchase not been made the Mississippi 
valley would have been owned by the United 
States only in part. The purchase meant 
much for the people who lived in Louisiana at 
that time, but it meant a great deal more to 
the United States and to the people of our 
country at the present day. We can hardly 
imagine what our country would be now if the 
Louisiana territory had remained in the pos- 
session of Spain, or in the possession of 
France; instead of being one of the great 
powers of the world, the United States would 
have been one of the smaller nations and its 



wealth would be but a fraction of what it 
now is. 

This purchase deserves and holds a great 
space in history. The restrictive laws of 
Spain, her unjust restrictions upon commerce, 
her censorship of religion, her oppression of 
free speech and the press, her antiquated ma- 
chinery of government, her ideals, which were 
those of the middle ages, were all swept away 
with the coming of the United States govern- 
ment and a new era set in then for Louisiana. 
We may not say, of course, that all the results 
that immediately followed were good. As has 
been the case everywhere, new-found liberty 
was made an occasion for license, and the free- 
dom with which the people of the territory of 
Louisiana found themselves clothed upon their 
transfer to the United States, was in some 
\ cases an excuse for lawlessness and violence. 
These disorders, however, were temporary in 
their character and when the ideas of Anglo- 
Saxon liberty, liberty restrained by law, of 
self-government, were realized, then followed 
good order throughout Louisiana. Not only 
did the change of ownership bring a greater 
degree of liberty, not only did it enable the 
people who lived in Louisiana to govern them- 
selves and to carry on the concerns of their 
lives without interference and fear from 
the hampering regulations of Spain, the 
change of ownership brought a great flood of 
immigration. The river had acted as a bar- 
rier to the westward movement of our popu- 
lation, it had dammed that movement up and 
lield it in the states on the east side of the 
river, and when the barrier was removed and 
Louisiana passed out from the control of 
Spain and into that of the United States im- 
migration flowed into the district in streams, 
new towns sprung up, industries were re- 
vived and within a few years the population of 
Louisiana was doubled many times over. 



SECTION 



As a United States Territory 



Vol. t— 10 



CHAPTER XI 

AMERICAN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT 

Government of the Louisiana Territory — The Territory op Orleans — The District of 
Louisiana — First Governor — Courts op Common Pleas — Officers at the Various 
Posts — Causes op Dissatisfaction With the Government of the United States — Me- 
morial of Grievances — The Territory op Louisiana — Confirmation of Land Grants — 
Courts — Wilkinson as Governor — Lewis — Clark — The Territory op Missouri — Povr- 
ERS OP the Governor — Meetings of the Territorial Legislature — Various Laws — Rich- 
ard S. Thomas — John Scott — Johnson Ranney — General Watkins — Greer W. Davis 
— Alexander Buckner — Other Prominent Men — The Byrd Family — Circuit Courts 
— Officers in Ste. Genevieve — Cape Girardeau District and County — New Madrid Dis- 
trict and County — Creation op New Counties — Lawrence — Wayne — Madison — 
Jefferson — Washington — Perry — Military History. 



As soon as it was known that the transfer 
of Louisiana to the United States had been 
completed and all formalities complied with, 
Congress at once passed an act providing 
for the government of the newly acquired 
territory. 

It was arranged tluit the law of Spain and 
France which had previously been in force 
in the territory should be superseded by the 
law of the United States. It divided the en- 
tire territory acquired into two parts. All 
that part of Louisiana south of the 33rd 
parallel of north latitude was made into a 
territory under the style of the Territory of 
Orleans. The remainder of the territory was 
denominated the District of Louisiana, and 
was attached for the purposes of government 
to the territory of Indiana. The authority 
of the governor of the territory of Indiana 
was caused to extend over the new district. 



A legislative body was provided for the 
district of Louisiana which was to consist of 
the three judges of the territory of Indiana. 
They were clothed with authority to make 
all needful laws for the government of the 
people within the district. They were also 
empowered to hold two terms of court each 
year within Louisiana. 

The governor of Indiana, who was thus 
made governor of the new district, was Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison. The three .judges in 
whose hands was placed the legislative power 
were Thomas Davis, Henry Vandenburg and 
John Griffin, who proceeded to make laws for 
the district. They accepted substantially the 
division of territory which had been in use 
by the Spanish. There was a lieutenant gov- 
ernor at the posts of St. Louis, New IMadrid, 
St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, and Cape Girai-- 



147 



148 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



<leaii. 'J'licre was also established in each one 
of these posts a court of common pleas and 
quarter sessions, and a provision was made 
for a recorder and a sheriff at each place. 

The following officers were appointed at 
the various posts: Colonel Samuel Hammond 
was appointed lieutenant governor or com- 
mandant of St. Louis; Major Seth Hunt, 
lieutenant governor or commandant of Ste. 
Genevieve; Colonel Return J. Meigs, lieu- 
tenant governor or commandant of St. 
Charles, and Colonel Thomas B. Scott, lieu- 
tenant governor or commandant of Cape 
Cirardeau. For New Madrid, Pierre An- 
toine La Forge acted as civil commandant. 

Such was the form of government arranged 
for the new territory. It was reasonable, the 
selections for the various offices were good, 
and it was to be expected that the people of 
the territory would be happy and content un- 
(Ici- the government. It has been pointed out 
thai there was little objection made by any 
of the people of the territory to the transfer ; 
some few complaints were made and there 
were some who wished that Spain might have 
retained the territory; on the whole, how- 
ever, the people were quiet and satisfied. 

This condition did not last very long. There 
were several principal sources of complaint. 
One of them was the provision in the act of 
congress concerning Sj)anish land grants. 
We have seen that the Spanish officials were 
lavish with their grants of land. A great 
many inhabitants of Upper Louisiana had 
asked for concessions which were granted, 
but a number of these were granted after the 
secret treaty which had transferred Louisi- 
ana to France. The act provided that all 
Spaiiish grants should be given full force 
and effect by the officers of the United States. 
except tho.se which had been made subse- 
(juent 1() the treaty between France and 



Spain. It was the opinion of the govern- 
ment of the United States that after the sign- 
ing of that agreement by which Louisiana 
passed from Spain to Prance, the Span- 
ish officials had no authority whatever to 
alienate for any purpose the lands of the 
territory. It was held that all grants at- 
tempted to be made between the transfer to 
France and the transfer to the United States 
were absolutely without any force whatever 
and that the settlers who held these grants 
had no title to their lands. 

It may be supposed that the men who had 
received these grants were vei-y mu(!h dis- 
satisfied with this action of the government 
of the United States. This dissatisfaction, 
however, was not confined to the holders of 
these grants by any means. Tliere were 
many questions which arose concerning these 
la 11(1 titles, questions which could be settled 
'inly after the lapse of considerable time. The 
transfer thus acted as a disturber of the land 
titles, and a great many of the titles in the 
territory had a cloud over them for a period 
of many years. When these facts were ap- 
preciated by the people of the territory and 
especially by the French settlers, there was 
very great di.ssatisfaction. A meeting was 
held in St. Louis to protest to the govern- 
ment and a petition or memorial was drawn 
up setting forth the alleged grievance suf- 
fered by the inhabitants. 

Another matter which created dissatisfac- 
tion among the settlers was the change in 
the method of jurisprudence. We have seen 
that the ordinary procedure in the courts of 
the Spanish commandants was entirely sum- 
mary in its character. There was little de- 
lay and there was little opportunity for ham- 
pering suits by technicalities. The decision 
was vested in the power of one man and he 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



149 



ordinarily decided questions without luueh 
delay. The trial of eases before command- 
ants proceeded informally, but while there 
was opportunity offered lor appeal, sueli ap- 
peal was rarelj' prosecuted, and if prosecuted 
at all it usuall.y did not go further than the 
Lieutenant Governor at St. Louis. This sys- 
tem of Spanish Law operated to produce 
great celerity of judicial action. For this 
system there was substituted the system of 
the English Common Law. That system pro- 
vides for trial by jury, and it provides for the 
hampering of trials by the use of technical- 
ities, and to the people of the territory ac- 
customed to the celerity of Spani.sh justice 
the long delays and the great expense of the 
American system of courts came with an un- 
pleasant shock. 

Another thing which cau.sed dissatisfaction 
among the settlers in Upper Louisiana was t lie 
fact that the territory was not erected into a 
separate government but was joined to Indi- 
ana. The settlers felt that they were suffi- 
ciently numerous and sufficiently intelligent 
to be a distinct territory of the United States, 
and they held it a grievance that they were 
not so treated. 

A fourth grievance was the proposed settle- 
ment of the eastern Indians in Louisiana. 
One of the provisions of the Act of Congress 
for the government of the territory was that 
the land of the Indians then resident east of 
the Mississippi should be purchased from 
them and they should be settled in Louisiana. 
This provision gave great offence to the peo- 
ple of the territory. They had had sufficient 
experience with Indian population to cause 
them to dread the coming of any other Indian 
tribes. 

• This Indian question really settled itself in 
a very .short time. The Government of the 
United States did not make any formal dec- 



laration as to its intentions, but the fad that 
it did purchase from the Sacs and Foxes the 
territory which they inhabited just north of 
the Alissouri river and remove thorn further 
west seemed an evidence that it was not the 
intention of (he United States to thrust the 
eastern Indians into that part of Louisiana 
inhabited by white people. 

Although this particuhir complaint was thus 
disposed of, the others still remained, and on 
September 29th, 1804, there was held a meet- 
ing in the city of St. Louis as we have seen, 
which ilri!w up a petition or memorial to the 
(ioveriiiiicnl of |li(. United States on these 
questions. The memorial set out at length 
the conditions that existed in the territory 
and called attention to all of the grievances 
which we have mentioned. The signers, fif- 
teen in number, who declared themselves to be 
the representatives of the entire population of 
I'ljper Louisiana, requested that the act which 
liatl been passed providing for the govern- 
ment of the territory should be repealed. They 
fiirtlier asked that ITpper Louisiana be 
ei-eeted into a separate and distinct ti-rritory 
with a government of its own. 

The territories of the United States, at this 
time, were divided into three distinct grades, 
first, second and third, the lowest grade of the 
territory. Tho.se having the least rights were 
those of the first grade. This petition to the 
Congress asked that Upper Louisiana should 
lie made into a territory of the second grade. 
The removal of the Indians was also objected 
to as well as the action with regard as to the 
Spanish land grants made subsei|uent to 1802. 
The petitioners further asked that their right 
to own slaves should be expres.sly recognized. 
This act had forbidden the inhabitants of the 
territory of Orleans, as Lower Louisiana was 
called, from importing slaves. Nothing had 
been said in the act. however, with regard to 



150 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Upper Louisiana, and it was assumed by the 
inhabitants that since the right was not ex- 
pressly taken away, they still possessed it. 
This memorial prayed that this right should 
be expressly recognized. Another thing asked 
for was that funds and lands should be set 
aside by the Government of the United States 
for the support of a French and English 
school in every county of the district, and 
that further provision should be made at once 
for the establishment of a seminary where in- 
struction should be given in the higher 
branches of learning. This memorial was 
signed by the following persons: Richard 
Jones Waters and Eligius Promentin of New 
Madrid, Christopher Hays, Stephen Byrd, 
Andrew Ramsay and Frederick Bollinger of 
Cape Girardeau, J. S. J. Beauvais and P. 
Detchmendy of Ste. Genevieve, Charles Gra- 
tiot, P. Provenchere, August Chouteau, Rich- 
ard Caulk, David Musiek and Francis Cot- 
tard of St. Louis, Warren Cottle, A. Reynol, 
P. Saucier and Timothy Kibby of St. 
Charles; Choteau and Promentin were ap- 
pointed as deputies and agents to present the 
petition to the Congress of the United States. 
It will be easily seen here that the men here 
represented as petitioners were among the 
most prominent and influential to be foiuid in 
all, of Upper Louisiana. Promentin, who was 
one of the agents for the presentation of the 
petition was one of the most distinguished 
scholars in the whole territory. He occupied 
a number of positions and in 1812 was made 
a senator of the United States from Louisiana. 

The petition was presented to Congress on 
January 4th, 1805. After some discussion and 
delay, a bill was passed on the third day 
of March, 1805, which regulated affairs in 
the territory. By the terms of this bill all of 
Upper Loiiisiana was made into a separate 



tcrritoiw of the first or lowest grade and was 
called the Territory of Louisiana. It was 
provided in the act that the governor and 
three judges should be appointed with power 
to make such rules and regulations concern- 
ing affairs within the territory as should seem 
to them to be necessary for its government. 
The act was silent on some of the matters that 
were set out in the petition. We have already 
seen that the Indian question was practically 
settled by the action of the United States in 
regard to the Sacs and Foxes, which action 
evinced the determination of the government 
to remove the Indians to the far west, but 
the other questions raised by the petitioners 
and the other complaints put in by them were 
not adjusted by the Act of Congress. No pro- 
\ ision was made for confirming the disputed 
land grants and it is quite probable that the 
question of land grants was of all the ques- 
tions concerning the territory the one most 
pressing and most troublesome. It is rather 
peculiar that this matter was not fully settled 
luitil April, 1814. At that time Congress 
passed an act which confirmed the title of the 
grants made by Spain previous to the 9th day 
of March, 1804, that is, previous to the final 
reliu(iuishment of the territory to the United 
States. This action, though it was long de- 
layed, finall.y settled the question of the valid- 
ity of the grants made from 1802 to 1804, 
l.'ut the question of these particular grants 
was by no means the only question regarding 
the Spanish lands, in fact there existed for a 
great length of time considerable uncertainty 
as to the validity of most of these grants. 
There seemed to be no way of finally determ- 
ining their validity, except by the action of 
the courts and it required a long period of 
time to dispose of the question of these land 
grants in a final and satisfactory way. 

The act of 1805 which created the territory 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



151 



of Louisiana, defined the powers of the gov- 
ernor and three judges, established courts, 
and made provision for the confirmation of 
the action of these various bodies. Under the 
terms of this act, General James "Wilkinson 
was appointed governor of the territory, 
Joseph iJrowne of New York was made secre- 
tary, and James B. C. Lucas, John Coburn, 
and Rufus Easton were made judges of the 
court. 

"Wilkinson, the new governor, was a man 
about whom there has raged a great deal of 
controversy. We have seen that he was the 
commander of the American forces along the 
Mississippi river and that he had been one 
of the two commi.ssiouers appointed to receive 
the transfer of the territory. By some people 
he was regarded as a very able man. It was 
"U^ilkinson who denounced Burr, and he was 
one of the men responsible for Burr's arrest 
and trial. He did not testify in that case but 
attended the trial and was ready and even 
anxious to appear against Burr. It is now 
known that Wilkinson was for a long time in 
the pay of the Spanish government. It was 
his interference that caused Governor Miro to 
oppose Morgan's plan at New Madrid, and 
there seems to be no doubt that Wilkinson 
was for some years, even while in command of 
the forces of the United States, in correspon- 
dence with Spanish officials and considering 
with them a scheme by which the people of 
the western part of the United States along 
the Mississippi river, could be induced to 
throw off their allegiance to the government 
of the United States and attach themselves to 
Spain. For his services in these matters 
Wilkinson seems to have received a pension 
from the Spanish government, and there is no 
reason to doubt that he was very well dis- 
posed toward Spain. 

His actions as governor of the new territory 



caused a great deal of antagonism and bitter 
feeling. He was accused of having tried to 
speculate in land even while he was governor, 
he seemed to have been opposed to the Amer- 
ican settlers in the territory and to have been 
a friend to the French. He failed also to be 
able to deal successfully with his subordinates 
and was in constant trouble on account of 
differences with the men who served under 
him. It is said that he became so enraged 
against Easton, who had been one of the 
judges of the superior court and was later 
postmaster at St. Louis, that he refused to 
allow his mail to be sent through a postofifice 
over which Easton presided. He engaged in 
a feud with a number of the officers of the 
territory ; he seemed to have no tact or ability 
to manage affairs at all. A very strenuous 
effort was made to have him removed from 
office; he was charged with oppression and 
neglect and with cruel conduct, and the 
charges against him were pressed with so 
much violence that finally Jefferson removed 
him from office on March 3, 1807. 

Wilkinson was succeeded by Meriwether 
Lewis. Lewis' name will always be famous on 
account of his association with Clark on the 
celebrated expedition sent out by JefTersou to 
explore the northwestern part of the newly 
purchased territory of Louisiana. He found 
affairs in Louisiana in a deplorable state. The 
people were ho.stile to the government; they 
were divided into factions, and strife and bit- 
ter feeling raged everywhere. Lewis was an 
able man and a diplomat and he very soon 
established a feeling of respect for himself 
and the office which he held that went far 
toward restoring tranquility in the territory. 

We have seen that the administration of 
Governor Lewis was successful, he possessed 
qualities which made him a valuable leader in 
any community and which enabled him to 



152 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



bring order out of the confusion existing in 
Missouri. In September, 1809, while travel- 
ing through Tennessee on his way to Wash- 
ington, he committed suicide. After his death 
President Madison appointed General Benja- 
min Howard, of Kentucliy, as governor of the 
territory. General Howard held office imtil 
1810, when he resigned to accept a brigadier 
generalship in the army of the United States. 
Howard county was named in his honor. 

"William Clark who was a captain in the 
army of the United States and the other prin- 
cipal in the expedition of Lewis and Clark 
was appointed governor and held office until 
the admission of Missouri into the Union. 

On the 4th day of June, 1812, Missouri was 
organized into a territory with a governor nnd 
general assembly. The territory had pre- 
viously been organized as a territory of the 
first or lowest class. In the territory of this 
class, as we have seen, the sole power was 
vested in the governor and judges with other 
officers, all of whom were appointed by the 
president of the United States. In other 
words, the people of a territory of the first 
class had no right of self government so far 
as the administration of the general affairs of 
the territory was concerned. This, we remem- 
ber, was one of the grievances of the people 
of Louisiana as set out in the petition pre- 
sented to Congress in 1805, but by the act of 
1812, the territorj' was raised to the second 
class. Under the provisions of that act, the 
legislative power of the territoiy was vested 
in the governor, legislative council, and a 
bouse of representatives. 

The governor was to be appointed by the 
president of the United States. He had 
jiower of absolute veto over all the actions of 
the general assembly. The legislative council 
was to consist of nine members who were to 



hold their office for a period of five years. 
The members of this council were selected in 
the following manner: The territorial house 
of representatives nominated eighteen per- 
sons, and the president of the United States 
from this number selected nine members of the 
legislative eoimcil. The house of representa- 
tives consisted of members who held office for 
8 term of two years and were elected by the 
people of the territory. The unit of represen- 
tation was fixed at five hundred male citizens. 
with a further provision that the number of 
representatives could not exceed twenty-five. 
The first hoiise of representatives under this 
act consisted of thirteen members. The judi- 
cial power of the territory was vested in the 
superior court, inferior courts and justices of 
the peace. There were three judges of the 
superior court whose term of office was four 
years and who had original and appellate ju- 
risdiction in civil and criminal cases. The act 
further provided that the territory should be 
represented in Congress by one territorial 
delegate who, according to the Constitution, 
had the right to speak on matters pertaining 
1o the territory, but was not allowed to vote. 
Governor Clark, who was in office at the 
time of the passage of this act, issued a proc- 
lamation, and, on October 1, 1812, reorgan- 
ized the five districts in the state into five 
counties, known as the counties of St. Charles, 
St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and 
New I\Iadrid. An election was ordered to be 
held on the 2nd Monday in November for the 
selection of the delegate to Congress and the 
members of the house of representatives. The 
President of the United States appointed 
William Clark, who was already in office as 
the first governor of the re-organized terri- 
tory'. At the election in November, 1812, Ed- 
ward Hempstead was elected as the first ter- 
ritorial delegate to Congress. Hempstead was 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



153 



an able mau. He was a native of Connecti- 
cut, received a good education, became a law- 
yer, and in 1804 removed to St. Louis, where 
he continued in the practice of law. He held 
a number of positions and was held in highest 
regard by all who knew him. His term of 
service in Congi-ess was marked by no par- 
ticular achievement, but he was regarded as 
an able and conscientious man, and his retire- 
ment, for he declined to serve a second term, 
was regretted by those with whom lie liad 
served. He was the author of the Act of 1812 
which confirmed the titles and the holders in 
the Spanish grants, and provided for the sup- 
port of schools by the Government of the 
United States. 

The first General Assembly of the territory 
of Missouri was held in the house of Joseph 
Robidaux between Walnut and Elm streets in 
St. Louis on the 17th day of December, 1812. 
Southeast Missouri was represented by the fol- 
lowing persons : George BuUett, Richard S. 
Thomas and Israel McGready from Ste. Gene- 
vieve; George P. Bollinger and Spencer Byrd 
represented Cape Girardeau ; and John Shra- 
der and Sanuiel Phillips represented New 
Madrid. Besides these members there were 
two from St. Charles and four from St. Louis. 
The house of representatives then nominated 
fourteen persons from which the President of 
the United States selected nine members of 
the council. The members of this council 
from Southeast Missouri were these : John 
Scott and James Maxwell from Ste. Genevieve ; 
"William Neeley and Joseph Cavinor from 
Cape Girardeau; and Joseph Hunter from 
New Madrid. 

The first meeting of the legislature was held 
in St. Louis in July, 1813, on the first ilon- 
day. It is not possible to give a full account 
of the acts of this legislature. No account 



of the proceedings was officially kept, but a 
part of the laws were noticed and published 
in the Missouri Gazette, the first paper estab- 
lished we.st of the Mississippi river. From its 
files it is discovered that one of the first sub- 
jects which received the attention of the leg- 
islature was that of establishing and regulat- 
ing weights and measures. Of course this was 
an exceedingly important matter, one which 
had never been adju.sted in the territory of 
Louisiana. Some of the other matters which 
received the attention of the legislature were 
laws concerning the office of sheriff, taking of 
the census, the fixing of the seats of justice in 
the various counties, the compensation of 
members of the legislature, the incorporation 
of the bank of St. Louis. Besides these a crim- 
inal code was adopted and a law defining 
forcible entry and detainer was enacted, as 
well as one establishing courts of common 
pleas. The legislature also made provision for 
the organization of the comity of Washing- 
ton. This county was erected from a part of 
Ste. Genevieve, and Potosi was selected as the 
county seat. 

The second session of the first general as- 
sembly was begun in St. Louis, December 10, 
1813. George BuUett of Ste. Genevieve county, 
was elected speaker of the house and Wash- 
ington county was for the first time repre- 
sented by Israel McGready. Among the sub- 
jects considered by the legislature and upon 
which laws were passed, were the suppression 
of vice and immorality on the Sabbath day, 
public roads and highways, and the regulation 
of the financial affairs of the territory. The 
offices of territorial auditor and treasurer, 
and county surveyor were created. The leg- 
islature also defined the boundaries of the 
counties and created a new county known as 
Arkansas county. 

The first session of the second general as- 



154 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



serably met in St. Louis, December 5th, 1814. 
There were twenty members of the house, and 
James Caldwell of Ste. Genevieve was chosen 
speaker, and Andrew Scott, clerk. William 
Neeley of Cape Girardeau was the president 
of the council. The members from Southeast 
Missouri were: Nicholas Wilson and Phillip 
McGuire, from Washington covmty; Richard 
S. Thomas, Thomas Caldwell, and Augustine 
De Mun from Ste. Genevieve; Stephen Byrd, 
George P. Bollinger, Robert English, Joseph 
Sewell, and one other from Cape Girardeau; 
John Davidson, George W. Hart, and Henry 
H. Smith from New Madrid county. The 
only change in the representatives from South- 
east Missouri in the council was the appoint- 
ment of John Rice Jones, in place of James 
Maxwell. 

The second session of the second general 
assembly met in St. Louis, January, 1815. 
At this session Washington coiuit.y was rep- 
resented by Hardage Lane and Stephen P. 
Austin, Ste. Genevieve coiuity by Isidore 
Moore, New Madrid coimty by Doctor Robert 
D. Dawson. This session of the general as- 
sembly transacted considerable business. It 
ordered the establishment of comity courts in 
the various coimties, to be made up of the 
justices of the peace. The clerks of these 
courts were also to act as recorders for the 
counties; two judicial circuits were created, 
the northern and the southern. The counties 
of Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New 
Madrid constituted the southern circuit, coun- 
ties of St. Louis, St. Charles and Washington 
constituted the northern circuit. Besides 
these acts the assembly created a new coimty 
known as Lawrence county. This county was 
erected out of the western part of New jMa- 
drid coiuity. 

The third general assembly, which met in 
1816, had the following representatives from 



Southeast Missouri : Hardage Lane and 
Stephen P. Aii-stin of Washington county ; 
Nathaniel Cook, Isidore iloore, and John Mc- 
Arthur of Ste. Genevieve county; George P. 
Bollinger, Robert English, and John Dunn of 
Cape Girardeau county ; Doctor Robert D. 
Dawson of New Madrid county ; and Alex- 
ander S. Walker of Lawrence coiuity. By this 
time provision had been made by Congress for 
the election of the members of the council 
rather than their appointment. The members 
of the council from Southeast ^lissouri were : 
Samuel Perry from Washington county, Jos- 
eph Bogy from Ste. Genevieve county, William 
Neeley from Cape Girardeau count.v, Joseph 
Hunter from New Madrid county, and Rich- 
ard IMurphy from Lawrence county. This 
nieeting of the assembly chartered the Bank 
of St. Louis and the Bank of Missouri. Both 
of these institutions were afterward organ- 
ized in St. Louis, and both of them were 
authorized to issue notes to be used as cur- 
rency. A charter was also granted for an 
academy to be established in Potosi. A 
bounty was also placed on the killing of 
wolves, panthers and wild cats. It was also 
provided that several lotteries might be held, 
and it was this meeting of the assembly that 
enacted the first law for the creation of a 
school board for the city of St. Louis. It was 
in 1816 tliat an act was passed which intro- 
duced the common law into the territory of 
]\lissouri. The act specified that the common 
liiw of England and the statutes of a general 
nature enacted prior to the reign of James 
the First, should be enforced in the territory. 
It was not provided that the former laws of 
France and Spain should be abrogated, nor 
were they repealed until a much later time. 

The fourth, and last, general assembly met 
in 1818. The representation from Southeast 
Missouri was as follows: Lionel Browne and 



PIISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



155 



Stephen F. Austin from Washington county; 
Isidore Moore, David F. Marks, William 
Shannon, and Jacob Walters from Ste. Gene- 
vieve eouuty ; Johnson Ranney, Robert Eng- 
lish, Joseph Sewell, Brastus Ellis, and James 
Ravenscroft from Cape Girardeau eoimty; 
Stephen Ross from New Madrid county ; 
Perry G. Magness, Joseph Harden, and John 
Davidson from Lawrence coiuity. The follow- 
ing were members of the comieil : John D. 
Cook, Ste. Genevieve; Samuel Perry, Wash- 
ington ; George F. Bollinger, Cape Girardeau ; 
Robert D. Dawson, New Madrid. This gen- 
eral assembly created a number of coiuities. 
Those in the southeast were Jefi'erson. Wayne, 
and ]\Iadison. It also abolished Lawrence 
county. It was at this meeting of the assem- 
bly that a memorial was prepared praying for 
the establishment of a state government. This 
memorial was afterward presented to Con- 
gress. The assembly also redistricted the 
state into three judicial circuits : Ste. Gene- 
vieve, Madison, Wayne, New Madrid, and 
Cape Girardeau composed the southern cir- 
cuit, the other southeast counties became a 
part of the northern circuit; the third cir- 
cuit, known as the northwestern, included no 
Southeast iJissouri territory. 

The first judge of the southern circuit was 
Honorable Richard S. Thomas. At the time 
of his appointment he was a resident of Ste. 
Genevieve, but afterward moved to Jackson, 
where he resided until his death. Judge 
Thomas was a native of Virginia, had lived 
some years in Ohio, where he married. He 
came to Ste. Genevieve in 1810, and engaged 
in the practice of law. In 1811 he appeared 
as counsel for the defendant in a murder case. 
Judge Thomas was not a lawj-er of high rank, 
and he became very vmpopular with the bar. 
As a consequence of this impopularity, he was 



impeached and a number of charges were pre- 
ferred against him in the impeachment pro- 
ceeding. Most of them seem to have been 
rather trivial in nature, and to reflect the hos- 
tility which he aroused, rather than to ex- 
hibit any very grave errors in his conduct as 
a judge. One of the charges against him was 
that he had behaved in an arbitrary, oppress- 
ive, unjust and partial manner in refusing to 
recognize John Juden, Jr., as clerk of the cir- 
cuit court. He took the position that the of- . 
fice was made vacant by the amendment to 
the constitution of 1822 and appointed his 
son, Claiborne S. Thomas, as clerk, and or- 
dered that the records and papers of this of- 
fice be delivered up to him. He was further 
charged with having illegally adjourned the 
April term of the court in 1823, on the pre- 
tense that his son, whom he had appointed 
clerk, had not received the records of the 
court. It was further charged that he had 
shown partiality toward his son in a suit be- 
tween the son and Charles G. Ellis, and that 
he had entered into an agreement with the 
counsel for Doctor Ezekiel Fenwick, who had 
been chai-ged with murder, to admit him to 
bail, on condition of his surrender to the 
sheriff. The articles of impeachment were 
presented to the house of representatives in 
February, 1825. Judge Thomas denied the 
charges, but was fomid guilty and removed 
from office on March 25th. He then resumed 
the practice of law at Jackson, but was killed 
within a short time by being thrown from his 
horse while on his way to attend court at 
Greenville. 

The most conspicuous la^\'yer in the early 
days in Southeast Missouri was John Scott. 
He, too, was a Virginian, and had graduated 
at Princeton college. He lived for a short 
time in Vincennes, Indiana, and came to Ste. 
Genevieve in 1806. Scott was well versed in 



156 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the law, was possessed of a great deal of 
energy aud aggressiveness, and soon became 
one of the leading lawyers in the section. He 
was appointed a member of the territorial 
council and afterward made a canvass for 
the office of territorial delegate to Congress. 
His opponent in this canvass was Rufus Eas- 
ton, of St. Louis. Eastou had served one 
term as delegate, but was defeated by Scott on 
the face of the returns. Easton contested the 
election, however, on the ground that certain 
votes were improperly counted and the second 
election was held. At this election Scott in- 
creased his plurality from 15 to 392, and 
Easton gave up the contest. He served as 
territorial delegate until the admission to the 
Union, after which he was elected as a mem- 
ber of Congress. He served three terms and 
was a very popular and intiueutial member. 
It was, perhaps, his speech indignantly reject- 
ing the idea that the people of ilissouri could 
be dictated to in the matter of their constitu- 
tion that gave impulse to the movement of the 
state which resulted in the overwhelming vic- 
tory of the slavery forces in the election of 
the constitutional convention. Scott lost his 
popularity, however, in 1825 when, in spite 
of the wishes of his constituents, he voted 
for John Quincy Adams for President. The 
people of Missouri were very strong in their 
support of Jackson, and this vote for Adams 
prevented Scott's retaining the place. After 
his retirement to private life he continued the 
practice of law. He was kno^^•n all over the 
section, and attended court in practically 
every county. He was a thorough lawyer, 
and an impressive speaker. He was rather ec- 
centric in his personal appearance and de- 
meanor ; he always went armed, but was never 
Icnown to use these weapons. He was famous 
for his honesty and also for the great influence 
which he had over juries. He died in 1862, 



at the age of eighty .vears. Scott coimty was 
named for him. 

One of the early lawyers in Cape Girar- 
deau county was General Johnson Ranney. 
He was a native of Connecticut, had been a 
teacher in early life, but studied law and re- 
moved to Jackson upon establishment of the 
courts there in 1815. There existed at the 
time c|uite a strong prejudice against Yan- 
kees, but General Ranney was a man of firm 
disposition and he very quietly went about 
his work and soon overcame this prejudice. 
He was opposed to slavery, and during the 
campaign in 1820 was threatened with vio- 
lence, but he entrenched himself in his office 
and defied his points. He was not a partic- 
idarly brilliant speaker, but was a close 
student and was very industrious and devoted 
lo the interests of his clients. He was a 
member of the legislature and a major general 
of militia. He died in Jackson, November 
11, 1849. 

In 1819. General Nathaniel W. Watkins 
came to Jackson and began the practice of 
law. General Watkins was a half brother of 
Henry Clay and a native of Kentucky. He 
was a man of fine appearance and resembled 
Clay in his general bearing. He was an 
orator and had very great influence over 
juries. No man in the southeast had a larger 
or more extended practice than he had. He 
traveled, every spring and fall, on horse-back 
from one eoimty seat to another. There was 
scarcely an important case in any of these 
coimties in which he did not appear on one 
side or the other. He served a number of 
terms in the general assembly and in 1850 
v\as elected speaker of the house of represen- 
tatives. He took part in the organization of 
the Southeast District Agricultural Society 
which was organized for the purpose of hold- 
ing a district fair. He was the first president 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



157 



of this society. "When war brol^e out Gen- 
eral AVatkins stood with the South and 
was appointed tiy Governor Jackson as brig- 
adier general in the first military district 
which embraced Southeast Missouri. This 
was in 1861 and he proceeded to organize 
The Jli.ssouri State Guard in his district. He 
did not long retain command, however, as he 
found the place uncongenial to him. He re- 
signed and was succeeded by General Jeifer- 
son Thompson. General Watkins afterward 
removed to Scott coimty where he lived imtil 
the time of his death in 1876. Just before 
his death, as a fitting recognition of his long 
and active service, he was cho.sen a member 
of the constitutional convention of 1875 and 
was made its president. His home in Scott 
county was called "Beechland, " and was not 
far from Morley. 

Another member of the famous bar at Jack- 
son was Timothy Davis, who was a native of 
New Jersey but had lived two years in Ken- 
tucky and came to Jackson in 1818. He re- 
mained there for a year and a half. He then 
moved to Ste. Genevieve and later to Iowa, 
from which state he was sent to Congress. 
"When he came to Jackson he was accompan- 
ied by a nephew who was destined to become 
one of the famous lawyers of the Southeast; 
this was Greer W. Davis. He was not ad- 
mitted to the bar until 1820, but from that 
time on was a prominent lawyer. For seven- 
teen years he was circuit attorney for the 
southeast circuit. He was very careful in at- 
tending to business and soon became wealthy. 
It was said of him that he was both fluent 
and logical, and that his addresses were models 
of concise, careful statements. He was a 
member of the Methodist church at Jackson 
for more than half a century. He was the 
last of the territorial lawyers in the state, 
dying in 1878. He was held in the highest 



esteem by his neighltors and l)y the bar of the 
entire Southeast. 

In 1818 Alexander Buckner, who was a res- 
ident of Kentucky, removed to Cape Girar- 
deau county and settled with his mother and 
sisters on Randol creek. He was a good law- 
yer, with a turn for political life. He was a 
pro-slavery advocate and soon took a prom- 
inent place in the political affairs of the ter- 
ritory. He was appointed circuit attorney 
shortly after his coming and was a member of 
the constitutional convention in 1820. He was 
afterward a member of the state senate and 
in 1831 was elected United States senator 
from Missouri. He was the organizer of 
Unitj' Lodge at Jackson, the first jMasonie 
lodge in the territory of Missouri. This lodge 
was organized under a charter from the Grand 
Lodge of Indiana. Senator Buckner died in 
1833 at Jackson, during the scourge of 
cholera. 

One of the most prominent men in the Cape 
Girardeau district, during the early period, 
was Joseph ]\IcFerron. ilcFerron was an 
Irishman who came to America in early life, 
was a man of fine sense and possessed a su- 
perior education. He was reserved in man- 
ner and peculiar in appearance. He was the 
first clerk of the courts of the Cape Girar- 
deau district and held the position for a num- 
ber of years. After his duel with "William 
Ogle, an account of which is given in another 
place, McFerron resigned from office. This 
I'esignation, however, was a test of public sen- 
timent, which was soon shown to be in his 
favor. He was reelected and held the ofiice 
until his death in 1821. He lived for a con- 
siderable time in Cape Girardeau, but re- 
moved to Jackson upon the establishment of 
the county seat at that place. 

Among the first attorneys before the court 
iield in Cape Girardeau were Anthony Hay- 



158 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



den and George C. Harbison. Their names 
ere found in the record of the year 1805. 
Hayden was one of the first trustees for the 
tOMTi of Cape Girardeau, chosen in 1808. 
Among the other early law-j^ers in Cape Gir- 
ardeau were Nathaniel Pope, and James 
Evans. Evans was a very popular and able 
man, had a very large practice at one time, 
and was a member of the first constitutional 
convention. For a short time he served as 
circuit judge, bvat he ruined his career by be- 
coming an habitual drunkard. He removed 
from Cape Girardeau to Perryville, from 
Perryville to Kentucky, where he afterward 
died. 

The Byrd family of the Cape Girardeau 
district was one of the influential families 
during the early history of Missouri. The 
leading members of the family were Stephen 
and Abraham. They were brothers, being 
the sons of Amos Byrd. They came to Upper 
Louisiana from Tennessee about 1800. The 
home of the family was fixed at Byrd's creek, 
not far from Jackson. Stephen Byrd was fre- 
quently in office. He was a judge of the court 
of common pleas for the Cape Girardeau dis- 
trict, was one of the men who drew up the 
remonstrance concerning the organization of 
the Louisiana di.strict and its connection with 
the Indian Territory, and was a number of 
times a member of the territorial assembly. 
He also took part in the convention that 
framed the constitution of the state and was 
afterward a representative of Cape Girardeau 
county in the general assembly of the state. 
Abraham Byrd was also a member of the 
state legislature at different times, and was a 
presidential elector in 1836. His family was 
a large one, and their descendants, many of 
them, still live in Cape Girardeau county. 

In 1817 there came to Cape Girardeau a 
young man named Thomas B. English. He 



was a native of Louisiana and was educated 
at St. Mary's college. He studied law with 
General Johnson Ranney, and was afterward 
admitted to the bar. He was a man of great 
energj', and was modest and unassiiming in 
manner, but soon was able to take a very 
high rank in his profession. Mr. English was 
a Democrat, and had considerable political 
experience. He was for a time circuit attor- 
ne}% and in 1860 was a member of the state 
senate. In 1865 he was appointed judge of 
the tenth circuit, but died in 1866, 

John D. Cook came to Cape Girardeau dur- 
ing the time when Missouri was a territory 
and in 1820 was chosen a delegate to the first 
convention which formed the constitution of 
the state. In 1822 he was appointed judge of 
the supreme court but held the position for 
only about a year, resigning to accept the po- 
sition of circuit judge of the southern judi- 
cial circuit. At the meeting of the first state 
legislature Cook was placed in nomination 
for one of the senatorships but was not chosen. 
Pie was a man of great ability and recognized 
tc be of the highest integrity and his friends 
said of him that if he had been as enterpris- 
ing as he was able he would have risen to the 
very highest places. He possessed, however, 
but little ambition and was inclined to be 
indolent. His homeliness was proverbial 
among his friends. Younger members of the 
bar found in him a friend and he was always 
ready to give them advice and assistance. 

Under the territorial government as it was 
first organized the chief judicial authority 
was vested in a court of quarter sessions of 
the peace. This court was to be composed of 
all the justices of the peace in the coimty, 
\\ho were to be appointed by the governor, 
not less than three were to constitute a quor- 
um. This court had general jurisdiction, ex- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



159 



eept in capital eases, and it had also civil jur- 
isdiction ; besides its criminal and civil author- 
ity the court was charged with general ad- 
ministrative functions in the county; it was 
the authority for the letting of contracts, for 
levying taxes and supervising the expenditures 
of the county, thus having the powers and 
duties which are now vested in a county court. 

Besides the court in general quarter ses- 
sions, there was also organized a court of 
common pleas composed of two or more jus- 
tices of the peace and having civil jurisdiction 
in cases involving less than $100. There was 
also a probate coiu't and justice courts pre- 
sided over by single ju.stices of the peace. 

In 1813 all the courts, except the single jus- 
tice courts, were combined to form a court of 
common pleas which thus had authority over 
both criminal and civil matters, over probate 
matters and was also vested with administra- 
tive authority in the county. 

In 1816 circuit courts were organized in the 
territory which was divided into two circuits, 
the northern and southern ; all judicial mat- 
ters were put under the supervision of the 
circuit courts as well as a large part of the 
administrative business in each coimty. This 
organization marks the greatest concentration 
of judicial and administrative authority to be 
foimd in the history of the state. The circuit 
court with its powers to try both civil and 
criminal cases was also vested with all powers 
now held by probate and coimty courts; this 
great concentration of power lasted imtil the 
adoption of the state constitution in 1820. 

Besides the courts which we have men- 
tioned the principal coimt.v officers were the 
sheriff, who was also collector and treasurer, 
coroner, assessor, recorder and the constables 
of the townships. The duties of these officers 
were not very different from the duties which 
they discharge today, the sheriff is no longer 



collector and treasurer, though up until with- 
in very recent years he was in many counties 
the collector as well as sheriff. 

The court of quarter sessions of the peace 
for Ste. Genevieve district was organized De- 
cember 11, 1801. The judges of this court 
were : Moses Austin, Jacques Guibord, Ben- 
jamin Strother, John Hawliins and Francois 
Valle. William C. Carr was appointed as the 
acting prosecutor ; Israel Dodge was the sheriff 
of the di.striet and he brought in a jury which 
acted as a grand jury. The grand jury made 
no indictments at this first term of the court. 
The principal business transacted was the ap- 
pointment of constables for the different sec- 
tions of the district. They were : Andrew 
Morris for New Bourbon, Peter Laurel for 
Ste. Genevieve, Joseph Tucker for the terri- 
tory on the Saline, Thomas Donohue between 
the Saline and Apple Creek, John Paul for 
Bellevue and Bernard Foster for Mine a 
Breton. The sheriff, Israel Dodge, was di- 
rected to receive bids for the building of a 
jail. It was to stand on the public square in 
Ste. Genevieve, was to be 25x15 feet and to 
have double walls of timber one foot in thick- 
ness with rock filling. This jail was reported 
finished in September, 1805. In the same 
year, the court made a levy for taxes for the 
district. Assessors were appointed for the 
different settlements, who were instructed to 
make lists of the property held bj' each citi- 
zen. The amount of the tax levy for all of 
Ste. Genevieve district was $1,171.91. 

In 1807 the district was divided into six 
townships : Breton. Bellevue, St. Michaels, 
Big River, Ste. Genevieve and Cinque Homme. 
In 1814, Saline township was formed from 
parts of Ste. Genevieve and Cinque Homme 
and included the so\ith part of the present 
county of Ste. Genevieve and the west part of 



160 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IHSSOURI 



Perry county; in the same year Plattin town- 
ship was laid out, it was east of Big River. 
Thei'e was no court house building in the 
district. During the period until 1820, the 
courts were usually held in the various dwell- 
ings. In 1808 we find the court to have met 
in the house of James Maxwell; John Price's 
tavern was freqiientl.y used, as was also the 
house of Henry Dodge. 

This court of quarter sessions, as may be 
seen from the record of its work, had some- 
what the same jurisdiction as the present 
county courts. It had also criminal juris- 
diction. Felony cases were tried by courts 
of o.yer and terminer. The first murder trial 
in the district was held in 1810. Peter John- 
son was tried at this time for the murder of 
John Spear; Edward Hempstead was the at- 
torney general and prosecuted the case, while 
Henry M. Breckenridge and James A. Graham 
appeared for the defendant. The trial re- 
sulted in the conviction of Johnson, and in 
execution of the sentence he was hanged on 
the third day of August. According to the 
barbarous custom of the time the hanging was 
public. It took place on the hill near the 
academy building and was witnessed by almost 
the entire population of the town. Only one 
other execution took place in Ste. Genevieve 
county during this period. There were other 
cases of homicide but only two persons were 
executed. One of the famous killings was 
that of Captain De Mun, who was the com- 
mander of the body of militia known as the 
Dragoons, who lived in New Bourbon, and was 
a very prominent citizen. He and William 
McArthur, who was a brother-in-law of Louis 
F. Linn, were candidates for the territorial 
house of representatives in 1816. A difficulty 
arose between them concerning some state- 
ments charging McArthur with connection 



with a band of counterfeiters. De ]Mun had 
repeated these charges and was challenged by 
ilcArthur to a duel. This was refused by 
De Mun on the ground that the challenger 
■^^•as not a gentleman. Threats were then 
made on both sides and at the occasion of their 
first meeting, which occurred on the stairway 
in the house used by the court, they both 
fired. McArthur was not hurt, but De ilun 
was killed. No charge was preferred against 
McArthiir, as he was very generally held to 
be justified in the killing. We have given an 
account in another place of the celebrated 
duel between Thomas T. Crittenden and 
Doctor Walter Fenwick. Doctor Fenwick 
was buried in the Catholic cemetery and his 
grave is still to be seen. 

The first county court under the state gov- 
ernment met in Ste. Genevieve. May 21, 1821. 
It was composed of James Pratte, James Aus- 
tin and James W. Smith. The court ap- 
pointed Thomas Oliver as clerk, and he con- 
tinued to hold the office luitil his death in 
1826. At this fir.st meeting of the court the 
county was divided into two townships, Ste. 
Genevieve and Saline ; the former was di- 
vided in 1827 and the north part was erected 
into the town.ship called Jackson. In 1832 
Beauvais township was formed from parts of 
Saline and Ste. Genevieve and named in honor 
of St. Gem Beauvais; Union township was 
ci'cated in 1834 from the western part of 
Jackson. 

A jail was erected in 1875 at a cost of 
.''^8,000 and at the same time a building for 
the use of the county clerk was erected. In 
1883 the present court house w^as built; it is 
a two-story brick building and cost $10,000. 
Ste. Genevieve county has a poor farm which 
i( bought in 1880 from Jules F. Janis. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



161 



The court of quarter sessions for Cape Gir- 
ardeau district was organized ou March 19, 
1805. The following judges were present and 
toolv part in the organization of the court: 
Chi'istopher Hays, Louis Lorimier, James 
Ballew, Robert Greene, John Byrd and Fred- 
eric Liinbaugh ; Josepli McFerron was clerk 
of the court and John Hays was sheriff. A 
grand jury was summoned which returned 
indictments for assault against William Har- 
per, and for burglary against Baptiste Manie. 
Both of these men were tried and convicted 
at the next term of the court. The court ap- 
pointed John Randall, Jeremiah Still, Will- 
iam Hand, William Ross, William Lorimier, 
and Michael Limbaugh as constables. 

At other meetings of the court licenses were 
issued to Louis Lorimier and Thomas W. 
Waters to run ferries across the ilississippi 
river. Rogers was also given a license to con- 
duct a tavern at Hubble 's Mill. The settlers 
at Tywappaty Bottom presented a petition, 
which was granted, for the opening of a road 
from that settlement to Cape Girardeau. An- 
other petition asked for a road from Hubble 's 
Mill by way of Andrew Ramsay 's to Cape Gir- 
ardeau ; this petition was signed by a number 
of settlers and was granted. Another petition 
prayed for the extension of the road from Ste. 
Genevieve to pass the upper Delaware towns 
to John Byrd's thence to William Daugh- 
ei'ty's, thence to Jeremiah Simpson's, thence 
to the edge of the Big Swamp, to meet the 
New Madrid road. The court appointed 
viewers who were ordered to make a report 
at the next term of the court. 

The court also fixed rates of taxation. 
Each house was taxed 25 cents, each head of 
cattle 6>4 cents, each slave 50 cents, and each 
one hundred dollars' worth of property 25 
cents. Besides these a poll tax of 50 cents 
was levied on each able bodied single man 

Vol. I— 11 



who shall not have taxable property to the 
amoimt of four hundred dollars. This is 
probably one of the first instances in the state 
of a tax on bachelors. 

The courts convened in Cape Girardeau. 
This was in obedience to a proclamation made 
bj' Governor Harrison on January 1, 1805. 
In that proclamation Governor Harrison sayg 
that he was not in possession of sufScient in- 
formation to determine the proper site for a 
permanent seat of justice but foimd it neces- 
sary to determine a temporary site. Accord- 
ingly, he directed that the courts of common 
pleas and general quarter sessions of the peace 
and the orphans' court be held at Cape Girar- 
deau upon the lands of Louis Lorimier. The 
proclamation further appointed the ju.stiees 
of the court of quarter sessions as commis- 
sioners to receive proposals and to make 
recommendation concerning the selection of a 
p>ermanent site. 

The commissioners thus appointed for this^ 
selection of the seat of justice received pro- 
posals from Louis Lorimier, William Daugh- 
erty and Jesse Cain. Daugherty wanted the 
site to be placed on the Ru.ssell farm, which 
he then owned, near the site of Jackson ; Cain 
wanted it established on the farm afterward 
owned by August Henecke; Lorimier pro- 
posed to give to the district four acres of land 
to be selected on any part of his grant north 
of his dwelling house, to furnish all neces- 
sary timber for the public buildings, and 
filially to give two hundred dollars and thirty 
days' labor of a man toward the erection of 
the buildings. As a further inducement he 
declared his purpose to reserve for the use 
of the inhabitants of the town, which he 
meant to lay off at Cape Girardeau, all the 
timber on a certain part of his land. The 
rather peculiar method of land description 
is seen in the manner in which Lorimier de- 



16S 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



scribes his land. In the proposition to fur- 
nish the timber for the public buildings, he 
says that it is to be taken otf his land any- 
where "between Thome's creek and the 
Shawnee Path." The land on which timber 
was to be reserved for the people of Cape 
Girardeau is described as bounded on one side 
by a line from the mouth of Thome's creek 
and the intersection of his boiuidary line to 
the Sha^mee Path, and on the other side by 
the town and the river. This proposition of 
Lorimier was accepted by the commissioners 
and the governor issued a proclamation fixing 
the permanent seat of justice at Cape Girar- 
deau. In January, 1806, the court of quarter 
sessions appointed the following commission- 
ers to lay off the town and locate the site of 
the public buildings: Anthony Hadeu, Ed- 
mund Hogan, Christopher Hays, Robert Hall 
and Benjamin Tennille. Other commission- 
ers were appointed to let the contract for 
the erection of a jail and court house. At the 
next session of court Commissioner Haden 
presented a plan of the town as laid off ; three 
acres of the pviblic square was divided into 
lots and sold. Ezekiel Abel bought lot No. 
1 for $62.00, John Scott bought lots 2 and 4 
for $77.00 and $89.00, Joseph Meterron lot 
No. 5 for $62.00, and John Risher lot No. 6 
for $69.00. The public square thus left con- 
sisted of one acre which was cleared by order 
of the court. The jail was completed in De- 
cember, 1806. It was built of oak timber and 
was 12x25 feet. It was never satisfactory as 
a jail, having been very poorly built. The 
grand jury reported in 1812 that prisoners 
did not stay in jail, but simply passed 
through it. 

The courts of common pleas and general 
quarter sessions of the peace were super- 
seded in 1813 by a court of common pleas 



with a jurisdiction equal to both the former 
courts. At the same time Cape Girardeau 
coimty was formed in the place of the Dis- 
trict of Cape Girardeau, and it was deter- 
mined to establish a new seat of justice. For 
a short period of time, in 1814, the court* 
were held in Bethel Baptist church on Hubble 
creek, about one and one-half miles south of 
Jackson. It was on the plantation of Thomas 
Bull. In 1815 the circuit courts were organ- 
ized and the court of common pleas abolished. 
The circuit court, as then con.stituted, had 
jurisdiction over both civil and criminal mat- 
ters, over all probate business, and was also 
vested with the oversight of county affairs. 
Its jurisdiction was thus about as extensive as 
that of the present circuit courts, the probate 
courts and the county courts combined. This 
court held its first session in the house which 
is now the residence of Mrs. Schmuke. This 
was in May, 1815, and Hon. Richard S. 
Thomas, judge of the southern circuit, was on 
the bench. 

The general assembly had appointed as 
commissioners, to establish the new seat of 
justice, John Davis, John Sheppard, S. G. 
Dunn, Abraham Byrd and Benjamin Shell. 
These commissioners selected as a site, a piece 
of ground then belonging to William H. Ash- 
ley on Hubble creek. They purchased fifty 
acres of this land, and the house then stand- 
ing on it was used as a court house. In 1818 
another building was erected for the purposes 
of the court. It was a frame building, large 
and rough, and cost $2,250, and was built by 
John Davis. The jail cost $1,400, and was 
destroyed by fire in 1819 ; it was immediately 
replaced by another which was erected by 
William L. Byrd. The to^\^l of Jackson 
itself was located in 1815. This was just after 
the battle at New Orleans, and the town was 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



163 



named in honor of Andrew Jackson. There 
was a sale of lots in the town, the sum of 
$900 being derived from this source. 

The divisious of Cape Girardeau county 
were first made in 1806. At that time two dis- 
tricts, the northern and the southern, were 
formed and two assessors appointed for each. 
Charles G. Ellis and Abraham Byrd were 
assessors in the northern district and John 
Abernathy and Frederick Bollinger on the 
southern. In 1807 the entire district was 
divided into five townships: Tywappity, 
German, Byrd, Cape Girardeau and St. Fran- 
cois. Tywappity was bounded on the north 
and west by the middle of the Big Swamp, on 
the south by the district line separating Cape 
Girardeau from New Madrid and on the east 
by the river. Cape Girardeau township was 
bounded on the east by the Mississippi river 
and on the south by the middle of the Big 
Swamp, and on the north and west by a line 
beginning at Joseph Waller's ferry on the 
Mississippi and running we.st and south to 
Hubble creek and dovai Hubble creek to the 
middle of the Big Swamp. Byrd township 
was boiuided on the east by Cape Girardeau 
township on the north of the district line, on 
the south by the Big Swamp, on the west by 
"Whitewater. German township extended 
from the district line on the north to the Big 
Swamp on the south and from Whitewater 
to Turkey creek. St. Francois township was 
west of Turkey creek, and included all the 
territory between the district line to the north 
and the middle of the Big Swamp on the 
south, extending as far west as there were any 
settlements. Tywappity township was thus 
practically the same as Scott county. German 
township included Bollinger and a part of 
Madison counties. St. Francois township in- 
cluded Wayne county, while Cape Girardeau 



and Byrd townships included the present 
county of Cape Girardeau. 

Two of these townships, Tywappity and 
St. Francois, were later cut off to form Scott 
and Wayne counties. In 1872 a new to\Tnship 
called Randol was formed from portions of 
Byrd and Cape Girardeau; Apple Creek was 
erected from a part of Byrd township two 
years later and at the same time Lorance was 
formed from the southern part of German 
township. No other changes were made in 
the township line until 1840, when Union was 
created from portions of Apple Creek and 
German; four years later a part of Lorance 
was taken to form a new township called 
Liberty. The whole system of townships was 
revised in 1848. At this time eleven town- 
ships were marked out; they were Lorance, 
Clubb, Union, German, Liberty, Hubbell, Cape 
Girardeau, Randol, Shawnee, Byrd and Apple 
Creek. Bollinger county was organized three 
years later and Lorance, Clubb, Union, Ger- 
man and part of Liberty townships becom- 
ing a part of Bollinger coimty. In 1852 
Whitewater township was organized, in 1856 
Welsh, and in 1872 Kinder. 

The court house had become unfit for its 
purposes by 1837 and the court in that year 
appointed Edward Criddle, Nathan Vanhorn, 
Ralph Guild and Ebenezer Flynn as the 
commissioners to superintend the erection of 
a new building; it was built of brick and 
stone and was two stories in height. In 1870 
tliis building was destroyed by fire, and in 
November of that year the court set aside 
$25,000 for the erection of a new building. 
It was a brick structure, standing on the pub- 
lic square in Jackson and was erected by Jos- 
eph Lansmann of Cape Girardeau. In 1905 it 
was determined to erect a larger building 
more suited to the use of the court ; this build- 
ing was completed in 1908 and is still in use. 



164 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



The first jail, built in 1819, was used for 
thirty years, when a stone building two stories 
in height was erected on the public square 
west of the court house; it was in use only 
ten years and was superseded by the present 
brick jail. 

At one time in Missouri the legislature cre- 
ated several courts called courts of common 
pleas; these were given limited jurisdiction 
coordinate in part with the circuit courts in 
civil matters. One of these courts was organ- 
ized at Clarkton in Dunklin county and an- 
other in Cape Girardeau, and others at differ- 
ent places in this section of the state. Of all 
of them, however, created throughout the en- 
tire state, only two of them continue to exist, 
one of them being the court of common pleas 
at Cape Girardeau. Its sittings are held in 
the common pleas court house situated on a 
bluff overlooking the Mississippi river, one of 
the most beautiful situations in the entire 
state. This building has recently been the 
cause of a rather imusual controversy. It is 
built on land once owned by Louis Lorimier 
and given by him to Cape Girardeau for court 
purposes. Whether it is the property of the 
nnmicipality of Cape Girardeau or the county 
is the question which has not yet been de- 
termined; neither coimty nor city desire to 
be vested with the o^vne^ship, for that carries 
with it the financial burden of repairs and 
maintenance. For a number of years the ex- 
pense was divided but recently there is an 
agitation to determine who is the owner of the 
property. 

Not only was Lorimier farsighted enough 
End patriotic enough to devote land in his new 
town for the purpose of building a court 
house, the terms of his will set aside certain 
tracts of land, also, to be used for school and 
also for recreation purposes, and the city of 
Cape Girardeau is fortunate in holding some 



very desirable park and school sites within its 
bounds, owing to the generosity of its founder. 

The courts of common pleas and general 
quarter sessions of the peace in New Madrid 
district were organized in March, 1805 ; the 
judges were Richard Jones "Waters, Elisha 
"Windsor, Henry Master, John Baptiste Olive, 
and JMichael Amoreaux; Joshua Humphreys 
was the clerk and George "Wilson was sheriff. 
The records of this court have been destroyed 
and there is practically no information avail- 
able concerning the work of this court. In 
1813 New Madrid district was changed into 
New Madrid county. It then had the follow- 
ing boundaries : On the north it was bounded 
by the south line of Cape Girardeau coimty ; 
this line was described as "commencing on 
the Mississippi river at the head of Tywappaty 
bottom at the upper end of the tract of land 
where James Brady now lives (near .Com- 
merce), thence west to the south side of the 
Big Swamp, thence on a direct line to the 
Shawnee village on Castor river, thence due 
west to the western boundary line of the 
Osage purchase." On the east it was bounded 
by the main channel of the Mississippi river; 
on the south by a line commencing in the river 
at Island No. 19, running thence in a direct 
line to "White river at the mouth of Little Red 
river; thence up Red river to the western 
boundary of the Osage purchase. 

In the organization of the county, Samuel 
Cooper, Thomas "Windsor, Daniel Sparks, 
John Guerthing and John Tucker were 
named as a commission to locate a permanent 
seat of justice. 

Prior to this time the courts had met at 
New Madrid and also at the house of Samuel 
Phillips in Big Prairie. The eoin-t of com- 
mon pleas as reorganized by the act changing 
the district into a coimty, was composed of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



165 



Thomas Neal, John LaValle, "William Win- 
chester, and William Gray. This court di- 
vided New ]\Iadrid county into townships. 
The territory about New Madrid and Little 
Prairie was named New Madrid township; 
Big Prairie township was established to in- 
clude the settlements about Sikeston; Tywap- 
pity township included the territory lying 
east of St. John's Bayou and extending as 
far north as the Lucas place ; Moreland town- 
ship embraced the territory between the north 
part of the Big Prairie and Cape Girardeau 
county. All the western part of the county 
of New Madrid was organized into a township 
called White River. The court also appointed 
judges of election in each of the townships. 
For New Madrid township John E. Hart, 
George Tennille and Robert McCoy were 
made judges and the house of Samuel Cooper 
was appointed as the polling place. For Big 
Prairie township the judges selected were 
Enoch Liggett, Samuel Phillips and Thomas 
Bartlett. The election was to be held at the 
house of Samuel Phillips. John Tucker, 
Drakeford Gray and John Brooks were the 
judges of the election of Tywappaty township ; 
the polling place was the house of Edward 
N. Matthews. For Moreland township the 
polling place was at the house of Charles 
Friend and the judges of election were John 
Ramsay, Hugh Johnson and Timothy Harris. 
The house of Captain Harris on Spring river 
was the polling place in White River town- 
ship and the judges were George Ruddell, 
Amos IMusick and Captain Hines. 

In March, 1814, the court, as reorganized, 
met at the house of Samuel Phillips in Big 
Prairie, and the June term was held at the 
house of Jesse Bartlett: In November, 1814, 
the commissioners for the seat of government 
selected fifty acres of land in Big Prairie 



Vv'hich was donated by Steel Ross and Moses 
Hurley. This land lay about one-fourth 
mile south of the present town of Sikeston. 
Joseph Story was the county surveyor, and 
he was ordered by the court to lay the fifty 
acres ofi: into lots. These lots were sold at 
puljlic auction in November and December of 
that year. The money thus derived was used 
for the erection of a jail which was built in 
1817. This place continued to be the county 
seat of New Madrid county until the organi- 
zation of Scott county, when the county seat 
was removed to New Madrid. On the removal 
to New Madrid a new court house and jail 
became necessary ; the old jail was sold on the 
orders of the court and the new commission, 
consisting of Mark H. Stallcup, John Shanks, 
Thomas Bartlett, Francois Le Sieur, and John 
Ruddell, were appointed. They proceeded to 
erect a court house and jail. This was the first 
court house in the county ; they were both 
frame structures. The court hoase was used 
until 1854 and the jail mitil 1845. 

This organization of New Madrid coimty 
into townships was maintained until 1822. 
In that year the area of the county having 
been very greatly reduced by the erection of 
new counties, townships were formed as fol- 
lows : Big Prairie was all that part of the 
county north of a line running in a westerly 
direction north of Rawl's old mill to the 
western boundary of the county. New Madrid 
towTiship was to consist of all of part of the 
county lying south of Big Prairie township 
and north of a line beginning on the Missis- 
sippi river and running west so as to divide 
the surveys of Roljert McCoy and Joseph 
Vandenbenden ; thence to tlie west just south 
of the plantations of Robert G. Watson and 
Aaron T. Spear on Lake St. Ann to the west- 



166 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ern boundary of the county. Le Sieur town- 
ship was to include all the remainder of the 
county. 

New Madrid coimty was made a part of 
the southern circuit at the time the territory 
was divided into judicial circuits, the presid- 
ing judge being Hon. Richard S. Thomas, of 
Jackson. The first session of court in New 
Madrid county was held in December, 1815, 
in the house of William Montgomery in Big 
Prairie. Colonel John D. Walker was sheriff 
and Greer W. Davis was circuit attorney. 
The most important case was that of the 
United States vs. William Gordon, for mur- 
der. Gordon was convicted and, afterwards, 
hanged. 

In 1831 St. Johns township was formed in 
the eastern part of the county to include the 
territory along St. Johns Bayou. In 1834 
Little Prairie to\'S'nship was organized and in 
1839 Pemiscot township ; in 1842 Woodland 
was erected from the south part of Big Prairie 
township and at the same time Big Lake 
township was formed from parts of Le Sieur 
and Little Prairie; Woodland towTiship was 
divided in 1845, a part of it being attached to 
Big Prairie and the other part to New Ma- 
drid. When Pemiscot county was organized 
in 1851 the size of New Madrid comity was 
considerably reduced and no more townships 
were organized until 1874, when Portage 
township was formed. 

The court house was destroyed by fire in 
1895 and since that time no special building 
for the use of the courts has been provided by 
the county. An effort has been made on sev- 
eral occasions to vote bonds for the erection 
of a court house and the measure has always 
been defeated. The last attempt was made in 
1911; it failed, however, through the oppo- 
sition of Lilbourn, Marston and some of the 
ether towns of the coimtv which desire a 



change of the coimty seat from New Madrid. 
At the present time the court offices are dis- 
tributed in various buildings in the city of 
New Madrid. 

We have seen that in 1815 the territorial 
legislature divided the county of New Madrid 
and established, out of the western part of 
that coimty, a new county to be known as 
Lawrence. Its boundaries were described as 
follows: "Beginning at the mouth of Little 
Red river on the line dividing said county 
from the county of Arkansas ; thence with said 
line to the river St. Francois; thence up the 
river St. Francois to the division line between 
the coimties of Cape Girardeau and New Ma- 
dried ; thence with said last mentioned line 
to the western boundary of the Osage pur- 
chase ; thence with the last mentioned line to 
the northern boimdary of the county of Ar- 
kansas ; thence with the last mentioned line to 
the place of beginning." A commission was 
appointed to fiix the seat of justice, but in 
December, 1818, an act was passed which abol- 
ished this county and created another one. 

The new county was to include the eastern 
part of Lawrence county and the southwest 
part of the county of Cape Girardeau. Its 
boimdaries were described as follows: "Be- 
ginning at the southeast corner of the county 
of Madison running southwesterly on the 
road which divides the waters of Crooked 
creek and Castor imtil it strikes the edge of 
the Big Swamp between Jenkin's creek and 
Castor; thence west to the river Castor; 
thence down the main channel of the said 
river Castor until it strikes New Madrid 
county line ; thence south so far that a due 
west line will leave the plantation of Edward 
N. ]\Iathews on the north ; thence west to the 
Osage boundary line ; thence north with the 
said line .so far that a due east line would in- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



167 



terseet the place of beginning." This county 
so bounded was called Wayne county and on 
account of its great size was often spoken of 
as the "State of WajTie. " The commission- 
ers to fix the seat of government were Over- 
ton Bettis, James Logan, Solomon Bollinger, 
"William Street and Ezekiel Ruebottom. The 
courts were held at first in the house of Ran- 
som Bettis. 

When W^ayne count^^ was organized, in 
1818, the commissioners selected as a site for 
the county seat the place where Greenville 
now is. The town was laid out in that year 
and has been the county seat ever since. For 
a number of years the courts were held in 
rooms rented for the purpose. 

The first court house was a two-story log 
building which was replaced in 1849 by a 
brick structure; this was burned in 1853 and 
the county appropriated $2,500 to rebuild it. 
Jeremiah Spencer and L. H. Flinn were ap- 
pointed to supervise its construction ; they 
completed its erection in 1856. The first jail 
in the county was built of logs and stood on 
the south corner of the public square. It was 
moved away and a brick building erected in 
1849 ; this was used until 1873, when a new 
jail costing $9,000 was built. The present 
court house was erected in 1894 at a cost of 
$7,000. 

The first clerk of the courts in Wayne 
county was Solomon R. Bowlin. Another 
clerk in the early period of the county was 
Thomas Catron, who resigned the office in 
1849 ; among his successors were Nixon Pal- 
mer and George W. Creath. One of the first 
sheriffs was Wiley Wallis. 

^Madison county was created by the territo- 
rial legislature by an act passed December 
14, 1818. At that time, as in other counties, 
the principal court was the circuit court, 



which transacted much of the business of the 
county. The first meeting of the court was 
held in the house of Theodore F. Tong on 
July 12, 1819. Judge Thomas was on the 
bench ; Charles Hutchings was clerk, but was 
afterwards succeeded by Nathaniel Cook ; Jos- 
eph Montgomery was the sheriff. A grand 
jurj' was summoned and it returned indict- 
ments against a number of persons for larceny. 
The courts for a number of years were held 
in private houses. The county court of Mad- 
ison county was organized in 1821 ; it met at 
the house of J. G. W. McCabe ; William Dillon 
and Henry Whitener were the judges of the 
court, and Nathaniel Cook was clerk. The 
county boundary on the west was Black River, 
and up to the meeting of the county court in 
this year it had been divided into three town- 
ships: St. Michaels, on the west. Liberty, on 
the north, and Castor, on the east. In this 
year two new townships. Twelve Mile and 
German, were erected. In 1822 a court house 
was ordered to be erected and was built in the 
same year. It was built of brick and is still 
standing. The jail was built in 1820, and it 
was built of logs on the present jail lot. 

From the organization of the county imtil 
the year 1822 the courts were held at private 
residences. In that year, however, the present 
brick court house was completed ; it is the old- 
est structure of its kind now in use west of 
the Mississippi river. It was well built and is 
still in a good state of preservation. A jail 
had been built before the erection of the court 
house. It stood on what is still kno\\'n as the 
jail lot. It was burned by an escaping pris- 
oner and a new building of brick was erected; 
it was also destroyed by fire and since that 
time the county has never erected a jail. 

In 1845 the township of St. Francois was 
erected; Arcadia townsliip in 1848 and Union 
township in 1850. On the organization of 



168 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Iron county in 1857, Arcadia township, Union 
and Liberty were cut off to form a part of 
Iron county. Another township, known as 
Liberty, was later erected in Madison county 
and a new one created called Hope to^\'nship. 
The county early incurred a debt of more 
than $12,000 for the erection of the Frederick- 
town aud Pilot Knob gravel road; the total 
indebtedness of the county in 1859 was $14,- 
946. In the same year its receipts were 
$4,542, and expenditures $5,931. This shows 
a gain over the year of 1822, at which time 
the total receipts were $249.42 and the ex- 
penditures were $343.72. 

Jefferson county was created December 8, 
1818. Parts of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis 
counties were cut off to form the new county. 
It was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. 
William Bates, Peter McCormack, Thomas 
Evans, Henry Metz, Jacob "Wise and William 
Noll were commissioners to select the perma- 
nent seat of justice for the coimty. They 
decided upon Herculaneum. This decision 
was made because Herculaneum was the prin- 
cipal town in the county, though at this time, 
as Ave have seen, it consisted of only a very 
few houses. The first court room was in the 
log cabin owned bj^ a negro named Abe. After 
a time court was held in the back room of a 
store occupied by Mr. Glasgow. The officers 
of the court rented offices in various parts of 
the town, sometimes holding their delibera- 
tion, as we are told, in the shade of the trees. 

The first coimty court met March 22, 1819. 
The members of the court were H. B. Boyd, 
Elias Bates and Samuel Hammond. A lot in 
Herculaneum was donated by James Brj^ant 
as a building site for the county buildings, 
and upon this lot a log jail was erected; no 
effort was made, however, to build a court 
house. After considerable agitation a vote 



was taken in August, 1832, on the proposition 
to establish the county seat at Montieello. 
When the returns of this election were finally 
canvassed in 1833 it was declared that the 
proposition had been defeated, but in Septem- 
ber, 1834, the returns were again gone over 
and the court declared that the proposition 
had carried. Commissioners were appointed 
to look after the erection of a log court house. 
Delaj-s, however, occurred and it was not imtil 
April 7, 1838, that a building site was ob- 
tained in Montieello. Hugh O'Neil and Sam- 
uel Merry donated fifty acres of land for this 
purpose. On February 8, 1839, the general 
assembly passed an act establishing the seat 
of justice at Hillsboro, the name IMonticello 
being changed because it was the name of the 
county seat of Lewis county. The court ap- 
pointed John J. Buren as commissioner to 
erect a court house. The building was of 
brick and stood near the present public school 
building and cost $4,600. The first meeting 
of the court was held in this building in 
April, 1840. A jail was built in 1841, and in 
1865 the present court house and jail were 
erected at a cost of $16,000. 

The first circuit court in Jefferson county 
was held in 1819 by Judge Nathaniel Beverly 
Tucker, who was judge of northern circuit. 

The territory now composing Washington 
county was a part of the Ste. Genevieve dis- 
trict and so remained imtil August 21, 1813, 
when Washington county was organized by 
an act of the territorial legislature. As it 
was organized it included a great amount of 
territory, being several times as large as the 
present county ; its limits were gradually re- 
duced as new counties were formed and in 
1868 its boundaries were finally fixed as they 
are now. The act creating the county ap- 
pointed Lemuel Brown, Samuel Perry, John 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



169 



Hawkins, Martin Ruggles and John Andrews 
to select the permanent seat of justice. They 
held a meeting in the fall of 1813 and selected 
Jline a Breton as a temporary meeting place 
for the court. The first judges of the court of 
common pleas were Martin Ruggles, William 
Sloan and John Stanton, who met on the first 
Monday in January, 1814, in the house of 
Benjamin Elliott, with John Brickey as clerk. 
The first sheriff was Lemuel Brown. Brown 
was a nephew of Colonel Burr and was after- 
ward killed in a duel by John Smith T. The 
first business transacted by this court was the 
appointment of an administrator for the 
estate of William Blanford ; John Perry was 
appointed. At a meeting on the 13th of Jan- 
uary, 1814, Charles Lucas was granted per- 
mission to practice law before the courts of 
the county; he" was the first lawyer admitted 
to the bar. For two years there was no court 
except the court of common pleas, but in 181.5 
the county court was organized and also- the 
circuit court. At the time of the organiza- 
tion of these new courts a log jail was erected 
on the public sc^uare in the original town of 
Potosi. This town was laid out on a tract 
of land northeast of the old town of Mine a 
Breton and donated by Moses Austin and 
John Rice Jones. Lots were sold in this new 
town and the money from their sale was used 
for the building of a court house, the total 
cost of whicli was $5,595. The citizens of 
Potosi at this time wished to make the town 
the capital of the state and the court hoiLse 
was designed to be used as a capitol building. 
The contractor for the court house was unable 
to finish the work and the upper story was 
never completed. In 1849 a contract was let 
for the building of the present structure at a 
cost of $10,000. 

The first term of the court was held at 
Mine a Breton in April, 1815, by David Bar- 



ton, judge of the northern circuit, and Rich- 
ard S. Thomas of the southern circuit. The 
lawyers who practiced before the courts of 
Washington county were, many of them, very 
able men ; among them were Israel McGready, 
Daniel Dunklin, David E. Perryman, John S. 
Brickey, Phillip Cole and Henry Shurlds. 

The county was divided into eleven to\\'n- 
ships: Belgrade, Bellevue, Breton, Concord, 
Harmony, Johnson, Kingston, Liberty, Rich- 
woods, Union and Walton. 

Potosi was made the coimty seat. It was 
originally a mining camp near Mine a Breton. 
Potosi was separated from the old village of 
Mine a Breton by a fork of Breton creek. It 
was a typical mining village in the early days 
and contained several rather pretentious 
dwellings and was rather better built and 
a more pleasant town than otlier towns of 
the district. There were three stores, two 
distilleries, a flour mill, some lead furnaces, 
one saw mill and post office. The mail was 
brought from St. Louis and also from Ste. 
Genevieve once each week. There was also 
a monthly mail from Arkansas. The most 
pretentious and commodious residence in town 
was Durham Hall, whicli we have previously 
described as the home of Moses Austin. 
Austin and his son, Samuel Perry, John Rice 
Jones, Elijah Bates, and Brickey, were 
among the principal residents of the town in 
the early times. The town grew slowly and 
was supported almost entirely by the lead 
mines. These mines in the immediate vicin- 
ity of Potosi produced in the period from 
1798 to 1818 nearly ten million pounds of 
lead. 

Perry coimty was created by the legislature 
by a law passed November 16, 1820, but the 
coimty court was not organized luitil May 21, 
1821. The meeting was held at the house of 
Bede Moore, who lived about two and one- 



170 



HISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



half miles north of the present site of Perry- 
ville. The judges of the court were: Louis 
Cissell, D. L. Caldwell and Samuel Anderson. 

The first elerk of the court was Cornelius N. 
Slattery. The county was divided into tliree 
townships: Brazeau, including the territory 
between the Cinque Homme and Apple Creek ; 
Bnis Brule, in the northeast part of the 
comity, and Cinciue Homme, which included 
the remainder of the coiuity. Robert T. 
Brown was the first sheriff, and Joseph Tucker 
was the first assessor. Commissioners were 
appointed to locate the seat of justice, and 
they selected the present site of Perryville. 
Provision for the building of a court house 
was not made until 1825. Up to this time the 
courts met in rooms which were rented for 
the purpose, though a log jail had previously 
been erected. 

The second court house was erected in 185!). 
The court appropriated $8,000 for the build- 
ing and John E. Lay ton was appointed as 
superintendent of construction. This court 
house still stands and is in a fair state of 
preservation. A jail was erected about 1825 ; 
it was built of logs. This jail was used imtil 
1839, when it was superseded by a brick build- 
ing 32 feet long and 22 feet wide, which was 
put upon the public square near the court 
house. 

Judge Thomas organized the circuit court 
of Perry coimty June 4, 1821. There seems 
to have been but little business transacted by 
this court for a number of years. The first 
ease of importance was the trial of Ezekiel 
Fenwiek for the killing of William R. Bel- 
lamy; this was March 29, 1824. The circum- 
stances imder which Bellamy was killed are 
said to have been about these : Bellamy, who 
was a constable, had attempted to attach 
goods belonging to Penwick^ but found the 
goods on a boat about to be removed across 



the Mississippi river. Fenwiek resisted the 
constable's efforts to tie the boat up. A strug- 
gle ensued between the two men and during 
an exchange of shots Bellamy was woimded 
in the arm ; the wound finally resulted in his 
death. P^'enwick escaped to Cape Girardeau 
eoiuity, but afterwards surrendered himself 
on a promise made by Judge Thomas that he 
would be admitted to bail. It was this prom- 
ise of Judge Thomas that formed one of the 
charges in the impeachment case against him. 
Fenwiek was afterward tried and acquitted. 
This was the last of the counties organized 
before the admission of the state into the 
Union. The coimty was formed after the 
organization of the state government, but 
before the proclamation of the President ad- 
mitting the state into the Union. 

After the transfer to the United States in 
1804 there was very little trouble with the 
Indians until just before the breaking out of 
the war of 1812 with Great Britain. About 
1811 the British agents in the north and west 
began to stir up the Indians and induce them 
to commit depredations on the western and 
northern frontier. This brought the Indians 
upon the inhabitants of Missouri in the dis- 
trict of St. Charles. Every effort was made 
to induce the Indians to give up their raids 
and in May, 1812, an assembly of the chiefs 
of a large number of tribes was held at St. 
Louis. Later these chiefs visited "Washington 
and endeavors were made to pacify them. 
Tecumseh's intiuenee was too strong over 
them and many of the Indians, including the 
Sacs, Foxes, lowas, Sioux and some of the 
Shawnees, decided to go on the warpath. 
Most of the Shawnees and the Delawares were 
either neutral or assisted the settlers in Mis- 
souri. This determination of the Indians 
caused a very great increase in outrages and 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



171 



disturbances in the north part of the state. 
The militia of the St. Charles district did all 
that it could to protect that part of the terri- 
tory and a large number of forts were built 
there and troops stationed to garrison them. 
These troops were, however, entirely inade- 
quate to protect all the settlers, and accord- 
ingly a call was made on the districts south 
of the river for assistance. 

In response to this call for help, companies 
were organized to take part in the Indian 
wars. One of the first of these companies was 
recruited in Cape Girardeau district by An- 
drew Ramsaj% Jr. ; this was in the spring of 
181.3. The officers were Andrew Ramsay, cap- 
tain ; James Morrison, first lieutenant; Peter 
Craig, second lieutenant ; Drakeford Gray, 
third lieutenant; "William Ramsay, ensign; 
Wilson Able, Edward Spear, John Giles, John 
Gray and James Ramsay, sergeants ; Daniel 
Harklerood, George Simpson, Willis Flanna- 
gan, Michael Ault, Alexander Scott and Ed- 
ward Tanner, corporals, and Solomon Fossett, 
trumpeter. This company took part in some 
of the Indian troubles, but soon was dis- 
banded. 

In the summer of 181-1 General Henry 
Dodge of Ste. Genevieve, collected a force of 
about three hundred, including some forty or 
fifty Shawnee Indians. The force consisted 
of a company from St. Louis imder Captain 
John Thompson ; one from Cape Girardeau 
under Captain Abraham Dauglierty ; one 
from the Boone's Lick settlement under Cap- 
tain Cooper ; one from Ste. Genevieve under 
Captain Bernard Pratte, and the Indians who 
were under command of Captain J. B. St. 
Gem. This body of troops marched into the 
St. Charles district, were joined by another 
company under Captain Edward Hempstead, 
and attacked the camp of Miamis on the south 
side of the Missouri river. The camp was 



captured and the Indians, who had scattered 
in the woods, were taken prisoners ; there were 
152 of them. These were fir.st sent to St. 
Louis and then to the site of every nation on 
the Wabash river. The company from Cape 
Girardeau and those from St. Louis then 
marched to Cape au Gris; they were then 
returned home. The officers of this Cape 
Girardeau company were: Abraham Daug- 
lierty, captain ; Medad Randol, first lieuten- 
ant ; Andrew Patterson, second lieutenant ; 
Robert Buckner, third lieutenant; Frederick 
Keep, ensign ; Michael Rodney, William Cox, 
James Thompson-, Benjamin Anthony, ser- 
geants; Jacob Yount, Henry Shaner, Hall 
Hudson, John Davis, Nero Thompson and 
John Ezell, corporals. 

The most famous of these expeditions was 
that made in 1814 by a company of mounted 
rangers raised by Peter Craig of Cape Girar- 
deau county, ilany of the members of the 
company had served luider Captain Ramsay 
in 181.3 ; they were now enlisted for a period 
of one year to serve on the frontiers of ilis- 
souri and Illinois, and they became a part of 
a regiment commanded by Colonel William 
Ru.ssell. This company did very much service 
during these Indian troubles, and fought the 
famous battle of the Sink Hole. The officers 
of this company were : Peter Craig, captain ; 
Drakeford Gray, first lieutenant; Wilson 
Able, second lieutenant; Edward Spear, third 
lieutenant; John Giles, ensign; John Rodney, 
Enos Randol, Daniel Harklerood, William 
Pugate, William Blakeney, sergeants; Abra- 
ham Letts, Perry W. Wheat, Jeremiah Able, 
WiUiam McCarty, Charles Sexton and Thomas 
S. Rodney, corporals. 

The privates of the company were : James 
Atkinson, John Able, Stephen Byrd, Jona- 
than Brickey, John Brown, Tessant Barkume, 
James Brown, William B. Bush, George P. 



172 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Bash, Peter Barrado, Francois Barraboe, 
Thomas Boyee, Burrel Castly, John Cameron, 
Charles Cardinal, William Crump, John 
Cooper, Jesse Cochran, Baptiste Cotie, Alex- 
ander Cotie, James Cowan, Hugh Dowlin, 
Ellas Davis, Ludwell Davis, John Dotson, 
Samuel Foster, Able Galland, Alexander 
Giboney, Louis Guliah, Charles Hamilton, 
Louis Heneaux, Abijah Highsmith, John 
Houk, Benjamin Hall, John Holcomb, James 
Hamilton, Frederick Hector, Thomas Hail, 
John Hodge, Stephen Jarboe, Jehoida Jeffrey, 
Andrew Johnson, Baptiste Janneaux, Jr., 
Baptiste Janneaux, Sr., William King, 
Charles Lloyd, Francis Lemmey, Joseph Lem- 
mej', John Langston. Baptiste La Croy. Bap- 
tiste Labeaux, Stephen McKenzie, James Mas- 
sey, Nathan McCarty, James Masterson, Mark 
Murphy, William JMartin, Benjamin Ogle, 
Samuel Parker, James Putney, Samuel Philip, 
John Patterson, Antoine Pelkey, John Roach, 
Tessant Reeves, Robert Robertson, Joshua 
Simpson, John Sorrells, John Shepherd, Alex- 
ander St. Scott, Joseph Sivwaris. Edward 
Stephenson, Solomou Thoi-n, Hubbard Tayon, 
John D. Upham, John Vance, Louis Vanure, 
Pascal Valle, George Wilt, John Watkins, 
Isaac Williams, John Wiggs, David Wilt, 
William Wathen, Jenkin Williams, William 
Wells, Levi W^olverton, Michael Wigo, Fred- 
erick Webber, Isaac Gregory, George Vanleer. 
After the company was organized and mus- 
tered into service it was sent to North I\Iis- 
souri and while there fought the battle of the 
Sink Hole. This was in Lincobi coimty, not 
far from Cape au Gris. The account here 
given of this battle was written by Colonel 
John Shaw of the Wisconsin Historical Soci- 
ety: "Captain Peter Craig commanded at 
Fort Howard. About noon five of the men 
went out of the fort to Byrne 's deserted house 
en the bluff, about one-fourth of a mile below 



the fort, to bring in a grindstone. In conse- 
quence of back water from the Mississippi 
they went in a canoe, and on their return were 
fired on by a party supposed to be fifty In- 
dians, who were under shelter of some brush 
that grew along at the foot of the bluff near 
Byrne's house, and about fifteen rods distant 
from the canoe at that time. Three of the 
whites were killed and one mortall.v woimded, 
and as the water was shallow the Indians ran 
out and tomahawked their victims. The peo- 
ple of the fort ran out and fired on the In- 
dians across the back water, a few inches deep, 
while another party of about twenty-five ran 
to the right of the water with a view of inter- 
cepting the Indians, who seemed to be making 
toward the bluff or high plain west and north- 
west of the fort. The party of twenty-five 
and Captain Craig's soon united. On the 
bluff was the cultivated field and deserted 
residence of Benjamin Allen. The field was 
about forty rods across, beyond which was 
pretty thick timber. Here the Indians made a 
stand and here the fight began. Both parties 
fired, and as the fight waxed warm the In- 
dians slowly retired as the whites advanced. 
After the fight had been going on perhaps 
some ten minutes the whites were reinforced 
by Captain David Musick, of Cape au Gris, 
with about twenty men. He had been on a 
scout toward the head of Cuiver river and had 
returned to within about one-half a mile of 
the fort and about one and a half miles of the 
scene of the conflict, and had .stopped with his 
men to graze their horses when, hearing the 
firing, they instantly remounted and clashed 
toward the place of battle. Dismoimting in 
the edge of the timber on the bluff, and hitch- 
ing their horses, they rushed through a part 
of the Indian line, and shortly after the enemy 
fled, a part bearing to the right of the sink 
hole toward Bob's creek, but the most of them 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



173 



taking refuge in the sink hole, which was 
close by where the main fighting had taken 
place. About the time the Indians were re- 
treating, Captain Craig exposed himself about 
four feet beyond his tree and was shot through 
the body and fell dead. James Putney was 
killed before Captain Craig, and perhaps one 
or two others. Before the Indians retired to 
the sink hole the fighting had become ani- 
mated ; the loading was done quickly and shots 
rapidly exchanged, and when one of our party 
was killed or wounded it was announced 
aloud. The sink hole was about sixty feet in 
length, and from twelve to fifteen feet in 
width, and ten or twelve feet deep. Near the 
bottom, on the southeast side, was a shelving 
rock under which perhaps some fifty or sixty 
persons might have sheltered themselves. At 
the northeast end of the sink hole the descent 
was quite gradual, the other end much more 
abrupt, and the southeast side almost per- 
pendicular, and the other side about like the 
steep roof of a house. 

"On the southeast side the Indians, as a 
farther protection in case the whites should 
rush up, dug under the shelving rock with 
their knives. On the sides and in the bottom 
of the sink hole were some bushes, which also 
served as something of a screen for the In- 
dians. Captain JMusick and his men took pavt 
on the northeast side of the sink hole, and 
others occupied other positions surroimding 
the enemy. As the trees approached close to 
tlie sink hole, these served in part to protect 
our party. Finding we could not get a good 
opportimity to dislodge the enemy, as they 
were best protected, those of our men who had 
families at the fort gradually went there, not 
knowing but a large body of Indians might 
seize the favorable occasion to attack the fort 
while the men were mostly away engaged in 
the exciting contest. The Indians in the sink 



hole had a drum made of a skin stretched over 
the section of a hollow tree, on which they 
beat quite constantly, and some Indian would 
shake a rattle called She-shuqui, probably a 
dried bladder with pebbles within, and even 
for a moment would venture to thrust his 
head in view, with his hand elevated, shaking 
his rattle and calling out "peash! peash!" 
which was imderstood to be a sort of defiance, 
or as Blackhawk, who was one of the party 
says in his account of that affair, a kind of 
bravado to come and fight them in the sink 
hole. When the Indians would creep up and 
shoot over the rim of the sink hole they would 
instantly disappear, and while they sometimes 
fired effectual shots they in turn became occa- 
sionally the victims. Prom about 1 to 4 
o'clock p. m. the firmg was incessant, our men 
generally reserving their fire till an Indian 
would show his head, and all of us were study- 
ing how we could more effectually attack and 
dislodge the enemy. At length Lieutenant 
Spears suggested that a pair of cart wheels, 
axle and tongue, which were seen at Allen's 
place, be obtained, and a moving battery con- 
structed. The idea was entertained favorably 
and an hour or more was consumed in its 
construction. Some oak floor puncheons from 
seven to eight feet in length were made fast 
to an axle in an upright position and port 
holes made through them. Finally the battery 
was ready for trial and was sufficiently large 
to protect some half a dozen or more men. 
It was moved forward slowly and seemed to 
attract the particular attention of the In- 
dians, who had evidently heard the knocking 
and pounding connected with its manufac- 
ture, and who now frequently popped up their 
lieads to make momentary discoveries, and it 
was at length moved up to within less than 
ten paces of the brink of the sink hole on the 
southeast side. The upright plank did not 



174 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



reach to the ground within some eighteen 
inches, the men calculating to shoot beneath 
the lower end at the Indians, but the latter 
from their position had decided advantage of 
this neglected aperture, for the Indians, shoot- 
ing beneath the battery at an upward angle, 
would get shots at the whites before the latter 
could see them. The Indians also watched 
the port holes and directed some of their shots 
at them. Lieutenant Spear was shot dead 
through the head, and his death was much 
lamented, as he had proved himself an in- 
trepid officer. John Patterson was wounded 
in tlie thi<,'li. and some others were also 
wounded behind the battery. Having failed 
in its design, the battery was abandoned after 
sun-down. Our hope all along had been that 
the Indians would emerge from their covert 
and attempt to retreat to where we supposed 
their canoes were left, some three or four miles 
distant, in which case we were firmly deter- 
mined to rush upon them and endeavor to cut 
them off totally. The men generally evinced 
the greatest bravery during the whole engage- 
ment. 

' ' Night was now coming on and the reports 
of a half a dozen guns in the direction of the 
fort by a few Indians, who rushed out of the 
woods skirting Bob's creek not more than 
forty rods from the north end of the fort, was 
heard. This movement on the part of the few 
Indians who had escaped when the others took 
refuge in the sink hole was evidently designed 
to divert the attention of the whites and alarm 
them for the safety of the fort, and thus 
effectually relieve the Indians in the sink hole. 
This was the result, for Captain IMusick and 
men retired to the fort, carrying the dead and 



wounded, and made every preparation to re- 
pel a night attack. 

"The men at the fort were mostly up all 
night, ready for resistance if necessary. There 
was no physician at the fort and much effort 
was made to set some broken bones. There 
was a well in the fort, and provisions and 
ammunition to sustain a pretty formidable 
attack. The women were greatly alarmed, 
pressing their infants to their breasts, fearing 
they might not be permitted to behold another 
morning's light, but the night passed away 
without seeing or hearing an Indian. The 
next morning a party went to the sink hole 
and found the Indians gone. They had car- 
ried off all their dead and wounded except 
five dead bodies left on the northwest side. 
From all signs it appeared some thirty of 
them -were killed or woimded. Lieutenant 
Gray reported eight of our party killed, one 
missing and five wounded. The dead were 
buried near the fort, and a man sent to St. 
Charles for medical assistance. Lieutenant 
Gray assumed command." 

Those who were killed in this battle were: 
Captain Craig, Lieutenant Spear, Alexander 
Giboney, James Putney, Antoine Pelkej', 
Hubbard Tayon and Francois Lemmey. John 
Patterson, Benjamin Hale and Abraham Letts 
were woimded. The company was soon mus- 
tered out and the men returned to their homes. 

In 1816 a regiment was formed in Cape 
Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles and 
St. Louis. John Shaw was the colonel and 
Levi Roberts was the major. They took no 
part in the hostilities as the war ended be- 
fore thev reached their destination in Illinois. 



CHAPTER XII 

PERIOD PROM 1804 TO 1821 

Population — Character of Immigrants — Settlements in Various Parts of the Section 
— Early Settlers — Industries — Farming — Mining — MerchaJtoising — Prevailing 
High Prices — Manufacturing — Hunting — Transportation — Steamboats — Social 
Life — Lawlessness — Gambling — Dueling — Some Famous Dtoels — Hospitality — 

POSTOPPICES AND RaTES OF POSTAGE NEWSPAPERS SCHOOLS LIBRARIES — DrESS. 



We have followed the changes in the gov- 
ernment of Missouri under the United States, 
from the purchase in 1803 to the time when 
the territorial assembly petitioned Congress 
for the organization of a state government. 
We have seen that Louisiana was first made 
a district and attached to the territory of 
Indiana; that later it was organized as a 
territory of the first class, and kno-wn as the 
Territory of Louisiana ; that in 1812 it was 
organized as a territory of the second class 
under the title of the Territory of IMissouri ; 
that in 1816 it became a territory of the third 
or highest class. We have further seen the 
organization of a government, the various gov- 
ernors who held executive authority in the ter- 
ritoiy; we have seen the formation of the gen- 
eral assembly and the gradual growth of self 
government among the people of the territory. 
We have now to recount the growth in popula- 
tion of the territory after its transfer to the 
United States. 

At that time the total population of Upper 
Louisiana, including the settlements in 
Arkansas, was not more than 10,000 ; at the 
time we have now reached, 1818. it is prob- 



able that there were, in Missouri alone, nearly 
40.000 people. This was a remarkable growth. 
It is not strange, however, that the population 
increased very rapidly. There was a great 
movement of population from east to west 
and Missouri was situated on the line of the 
principal part of this early movement. We 
maj' not forget the great part played in west- 
ern immigration by the Ohio river. It offefed 
a safe and easy road from east to west, and 
those who used this highway almost invariably 
came to Missouri. Not all of them remained 
within the borders of the state, but many of 
them did so. for not only was Missouri in the 
main highway of east-to-west travel, but it 
offered imusual attractions to settlers. Its 
soil, its climate, its timber, its minerals all 
combined to draw inhabitants. The fact that 
it had become a part of the United States, 
that restrictions on religion and on trade had 
been removed, were powerful inducements to 
immigrants. 

These Americans who came to Missouri in 
this period were, for the most part, farmers. 
They came to cultivate the soil. Accordingly, 
we find them scattered over the state and 



175 



176 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



opening up lauds. The first settler in an.y 
community set himself down in tlie midst of 
the woods, cleared away a little space for his 
farm, and erected a rude log house. He was 
most probably miles and miles away from the 
nearest neighbor. This isolation, however, 
did not affect him very much. Tlie very fact 
that he had made his way into a new country 
and faced the conditions of pioneer life was 
sufficient evidence that he was not to be 
daunted by the fact that neighbors were few. 
He was not long allowed, however, to dwell 
alone. Other people came, more of the forest 
was cleared away, and other log houses were 
erected. In a little while there w'as a settle- 
ment. The settlers, however, were not crowded 
into to^\'ns. they were scattered on their farms. 
There was something, however, of a com- 
miuiit.y life. There were some attempts made 
to hold schools in the settlements, in some of 
them church houses were erected. Many of the 
settlements were made by persons previously 
aeq-uainted ; in some eases families came and 
opened up new lands. "Where this was not 
true, it was not long until acquaintance was 
formed. The families thus living in the same 
communities intermarried and there came 
to be something of a solidarity and unity 
about the life of the community. The trans- 
formation was little less than marvelous: 
where all had been forest, and wild life had 
reigned supreme, there came to be cultivated 
fields and houses and even villages. This 
process went on all over Southeast jMissouri. 

These immigrants were almost all of them 
Americans. They came from Ohio, Kentucky, 
Tennessee. Virginia, and other states. They 
were moved by various motives. Some of 
them were attracted by the cheapness of the 
lands, others felt that the states in which 
they lived were becoming overcrowded, many 
of them had that spirit that moves people out 



on the frontier. They did not like to live in 
commimities where neighbors were near to 
them. Whatever it was that brought them, 
they came, and in large and increasing num- 
bers. 

At the time of the transfer to the United 
States there were only a few settlements out- 
side of the to^^•ns of Ste. Genevieve, Cape 
Girardeau and New Madrid. There were a 
few settlers in Jefferson, Perry, "Wayne, Bol- 
linger, Scott, ]\Iississippi and Pemiscot coun- 
ties, but the great numbers of population were 
in the towns or immediately adjoining them. 
The growth of population under the United 
States was not confined to the country ; the 
towns grew rapidly in population. Those that 
were already established had, of course, the 
advantage ; but other towns sprung up also. 

In 1803 New Madrid district, including 
Little Prairie and Arkansas, contained 1,350 
people, two-thirds of whom were Americans 
and one-third were French. Cape Girardeaw 
had 1,470 white population, besides a few 
slaves. All of the white population, except 
a few French families, were Americans. In 
Ste. Genevieve there were 2,350 whites, 520 
slaves, and more than one-half the population 
was American. In 1814 a census was taken of 
the white male population and the figures 
here given are those of this census: New 
T\Iadrid had 1,548, Cape Girardeau 2,062, Ste. 
Genevieve 1.701, and "Washington county had 
1,010. It is probable that the entire adult 
population in each ease was about twice the 
figures here given. 

By the year 1820 one or more settlements 
had been made within the limits of most of 
the counties in southeast IMissouri. Several 
of these counties, however, had not yet been 
created. There were in existence only Ste. 
Genevieve, "Washington, "Wayne, Jefferson, 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



177 



Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, and Madison. 
The territory now in the limits of the other 
counties in the southeast, at that time, formed 
a part of one or the other of these counties. 
When the counties were created, during the 
organization of the government of the terri- 
tory of Louisiana, they extended an unlmown 
distance to the west. The western boimdary 
was not determined and so the counties that 
bordered on the river — Ste. Genevieve, Cape 
Girardeau and New Madrid — included vast 
stretches of territory to the west. It was out 
of this western territory that most of the new 
counties were created. After the treaty with 
the Osage Indians, however, which established 
them at first in western ilissouri, counties ex- 
tended to the western boundary of the Osage 
purchase. 

The principal settlements at this time in the 
various counties were these : 

In Ste. Genevieve county there were settle- 
ments at Ste. Genevieve and New Bourbon, 
and there was also a settlement on the Saline 
creek, which was called for a long time New 
Tennessee. 

In St. Francois county the principal settle- 
ments were Alleys Mines, the Murphy settle- 
ment, and the Cook settlement. 

In Jefferson county there were a number of 
settlements. Among these were settlements 
on the Joachim, on Big river, and Hercula- 
neum on the ^Missississippi river. This settle- 
ment at liereulaneum was noted on account 
of its manufacture of shot. Very early in the 
period of Missouri's territorial history the 
manufacture of shot was begim at this place. 
The high bluffs just north of the town were 
used for this purpose. The melted lead was 
dropped from the tops of the bluffs thus doing 
away with the necessity of a shot tower. The 
manufacture was so profitable that there were 



three different establishments for making shot. 

In 1818 Peek visited Herculaneum, which 
he described as "a river town, a landing and 
a place of some importance." It was situated 
on the alluvial flat of the Joachim. This flat 
was very narrow, and was bounded on each 
end by perpendicular cliff's, rising two him- 
dred feet high. It was these cliffs which were 
used in the manufacture of shot, in place of a 
shot tower. At that date there were four 
stores and about thirty dwelling houses in the 
town. On the Plattin, a short distance below 
the Joachim, there were water mills and dis- 
tilleries. Herculaneum was, even then, the 
depot for the lead trade of the interior. 

In Perry county there were a number of 
settlements, the chief of these were in the Bois 
Brule bottom, on the Barrens near Perryville, 
and on Apple creek near the line between 
Cape Girardeau and Perry comities. 

The most flourishing of these settlements 
were those found in the bottoms. The soil was 
very rich there and attracted many settlers. 
The Barrens, as the laud about the present site 
of Perryville was then called, was the place 
where Bishop DuBourg had founded the first 
Catholic seminary in Louisiana. This semi- 
naty began its operations just before the close 
of this territorial period. 

The settlements in Madison county were 
those on Saline creek, and in the south part 
of the county ; the first being St. Michaels. 
Owing to great damage caused by flood the 
settlers on the original site of St. Michaels re- 
moved the town about one and a half miles 
west and re-established it there. After the 
removal the town was renamed Frederick- 
town, being so called in honor of Colonel 
George Frederick Bollinger, one of the pio- 
neers in Bollinger county. This town of 
Fredericlvtown grew very rapidly during this 
period, owing to activity in the operations of 



178 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Mine LaMotte, which is situated not far from 
FrederiektowTi. 

In Iron county there were settlements made 
in Bellevue valley, and in 1805 Ephraim Stomt 
settled near the present site of Arcadia. A 
little later John Short took up his residence 
close to where the town of Pilot Ivnob now 
stands. 

There were other settlements within the 
hmits of the county, but these were the prin- 
cipal ones. 

In Cape Girardeau county the principal 
settlements were at Cape Girardeau and in 
the immediate vicinity ; near Jackson on 
Byrd's creek; at Gordonville ; on Randol's 
creek, and on Indian creek. The town of 
Jackson was founded during this period and 
so named in honor of President Andrew Jack- 
son. In 1815 Jackson was made the county 
seat of Cape Girardeau county. 

The settlements in Bollinger county were 
jjrincipally along the "Whitewater river, on 
Crooked creek, and near the present towTis of 
Lutesville and Glen Allen. The settlements 
along "Whitewater river were those made by 
Colonel Bollinger and his friends. Jolm 
Lorance began a settlement on Crooked creek 
in 1805; about that same date Daniel Hahn 
settled on the creek afterward called Halm's 
creek, named for him, about one-half mile 
west of Lutesville. Casper Schell and Peter 
Baker lived in the same neighborhood. Henry 
Baker and John Deck were others who lived 
in this part of the county. The settlement at 
Glen Allen was made by families from North 
Carolina; some of these were George and 
Jacob Nifong, Jacob Hinkle and Jacob Clod- 
felter. 

In Wayne county the first settlement seems 
to have been made about 1802, by settlers 
from Virginia. Among them were Joseph 
Parrish, Thomas Ring-, David, Charles and 



Robert A. Logan. The latter had lived in 
Kentucky. Some of these settled in the 
neighborhood of the village of Patterson and 
others on the St. Francois river. Some of the 
other early settlers were Isaac E. Kelly, Till- 
man Smith, James Caldwell and Francois 
Clark. Besides these there were Elijah Mat- 
thews, a man named Alston from North Caro- 
lina ; they lived on Otter creek. They became 
involved in a difficulty and Alston was killed. 
Elijah Ranson and Overton Beltis were others 
who settled in the same neighborhood. This 
was near Greenville. 

The principal settlements in New Madrid 
county were those at New Madrid and Point 
Pleasant. Besides these two settlements there 
was a small settlement at Portageville. and, 
as we have previously said, a number of per- 
sons lived along St. John's bayou and in other 
parts of the coimty. 

In Pemiscot coimty the principal settlement 
was at Little Prairie, though there were others 
scattered over the comity. The settlement at 
Little Prairie was made in 1794 by Francois 
Le Sieur. 

Some of the early settlers were Jean Bap- 
tiste Barsaloux, George and Jolm Ruddell, 
Joseph Payne, Louis Auvin, Charles Guibault 
pud Peter Noblesse. In 1799 there were 78 
people in the settlement and 103 in 1803. I^ 
was a prosperous village up to the time of the 
earthquake in 1812, when it was almost en- 
tirely destroyed. About 1810 Colonel John 
Hardeman "Walker came to Little Prairie and 
was one of the few settlers who remained 
after the time of the earthquake. He was 
sheriff of the county and later one of the 
judges of the coimty court. He was the most 
prominent and influential citizen of the 
county for many years. The other settlements 
of which we have spoken as being in existence 
in the county were merely collections of two 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



179 



or three families. One of these was at Gayoso 
and another on Little river, and one not a 
great way from Big lake. 

In Scott county the first settlement seems 
to have been made near Sikeston by Edward 
Robertson and his son-in-law, Moses Hurley. 
Robertson was a merchant and land speculator 
and became wealthy through his various oper- 
ations. He probably came to the coimty about 
1790. In 1796 Captain Charles Friend from 
Virginia settled near Benton. He brought 
with him a large family of sons. In 1811 
John Ramsay came from Cape Girardeau and 
settled on what is now the county poor farm. 

Joseph Hunter, who in 1805 located in New 
Madrid, removed about a year later to Big 
f rairie and located near Sikeston. Hunter 
was a Scotchman and was a very influential 
man in the territory. He acquired consider- 
able wealth by trading and land speculation, 
and was appointed by President Madison as 
a member of the council of the territory. 

Thomas W. Waters from South Carolina 
was the first settler on the site of Commerce. 
About 1803 he established a trading post and 
store there in partnership with Robert Hall ; 
the firm also operated a ferry across the Miss- 
issippi. Tiwappity bottom, between Com- 
merce and Bird's Point, was early settled. 
Some of the men who came were James Brady, 
James Curran, Charles Findlay, Edmund 
Hogan, Thomas, John and James Welbourn. 

The first settlement in Mississippi county 
was made in 1800 by one John Johnson, who 
secured a grant of land and located on it near 
Bird's Point. In 1801 a settlement on what 
is now called ilatthews' Pi-airie was made. 
This prairie was first called St. Charles but 
was changed in name in honor of Edward 
jNIatthews, who made the first settlement there. 
Others who came here within a few years 
were Charles Gray, Joseph Smith. John Wea- 



ver, George Becker and Absalom McElmurry. 
Abraham Bird bought the land which was first 
granted to Johnson, about 1805; Bird's Point 
was named for him. He remained there until 
1815, when he sold the homestead to his son, 
John, and moved to Louisiana. 

A settlement was made between Norfolk and 
Wolf Island in 1812 by Newman Beckwith of 
Virginia. In 1813 William Rash settled on 
Rush's Ridge. In 1802 James Lucas settled 
at the place afterwards called Lucas' Bend. 
The settlement at Norfolk was made in 1800 
by John, Andrew and James Ramsay from 
Cape Girardeau. The first settlers on Wolf 
Island were John Gray, Drakeford Gray and 
Thomas Phillips, while William D. Bush was 
a pioneer in Long Prairie. 

In 1819 the first settlement was made in 
Butler coimty. This was on Cane creek. The 
settlement was located by Solomon Kittrel, 
who was a Kentuckian, and took up a large 
tract of land and also operated a store, a dis- 
tillery and a tan yard. Kittrel lived to be 
very old, dying in 1872. Other settlers on 
Cane creek were Thomas Scott and JIalachi 
Hudspeth. Some of the other pioneers in the 
county were Daniel Epps, Martin Sandlin, 
Samuel Hillis, the Whittingtons, Samuel 
Poke, James Bramum and the Applebys and 
Vandovers. 

The first .settlement in Washington coimty 
was made at Potosi. This was near Mine a 
Breton. The settlers were attracted on ac- 
count of the mines and the mine itself was 
opened in 1787. There were other settlements 
in the county but nearly all of them were 
grouped around the mines. When Wa.shington 
county was separated from Ste. Genevieve in 
1816. Potosi was made the seat of government 
for the county. 

The fir.st settlement in Reynolds coimty was 
made in 1812 by Henry Fry, who came from 



180 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Kentuckj' and settled on the middle fork 
of Black river. Some of the other early set- 
tlers were the families of Henrj', Logan and 
Hyatt. The territory embraced in the coimty 
was first a part of Ripley coimty, but was later 
attached to Washington. 

Zimri Carter made a settlement on Current 
river in 1820 ; this was not far from the pres- 
ent town of Van Buren. Other families, the 
Chiltons, Colemans and others, settled in the 
same vicinity at a somewhat later date. These 
were the beginnings of settlements in Carter 
coimty, which was named for Zimri Carter. 

The first settlement in Ripley comity was 
made about 1819 on Current river. The set- 
tlers of that date were George Lee, William 
Merrill, Joseph Hall, Willis Dudley and Ab- 
ner Ponder. William Little and James Pul- 
liam settled about the same date on La 
Fourche de Main. 

According to this account we find that set- 
tlements had been made before the admission 
of the state, in all the counties in Southeast 
Missouri, except Stoddard and Dimklin. 
Stoddard coimty was settled in 1823, but no 
settlement was made in Dunklin coimty until 
about 1835. Owing to its location this latter 
county was very difficult of access. It was. 
therefore, not settled as soon as the other 
counties in the section. Of course it will be 
remembered that not all of these coimties were 
in existence M^hen the state was admitted. 
Most of them were organized after that time. 
The territory formed a part of some one or 
other of the existing counties. 

The principal industry in this period, as in 
the one preceding it, was agriculture. A large 
part of the population was engaged in farm- 
ing. It is quite evident that the methods used 
were very primitive and the crops corre- 



spondingly small. The timber that grew upon 
the land selected was cut down, burned or 
otherwise disposed of in the easiest way pos- 
sible, and the land thus cleared was farmed 
in a rude, inefficient way. In spite of these 
handicaps, however, the crops obtained were 
better than we might expect, owing to the fact 
the the land M^as exceedingly rich. Corn, 
wheat, oats, formed perhaps the principal 
grain crops that were grown. Nearly all farm- 
ers were also stock raisers on a limited scale. 
They were induced to grow cattle and horses 
partly on account of the necessity of their use 
and partly because it was possible to raise 
stock at comparatively little expense. It was 
easy to raise both cattle and hogs and prepare 
them in a way for market, with but very little 
food other than they obtained in the woods. 
The vast forests offered the very best range 
for stock, and it was not unusual for cattle 
to stay out through the .entire year. Some of 
them became almost wild. Such a circum- 
stance, of course, made it easy for persons so 
disposed to kill stock which did not belong to 
them. So great was this abuse that the terri- 
torial assembly passed a law providing that 
any person who should kill any domestic ani- 
mal in the woods should report the matter to 
the justice of the peace within three days, and 
should bring to the justice the head of the 
animal slain. This was done in order to 
identify the animal by any marks which might 
be upon the head. 

The produce of the soil was very largeh' 
used by those who grew it. Some part of it 
was available for export and the towns in the 
territory derived their food supplies from the 
surrounding coimtry, but the greater part of 
all that was grown was used on the farms 
where it was produced. A number of small 
mills were erected and operated at convenient 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



181 



places, and to these the farmers carried their 
grain and received from the mill the flour or 
meal ground from their owti grain. 

If farming was the most important of the 
industries in Southeast Missouri during this 
period of its history, mining was second in 
importance. Large numbers of families de- 
pended in whole or in part lipon mining for 
support. Austin, who was given a great tract 



•5) 




famous. They were worked by the French 
and were one of the prime motives for French 
exploration and settlement. 

The region to which the early French seek- 
ers after mineral wealth gave most attention 
lies between the head waters of the St. Fran- 
cois and the Missississippi and between the 
Maramec on the north and Apple creek. So 
full of mineral wealth was this district that it 
was early called the mineral district of Louis- 








Happy Missouri Corn Grower 



of land by the Spanish for the erection of the 
first reverbatory furnace, saj's that it was the 
custom for the poor to resort to the mines 
after harvest, and to spend several months 
engaged in labor in these mines. The rich 
families sent their slaves about the same time, 
so that the greater part of the mining was 
done from August to December. This offered 
to those who farmed an opportunity, which 
they were not slow to use, to spend the months 
not needed upon the farms in labor at the 
mines. 

The mines of the southeast had long been 



iana. Within its 3,000 square miles are found 
many minerals. Lead, iron and zinc are those 
of most importance, but besides these are cop- 
per, manganese, salt, antimony, cobalt, plinn- 
bago and some others. All the early French 
explorers mention the richness of the lead 
mines. These deposits of lead were known 
and worked even by the Indians. The French 
began to take out lead in this district proba- 
bly before the year 1700. 

It is impossible to fix, with certainty, either 
the date when lead was first mined or the men 
who opened this first mine. Schoolcraft, 



182 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



copied by Rozier, is of the opinion that Mine 
LaMotte was the earliest mine and was dis- 
covered by one LaMotte, a gentleman in the 
company of Renault. This was probably in 
the year 1720 or 21. Houck, however, believes 
that this mine was probably opened much 
earlier than this and that it was named for 
Cadillac De La Mothe, governor of Louisiana, 
who seems to have visited the mine in 1714. 
We may be sure of this, that early in the 
eighteenth century — perhaps before its begin- 
ning — the French overran this country in 
searoli for gold and silver. They failed to find 
the precious metals in any large quantities, 
but did find great quantities of lead in all the 
region about the ]\Iaramec and the St. Fran- 
cois. The first mining in the district was 
probably done on the Maramec under the 
direction of Governor Loehan ; and Mine La 
Motte near the present site of Fredericktown, 
if not the first was one of the first and most 
important of these mines. 

In 1719, Philip Francois Renault left 
France with a well organized expedition for 
the mineral district of Louisiana. He brought 
with him supplies and material and 200 skilled 
miners. The expedition stopped on the way 
at San Domingo, where 500 slaves were pur- 
chased for work in the mines. These slaves 
were the first brought to Missouri. Renault 
came with his expedition to Kaskaskia and in 
1720 built a village called St. Phillip, near 
Fort Chartres in Illinois. He proceeded with 
his search for mines, and discovered and 
opened a lead mine near Potosi in Washington 
county. This mine was called, after him. 
Mine a Renault. 

Renault had been commissioned by the 
Royal Company of the Indies, which at this 
time held control of Louisiana. In 1723 the 
authorities at Kaskaskia granted him a terri- 
tory six leagues by one and one-half leagues 



on the Maramec river, and two leagues at 
JMine LaMotte. From this time lantil his re- 
turn to France in 1742 Renault was actively 
engaged in working these mines. The lead 
from them was carried first to Fort Chartres 
and later to Ste. Genevieve and then shipped 
by boat to New Orleans and to France. Large 
quantities of ore were taken out of all these 
mines during this period. They were very 
profitable. A road was constructed from the 
river to the mines and it was in connection 
with the carrying of this lead and trade with 
miners that the towTi of Ste. Genevieve was 
foimded. It was located at the river end of 
this road. This was the first road opened, not 
only in Southeast Missouri, but in the entire 
state, and is still in use. 

When Renault returned to France in 1742 
he seems to have abandoned his interest in the 
mines to others, and if his family or heirs ever 
received any part of his interests in the two 
great tracts of valuable mining property 
which were granted him, the fact is not of 
record. A great many lawj'ers have investi- 
gated the question of the ownership of the 
Renault claims, but the claims have never 
been successfully prosecuted by any member 
of Renault's family. 

In 1773 Francois Azar or Breton, while 
engaged in hunting, foimd lead ore lying on 
the ground near Potosi. He opened a mine 
at this place, which was caUed after him Mine 
a Breton. It became a celebrated mining field 
and attracted miners from all parts of the 
state. Breton, who was a native of France, 
had been a soldier in his youth and had served 
luider IMarshal Saxe. He was present, also, 
with the Indians who defeated Braddock in 
Virginia. He came to Louisiana as a miner 
and hiuiter and discovered this mine quite by 
accident. He lived to be 111 years old and 
for many years before his death resided two 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



183 



miles above Ste. Genevieve. He died in 1821. 
At the time of his discovery he received a 
grant of four arpens. This was a very small 
recompense for the service he had rendered 
in the discovery of the mine. 

In 1779 Moses Austin, an American miner, 
agreed to erect a smelter near this mine of 
Breton, and on consideration of doing so he 
was granted a tract to contain 7,000 arpens, 
including one-third of the original mine. In 
performance of his agreement he erected here 
the first reverberatory furnace west of the 
river. This furnace, on account of its superior 
qualities, soon superseded all others. In 1797, 
when it was erected, there were twenty 
French furnaces in the district. In 1802 the 
Austin furnace was the only one in operation. 
In 1804 Austin made to the United States 
government the first report of the lead min- 
ing industry in Missouri. 

It seems certain, then, that Mine LaMotte, 
Mine a Renault and Mine a Breton were the 
great centers of the lead industry in early 
days, but there were other mines also in oper- 
ation ; many small ones were opened ; settle- 
ments sprung up aroimd them. Some of these 
mines are still in successful operation. Some 
of the settlements have become flourishing 
towns, others have entirely disappeared. The 
whole lead region of southeast Missouri has 
many traces of the activity of the early 
French miners. 

Some of the famous lead mines which were 
operated during this period in addition to 
those already described are here mentioned : 

]\line a Platte or Doggett mine was discov- 
ered in 1799, and was granted to DeLassus 
at one time. It was on Plattin creek in what 
is now St. Francois county. Mine a Gerboree, 
situated on the St. Francois river near De 
Lassus, is said to have been operated by 



Renault in 1745. The Hazel Run lead dis- 
trict was discovered about 1810; this district 
is in the northern part of St. Francois county. 
The mines now owned and operated by the 
St. Joe Lead company of Bonne Terre were 
also worked during this period. They seem 
to have been granted in 1800, together with 
800 arpens of land, to John B. Pratte. This 
land was surveyed in the same year by Antoine 
Soulard, the surveyor general of Upper 
Louisiana. 

These lead mines, together with some others, 
were all in operation in the period which we 
are now considering. Their output was con- 
siderable, when we remember the conditions 
under which they were worked. It was all 
surface mining and the greater part of the 
labor was performed by hand. While the 
output was small, measured by the standards 
of the present, it still meant a great deal to 
the people of Missouri. "While the greatest 
mining activity was, of course, in the lead 
regions, there began to be iron smeltered be- 
fore the year 1820. Some time prior to this 
date Paul De Guire and his partner, Asha- 
branner, built a furnace on the Frederick- 
town road near the Shut-In, in Iron county. 
On the creek near this smelter they set up 
a forge, and being thus equipped they pro- 
ceeded to work the iron ore. This ore was 
taken from mines in the vicinity, there being 
considerable deposit of iron in this county, 
and it was treated at this smelter. Their 
method of reducing the ore was first to roast 
it ; it was then beaten by hammers into a 
powder, which was then heated in the forge. 
This forge, situated as it was on the bank of 
the creek, had a blower attached, which was 
worked by water power. When the powdered 
ore had been fused in the forge, the mass was 
then placed under a heavy hammer, also 



184 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



operated bj- water po^\-er, aud worked. This 
treatment secured iron of a fair grade in 
small quantities. 

The great handicap to mining, both lead 
and iron, was the absence of sufficient capital 
to provide proper equipment. It is quite cer- 
tain that even vast sums of capital could not 
have provided equipment such as in use today 
in mines, but it could have made a very great 
improvement in the methods of those days. 
It was, however, impossible to secure capital 
sufficient for the purpose. It was a new coun- 
try and like all new countries, suffered from 
a scarcity of money. It was only by the slow 
process of growth and development that capi- 
tal could be produced in sufficient quantities 
to operate the mines in any adequate or effi- 
cient way. We are inclined to smile at the 
modest efforts and poor facilities of the early 
miners, but we should not forget that their 
limited product was contributing to the for- 
mation of that store of wealth which makes 
possible the improved methods and splendid 
machiner3' of todaj'. 

The early French mining was even more 
wasteful and less carefully organized than 
that of which we have spoken. There were a 
great many shallow diggings in many parts 
of the mineral district in which ore was taken 
out, but the only furnace used in the early 
times was an "Ash" furnace, that could not 
have saved more than sixty per cent of the 
lead, the rest being lost in the slack. 

When Louisiana was ceded to the United 
States, in 1803, the government reserved to it- 
self all mines and salt springs in the entire 
territory. This was in accordance with the 
usual policy in such cases. It was the pur- 
pose to lease these mines and springs and to 
collect a rental charge upon them. It was dis- 
covered, however, that the cost of clearing the 



land was greater than the revenue obtained, 
and the fact that the rental was not carefully 
collected explains the non-existence of accu- 
rate statistics concerning the reduction. It is 
said that in the year 1811 five million pounds 
of ore were delivered at Shiboleth, but in 1819 
it was reported that only one million pounds 
were yielded. Mine a Breton at one time 
yielded three million pounds a year, but in 
1819 the yield was not more than five hun- 
dred thousand pounds, and there were not 
more than thirty miners at work throughout 
the year. 

It was in 1819 that the government of the 
United States sent Schoolcraft to the mineral 
region to study and make a report on the 
condition of these mines. He found IM. Bre- 
ton, the discoverer of the mine which bears his 
name, still living near Ste. Genevieve. He 
was at that time one hundred and nine years 
old. This report which Schoolcraft prepared 
and submitted to the government is the most 
accurate and authentic source of information 
concerning the mining industry which there 
is in existence. 

Its author, Henry R. Schoolcraft, who was 
born in Albany, New York, in 1793, and re- 
ceived rudimentary education, moved in 1817 
to Pittsburg. From his earliest years he w^as 
very much interested in mining and geology. 
At his own expense he traveled over portions 
of the country west of the Mississippi and the 
South, then came to St. Louis. He was ap- 
pointed an agent of the government and made 
his headquarters for a time at Potosi. Here 
he studied the conditions of the mines in all 
the di.stricts, especially in Washington county, 
and drew up a formal and elaborate report 
concerning the entire mining region. 

Alost of the shafts were from ten to thirty 
feet deep and were sunk in stiff, red clay into 
the lead here found imbedded. This ore was 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



185, 



also mixed with fragments — quartz, flint and 
other minerals. The shaft which had been 
sunk by Moses Austin was eighty feet deep 
and one other, that of John Rice Jones, with 
that of Austin, were the only ones in the 
neighborhood of Potosi extending into the 
rock itself. In both cases it was found that 
there were large quantities of ore in the cavi- 
ties of the rock, and from appearances School- 
craft concluded that the lower strata perhaps 
also contained lead. 

The average yield of all the mines in that 
district about Potosi, from 1803 to 1819, was 
about three million pounds a year. It was 
estimated that its value was equal to one- 
fourth of the cost of all of the Louisiana ter- 
ritory. His list of mines, together with the 
number of persons employed and the pounds 
of ore raised during the year 1819, is as fol- 
lows: "]\Iine a Breton, 1,500,000 poimds, 160 
miners; Shiboleth, 2,700,000 pounds, 240 
miners; LaMotte, 2,400,000 pounds, 210 
miners; Richwoods, 1,300,000 pounds, 140 
miners; Bryan and Daggat's, 910,000 poimds, 
SO miners; Rock diggings. Citadel, Lamberts, 
Austin's and Jones' mines, 1,160,000 pounds, 
180 miners; all others, 550,000 pounds, 90 
miners. ' ' 

At that time there was only one regular 
hearth furnace and that not of the best char- 
acter. There were but four or five regular 
shafts in the more than forty diggings then 
worked and there was not an engine of any 
kind in use for pumping from the mines. 

It was suggested by Schoolcraft that in all 
probability, judging from the European ex- 
perience, that beneath the lead ores, copper 
ores would be found. This prediction has 
been, in part, verified. He advised the govern- 
ment to sell the mineral lands, or at least to 
extend the leases upon them for a number of 
years. 



At the time that Schoolcraft observed these 
mines the principal minerals taken out, be- 
sides lead, were zinc, tiflt', spar, pyrites, quartz, 
cobalt, sulphur, and clay. Schoolcraft gives a 
very interesting account of how the ore was 
mined and smelted in this early day. The 
only tools and implements used at that time 
were the pick ax, shovel, drill, rammer and 
priming rod; after having determined on the 
site for the mine the miners were accustomed 
to lay off a square of eight feet and then throw 
out the dirt by the use of a hand shovel to a 
depth of from 8 to 15 feet; after that depth 
the windlass and bucket became necessary for 
further digging. When ore was struck it was 
broken up by the use of pick and sometimes 
by blasting, black powder being used for the 
purpose ; this ore as taken to the top by means 
of the windlass and bucket. It was then 
cleaned and broken up into small particles and 
heated in a wood fire for from 24 to 36 hours ; 
about 50 per cent of the lead was extracted 
by this first method of smelting. 

A considerable part of the lead was lost in 
the ashes of the fire. It was the custom after 
considerable quantities of ashes had accumu- 
lated to wash them very carefully after they 
had been run through a sieve and then the 
ashes were mixed with sand, flinted gravel 
and lime, and the whole mass put into a fur- 
nace ; first a layer of ashes and then of the 
sand, gravel and lime and fired for about 
eight hours. This resulted in the saving of 
about 15 per cent more of the lead. 

In 1819 lead sold at $4.00 per cwt. at the 
mines ; it was worth $4.50 per cwt. at St. 
Louis or Herculaneum on the river. At the 
same time the market price of lead at New 
Orleans was $5.50 per cwt. and at Phila- 
delphia, $6.00. 

He estimated there were received at Her- 
culaneum during the vear 1817 somewhat 



186 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



more than three million pounds of ore, which 
was probably about one-half of the entire 
product of the region during the year. At 
this time there were about 1,100 men engaged 
in mining, this being a considerably smaller 
number than had formerly worked in the 
mines. Schoolcraft's explanation of this de- 
crease in the number of miners is that more 
men than formerly were engaged in manu- 
facturing and in farming. 

Besides farming and mining, perhaps the 
industries most important were trading and 
transportation. The stores of this period, 
while still small, with limited stock, were a 
great improvement over those of the earlier 
day, M'hieh we have described. There were 
to be found at Ste. Genevieve, Frederick- 
town, Cape Girardeau, Jackson, and New 
Madrid stores having considerable quantities 
of varied merchandise. A number of men 
were engaged in the business of buying and 
selling, and they were necessary to the growth 
of the country. They still continued to buy 
their goods in the east. We have noted the 
experience of the Jackson merchant who sent 
a team and wagon from Jackson to Baltimore, 
requiring three months to make the trip. 
These merchants acted as distributers of goods 
for other eommimities. Their profits were not 
large in the aggregate, because their total 
voliune of sales was small. They usually 
realized a sufficient profit on each particular 
sale as it was made. 

The conditions of trade in the territory are 
,sho\\Ti. in part, by the following advertise- 
ment, which appeared in the Missouri Gazette 
in 1811: "Cheap Goods. The subscriber 
has ,iust opened a quantity of bleached coun- 
try linen, cotton cloth, cotton and wool cards, 
German steel, smoothing irons, ladies' silk 
bonnets, artificial flowers, linen check mus- 



lins, white thread, wool and cotton, a hand- 
some new gig with plated harness, cable and 
cordeUe ropes, with a number of articles 
which suit the country, and which he will 
sell on very low terms. 

"He will take in pay, furs, hides, whiskey, 
country made sugar and bees wax. 

(Signed) John Arthur. 

"P. S. A negro girl, eighteen years of age 
is also for sale. She is a good house servant. ' ' 

In 1806, the following prices were obtained 
for articles in Cape Girardeau: Calico, 
$1.00 a yard, linen 75 cents a yard, pins 31 J4 
cents a paper, sugar 25 cents a pound, note 
paper 50 cents a quire, and other articles 
proportionately high. 

In 1818, when John M. Peck moved to St. 
Louis he foiuid high prices still prevailing 
there. The houses, shops and stores were all 
small, most of them only one story and con- 
sisting of two or three rooms. For a single 
room, occupied by the family, he paid $12.00 
a month. The school room, which was four- 
teen by sixteen feet, cost them $14.00 a 
month. It was at that time very difficult to 
procure food at all. Butter sold from 37 to 
50 cents a pound, sugar from 30 to 40 cents, 
coffee from 62 to 75 cents, flour, of an in- 
ferior grade, cost about $12.00 a barrel, corn 
in the ear was from $1.00 to $1.25 a bushel, 
pork raised on the range was regarded as 
cheap at $6.00 or $8.00 a hundred pounds. 
There was a ready market for chickens at 37 
cents each, and eggs from 37 to 50 cents a 
dozen. These high prices were, in part, due 
to the system of currency. The currency in 
use was what was afterward denominated 
"shin plaster." These bills were issued by 
banks which had been instituted without any 
pdequate capital. The fact that the bills were 
not secure made people reluctant to take them 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



187 



and helped to produce the prevailing high 
prices.* 

Nuttall in speaking of the country about 
Point Pleasant says the land "is of a supe- 
rior quality but flat and no high grades have 
made their appearance since we passed the 
Iron banks; no rock is anywhere to be seen. 
The Banks are deep and friable, islands and 
sand bars, at this stage of the river, con- 
nected with the land are almost innumerable. 
In the midst of so much plenty provided by 
nature the Canadian squatters are here, as 
elsewhere, in miserable circumstances; they 
raise no wheat and scarcely enough maize for 
their support; superfine flour sold here at 
$11.00 per barrel. The dresses of the men 
consist of blanket capeaus, buckskin pan- 
taloons and moccasins. "t 

Besides these occupations, some men still 
made their living by hunting and trapping. 
As more and more the forests disappeared 
and lands were cleared and settled, hunting 
became less and less profitable. There were 
always some men left to engage hunting as a 
business. They did not contribute greatly to 
the wealth of the state, but they, undoubtedly, 
added something to it. 

The day of the Indian was practically closed 
by the time of the admission of the state into 
the Union. During part of the period, how- 
ever, there was still money to be made by 
trading and trapping with the Indians. Furs 
were still brought and offered to the trader 
at very low prices, and so there were few men 
who were engaged very largely in this busi- 
ness of trading with the Indians. 

A number of men were engaged in the very 
important and necessary business of transpor- 
tation. It required great labor and expense to 
move the products of the country to market. 

* Life of Peck, p. 84. 
+ Nuttall Journal, p. 78. 



This was especially true of the lead and iron 
produced at the mines. It was true also of 
the goods sold by the merchant. These 
usually had to be transported for long dis- 
tances before reaching him. The river con- 
tinued to be the favorite route over which 
goods were carried when it was possible to 
use the river at all. This period of history 
saw the beginning of steamboat navigation. 
Its principal dependence was upon the keel- 
boat, but the keel-boat was destined to dis- 
appear before a better method of transpor- 
tation. 

In a former chapter we have examined the 
use of the river for transporting goods. Traf- 
fic on the river increased very i-apidly after 
the cession to the United States. The Amer- 
ican settlers very soon added largely to the 
exports. These exports, consisting of the 
various products of tlie country were sent 
usually by river to New Orleans and some- 
times to Pittsburgh on the Ohio river. The 
river was covered with fleets of keel-boats and 
travel was brisk; however, the long time re- 
quired for a trip from Ste. Genevieve to New 
Orleans and return was a very great handi- 
cap to trade. It is one of the remai'kable 
things in history that at this time, when there 
arose a very great necessity for improved 
methods of transportation, there should liave 
come into use the steamboat, which changed 
so greatly the traffic on the river. In 1807 
Fulton had put in operation the first steam- 
boat the world had ever seen, the Clermont. 

Immediately upon the beginning of steam 
navigation, a suggestion was made to Fulton 
and his associates that the Clermont should 
be put in the Mississippi river trade. It was 
already known in the East that this trade was 
very extensive, and it seems that Fulton con- 
sidered the question of bringing the Clermont 
to the Mississippi. It is not knowTi how he 



188 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



expected to do this, and if be ever really in- 
tended it. He soon gave up the idea because 
the Clermont was put into use on the Hudson 
river, where it fovmd waiting for it the great- 
est river traffic in the world. But, if the 
Mississippi river was not to have the Cler- 
mont for its trade, it was not long to be de- 
prived of steamboats. In 1811 a company of 
men built in Pittsburgh a boat which they 
called the New Orleans. This boat made the 
trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and 
was for some time concerned in the traffic on 
the Mississippi river. 

In a very short time other boats were built 
and in 1816 the first steamboat passed up the 
Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio. 
This was the General Pike and was com- 
manded by Captain Jacob Reed. This steam- 
boat was looked upon by all of the inhabitants 
as a very remarkable and wonderful thing 
indeed, but it was onlj- a little while imtil 
there were a great number of steamboats in 
operation. They possessed such' remarkable 
advantages over the keel-boat that they were 
adopted for traffic as fast as possible. The 
second boat to come up the river above the 
mouth of the Ohio was the Constitution ; it 
reached St. Louis in 1817. 

The change produced by these steamboats 
was remarkable. They lowered not only the 
time necessary for the journey, but thej' low- 
ered in a remarkable way the expense of 
transportation. The rates on the steamboats, 
even, were enormous, but they were lower 
than the rates on the keel-boats. In 1819 a 
contract was entered into between the owners 
of two steamboats and the United States gov- 
ernment to carry freight from St. Louis to 
Council Bluffs and the rate charged was $8.00 
a hundred pounds. This is enormous com- 
pared to our present rates, but seemed reason- 
able in those days when compared to the rates 



necessarily charged by other means of trans- 
portation. 

Flint, who was a minister and traveled up 
and down the river very many times, has 
recorded the feeling of pleasure with which 
he took his first voyage on a steamboat. In 
speaking of his experience, he says: "It is 
now refreshing and imparts a feeling of 
energy and power to the beholder, to see the 
large and beautiful steamboats scudding up 
the eddies, as though on the wing; and when 
they have run out the eddy, strike the cur- 
rent. The foam bursts in a sheet quite over 
the deck. She quivers for a moment with 
the concussion, and then, as though she had 
collected all her energy and vanquished her 
enemy, she resumes her stately march and 
mounts against the current five or six miles an 
hour." And lo.st in admiration at the won- 
derful advance from the slow upward move- 
ment of the keel-boat, at the rate of six miles 
a day, he says. "A stranger to this mode of 
traveling would find it difficult to describe 
his impressions upon first descending the 
!Mi.ssissippi in one of the better steamboats. 
He contemplates the prodigious establish- 
ment, with all its fitting of deck, common, and 
ladies' cabin apartments. Overhead, about 
him and below him all is life and movement." 
Then, speaking of the time when he first trav- 
eled on these western waters, and before the 
era of the steamboat, he says, "This stream, 
instead of being plowed by a hundred steain- 
boats, had seen but one. The astonishing fa- 
cilities for traveling, by which it is almost 
changed to flying, had not been invented. 
The thousand travelers for mere amusement 
that we now see on the roads, canals and 
rivers, were then traveling only in books. The 
stillness of the forest had not been broken by 
the shouting of the turnpike makers. The 
IMississippi forest had seldom resounded ex- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



189 



cept with tlie cry of wild beasts, the echo of 
thunder, or the crash of undermined trees, 
falling into the flood. Our admiration, our 
unsated curiosity at that time, would be a 
matter of surprise at the present to the thous- 
ands of haclvueyed travelers on this stream, to 
whom this route and all its circumstances are 
as familiar as the path from the bed to the 
fire."* 

It has been said that among all the settlers 
of Upper Louisiana there existed comparative 
quiet and freedom from disturbance, under 
Spanish rule. The French were by nature 
and by the circumstances of their relation- 
ship and close connection in the towns, peace- 
able and law abiding people, and little effort 
was required to keep peace among them. The 
Americans were scattered over the country, 
and while thej' were bolder in some respects 
and a more difficult population to govern, the 
troubles that arose among them were usuallj^ 
settled by an appeal to physical strength, with 
the use of nature 's weapons, so that there was 
little crime which needed the attention of the 
officers of the law. They stood, too, as we 
have said, in wholesome respect of the Span- 
ish authorities and had a dread of Spanish 
dungeons and mines. "When the territory 
passed imder the dominion of the United 
States, however, and when large numbers of 
immigrants from the states further to the east 
had filled up the country, there ensued a 
period of considerable lawlessness. It was, 
perhaps, the natural feeling of reaction after 
the repression of the Spanish government. 
Quarreling, fighting, and occasional crimes 
were present in all the settlements in the ter- 
ritory. The officers of the law had much to 
do in some of the settlements and the popula- 

*Houek, Vol. Ill, p. 199. 



tion was far from being as quiet and free 
from disturbance as it had been under the 
government of Spain. 

We have seen that one of the subjects which 
early occupied the attention of the territorial 
assembly was that of the suppression of vice 
and immorality on the Sabbath, owing to the 
lack of religious teaching, and to that free- 
dom of restraint of public opinion found in 
new communities. There was not a great deal 
of attention paid to the observance of the 
day of rest, so that the legislature endeavored 
to correct this evil. 

One of the prevalent vices of the popula- 
tion was gambling. There .seems to be some 
connection between the life of a new eoimtry 
and the existence of the gambling spirit. 
Something of the exhilaration of tlie free life 
and of the spirit of taking chances which is 
cultivated by the daily circumstances imder 
which the people live seem to incline large 
numbers of them to the gaming table. Gam- 
bling was exceedingly popular; it was, per- 
haps, the most prevalent form of amusement. 
The territory itself authorized a lottery, so 
that gambling was regulated and authorized 
by the law. 

But, perhaps, the thing that most impressed 
itself upon travelers from other coimtries with 
regard to the lawless condition of the terri- 
tory was the habit of dueling. Men were 
accustomed to settle differences between them 
by an appeal to arms. Some one has pointed 
out that this method was not in use among all 
classes of peoj^le in the territory, the laboring 
class not being accustomed to resort to the 
duel, but professional men, especially law- 
.yers and all those who regarded themselves 
as higher up in the scale of society were ac- 
customed to look with contempt upon the man 
who appealed to the law for the settlement of 



190 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



difficulties. Gentlemen were supposed to 
settle their own troubles. The slightest 
ground for quarrel was sufficient to bring the 
parties face to face in a duel. These duels 
were not such as are said to exist in France 
today ; they were not arranged for show, and 
there was nothing of the spectacular in them ; 
the meeting was almost certain to result in 
the death of one or the other of the par- 
ticipants. The weapons most commonlj' used 
were pistols. The meeting between two per- 
sons was arranged by seconds and at the ap- 
pointed time they met and proceeded to shoot 
at one another. Ordinarily the exchange of 
one or more shots or the wounding or killing 
of one or the other of the antagonists was 
looked upon as satisfying the code of honor 
which governed the duel. Not infrequently 
after an exchange of shots the parties shook 
hands and the quarrel between them was at 
an end ; very many duels, however, resulted 
fatall.y. It was a time when men were ac- 
customed to firearms. Most of those who en- 
gaged in duels were expert shots with the 
pistol and there were very many chances of 
being at least woimded in one of these duels. 
Some of them are famous. There came to be 
recognized dueling places that were resorted 
to frequently. One of the.se places, not, how- 
ever, in Southeast Missouri, but one to which 
persons from this part of the state sometimes 
resorted for the purpose of dueling was 
Bloody Island, in the Mississippi river near 
St. Louis. 

In 1811 a duel was fought in Ste. Genevieve 
between Dr. Walter Fenwick and Thomas T. 
Crittenden. Crittenden was a lawyer and had. 
in the course of a trial, denounced Ezekiel 
Fenwiek, who was a brother of Dr. Walter 
Fenwick. Ezekiel Fenwiek thereupon chal- 
lenged Crittenden, who, however, refused a 
meeting on the ground that Ezekiel was not a 



gentleman. The challenge had been carried 
to Crittenden by Dr. Walter Fenwick and 
this reply affronted Dr, Fenwick, who, there- 
upon, issued a challenge on his own behalf. 
The duel was fought on Moreau Island just 
below Ste. Genevieve. Dr. Fenwick was 
killed at the first fire. This duel was fought 
with pistols. 

In 1807 Jo.seph McFerron and William 
Ogle fought a duel on Cj'press Island oppo- 
site Cape Girardeau. McFerron was an Irish- 
man, possessed good education and was clerk 
of the court in the Cape Girardeau district. 
He had been a teacher, but before accepting 
the position with the court he was a merchant 
in Cape Girardeau, For some reason there 
arose difficulty between these men and Ogle 
challenged McFerron to duel. It seems that 
AIcFerrou had never even fired a pistol, but 
accepted the challenge. Ogle was killed, while 
McFerron was luihurt. The most famous 
duel, perhaps, fought in this period was not 
between citizens of Southeast Missouri, Imt 
took place between Thomas H. Benton and 
Charles Lucas. The first duel between them 
wa.s fought in August. 1817. At this meeting 
Benton was wounded in the knee and Lucas 
in th6 neck. According to the usual ciistom of 
duels this exchange of shots would have ended 
the matter, but when Benton was asked if he 
were satisfied he declared that he was not 
and demanded a second meeting. Efforts 
were made to bring about a reconciliation be- 
tween the two men but all of them were futile. 
Benton seems to have been determined to fight 
another duel with Lucas. The second meet- 
ing was held on Bloody Island on the 27th 
day of September, 1817, and resulted in the 
death of Charles Lucas. 

In 1819 John Smith T. and Lionel Bro\rae, 
the latter a nephew of Aaron Burr and a 
lawyer of Potosi, fought a diiel on an island 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



191 



opposite Herculaneum. Browne was instantly 
killed, while Smith escaped. There are but a 
few instances of the use of these barbarous 
methods of settling disputes. They came from 
false ideas of honor; there had grown up in 
the minds of men a notion that a man was in 
some way sullied if he did not resent an in- 
sult of any kind, even to the point of killing 
his antagonist. It required long years of con- 
stant agitation to displace this false notion 
that caused so many deaths. 

One of the virtues which distinguished the 
early settlers was hospitality. Any traveler 
was sure to be received with kindness in any 
part of the countr.y. The reason for this is 
to be foimd, in part, in the character of the 
people themselves and. in part, in the fact 
that there were no other provisions for trav- 
elers. It was not until after the transfer to 
the United States that public taverns, as the 
places of entertainment were called, were to 
be found except in a very few of the towns. 
The traveler, even up to the admission of the 
state to the Union, must depend either upon 
his own resources and sleep in the open and 
prepare his own food, or else be received into 
the homes of the people ; it was usually the 
latter that happened. It was regarded as a 
duty and also a pleasure to care for the 
traveler, a duty because they were unwilling 
to turn those away in need of shelter and 
food, and a pleasure largel.y because of the 
fact that the inhabitants depended for news 
upon the traveler. Newspapers were very 
scarce and, as we have seen, postage was so 
high and mail so irregular as practically to 
forbid any but the most necessary correspond- 
ence and for these reasons such news as was 
received was brought by persons traveling. It 
has been said that a traveler was rarely ever 
turned away from any door. His reception 



was not the most cordial in manner, the usual 
response to a request for accommodation be- 
ing the laconic reply: "Well, I guess we 
could keep you ; ' ' but though the welcome was 
not as cordial as might have been expected it 
was, nevertheless, a welcome and ample pro- 
vision was made for the unexpected guest. 
The best the house afforded was his. The mis- 
tress of the house, dressed in the garb which 
was made in the house itself, quiet and re- 
pressed in manner, without many of the 
graces of refined society, was yet kindly atten- 
tive to all the wants of the traveler. Any at- 
tempt at pay for these accommodations was 
repulsed and often looked iipon as something 
in the nature of an insult. The head of the 
house disclaimed any idea of keeping tavern. 
Flint and Peck, both of them famous min- 
isters in the early days, recount their ex- 
periences as travelers and the almost uniform 
kindness and hospitality with which they were 
treated. Flmt records as the most remark- 
able and unusual circumstance that at one 
place he was refused accommodation. 

The people, while not religious for the most 
part and in many settlements rude and bois- 
terous in their behavior, had a respect for re- 
ligion that prompted them to treat with con- 
sideration the ministers who came to hold 
services; this was true even of the roughest 
classes. The tavern-keepers, themselves, were 
frequently kindly disposed toward preachers. 
Both Flint and Peck were received in taverns 
and eared for. 

These taverns, or places of public enter- 
tainment, combined a hovise for the care of 
travelers with a place for the sale of liquor. 
A place where liquor was sold apart from the 
inn was called a grocery. Taverns were not 
numerous in the early days. They were 
licensed by the Spanish officials and careful 
instructions were given as to the number of 



192 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



taverns permitted in any commimity. Effort 
seems to have been made to reduce the num- 
ber as low as possible. In a number of in- 
stances licenses for keeping tavern were re- 
fused on the ground that the community was 
already sufficiently supplied. After the or- 
ganization of the territorial government, ac- 
companying the growth of population, there 
was an increase in the number of taverns. 

By 1805 the United States government had 
established postoffices at Ste. Genevieve, Cape 
Girardeau and New Madrid. Provision was 
made for the carrying of mails between these 
points and for connecting these mail routes 
with those east of the river. The weekly mail 
which reached these and other points in the 
territory was, necessarily, irregular ; the roads 
were very poor, and many of those engaged 
in carrying the mails had very long journeys 
to make. It is rather curious to observe the 
constant complaint of the inhabitants of the 
territorj' concerning the mails, they were too 
irregular and at too infrequent intervals. 
Even settlers at the oldest of the to^vns, who 
had seemed to be content under Spanish gov- 
ernment wdtliout any mails at all, were unable 
to be satisfied with one mail a week after the 
transfer to the United States. Doubtless the 
establishment of these postoffices and the reg- 
ular delivery of the mail into even remote 
communities was one of the powerful agencies 
by which the government fostered the growth 
of population in the new territor.y. Men who 
have enjoyed the advantages of the regular 
postal system are often tuiwilling to settle in 
a community where no postal facilities are 
provided. The government could have done 
nothing that would have offered greater in- 
ducement to man}' prospective settlers than 
to arrange to keep them in contact with civili- 



zation by providing for the delivery of mail. 
The rate for carrying letters and parcels 
v«-as, of course, very high compared to the 
present rates. The roads over which the mails 
were carried were very bad, and in many 
cases hardly existed at all. As a consequence, 
all mails were transported for a time on horse- 
back and this was for many years the prin- 
cipal method of carrying them. There was no 
fixed rate of postage for a letter at that time. 
The price was not fixed then as now by 
weight. The distance it must be carried de- 
termined the cost and not its weight. In no 
case was the amount charged by the govern- 
ment small. The ordinary^rate on letters was 
from twenty-five to seventy-five cents. 

The first newspaper published in Southeast 
Missouri was the Missouri Herald. It was 
established at Jackson in 1818 by Tubal E. 
Strange. It was a weekly newspaper, but its 
publication was discontinued in 1819 ; it was 
revived in 1820 under the name of the Inde- 
pendent Patriot, published by Stephen Rem- 
ington & Company. In 1825 a paper under 
the title the Ste. Genevieve Correspondent 
and Record was established at Ste. Genevieve. 

"While these were the first papers actually 
published in Southeast Missouri, the first 
Missouri paper was established in St. Louis in 
1808 by Joseph Charless; this was the Mis- 
souri Gazette. It is still published imder the 
title. The St. Louis Bepiihlic. This paper had 
some circulation in Southeast Missouri, even 
at this early date. The publication of news- 
papers in a new territory such as this was at- 
tended with very great difficulty ; it was al- 
most impossible to secure sufficient subscrib- 
ers to pay the expense of publication. For 
this reason we find a constant change of 
proprietors taking place in almost all the early 
papers. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



193 



It is uot now possible to fix the exact date 
of the tirst school taught m Southeast Mis- 
souri. There is some evidence that members 
of the Russell family conducted private 
schools iu Cape Girardeau county about the 
year 1800 ; however, this date is not definitely 
determined. In 1806 Benjamin Johnson 
opened a private school on Sandy Creek in 
Jefferson coimty. In 1808 a number of citi- 
zens of Ste. Genevieve established the Ste. 
Genevieve Academy, and employed as teacher 
Mann Butler, afterward a distinguished teach- 
er and writer of history. In 1815 Joseph Her- 
tich opened a school in Ste. Genevieve. Her- 
tich was the first to introduce the new prin- 
ciples of education and methods of teaching 
which had been worked out by Pestalozzi. Ac- 
cording to Houck, Hei'tich was a very able 
man and his school in Ste. Genevieve exer- 
cised a remarkable influence for several years. 
A number of his students achieved consid- 
erable reputation, three of them having be- 
come, afterwards, members of the United 
States senate.* 

There was a school conducted in Hercu- 
laneum in 1815 and one at Potosi in 1817. 
i\ number of persons conducted private 
schools in Jackson in the years 1817 to 1820. 
Flint, the minister who has been referred to 
often, was one of these. In 1820 Thomas P. 
Green, a Baptist minister, opened a school in 
Jackson which he conducted for a number of 
J ears. It was in 1818, as we have seen, that 
St. Mary's Academy was established near 
Perryville. We may be sure that all these 
early efforts at conducting schools were lim- 
ited in scope. Equipment was exceedingly 
meagre or altogether absent. The number of 
students was small, and the compensation of 
the teachers correspondingly small. Some of 
those who undertook to teach were very poorly 
qualified for the work. The subjects of in- 

* Houck, Vol. Ill, p. 68. 
Vol. 1—13 



struction in most cases were simply the merest 
rudiments of education. The terms of school 
were short, and perhaps the greatest handicap 
of all was the lack of continuous instruction. 
Perhaps a settlement had school for a few 
months in one year and then would have no 
school for two or three years. Under these 
conditions it was impossible for any systematic 
education to be secured. There were excep- 
tions, of course, to this. Some of the men, 
notably Hertich and some of the ministers, 
were highly educated men and quite capable 
of conducting schools. 

This lack of proper means for education 
was one of the great drawbacks to the covmtry. 
Part of these conditions which were so un- 
favorable were inseparably connected with life 
in a new country ; they could not be removed. 
One of the great difSculties, however, was in 
the failure of many people to appreciate the 
necessity for education. The life of the fron- 
tier has little in it to inspire children with 
desire for learning; it also fails to disclose 
the necessity for an education. A living was 
\'ery easily made by manual labor, and there 
seemed to be little demand for educated men. 
Physical strength and skill and native shrewd- 
ness were sufficient to enable a man not alone 
to live, but to accumulate property. Some of 
tlie wealthy men in the time which we are 
considering were unable to read or write and 
others had the most meagre and limited educa- 
tion. It was possible for a boy, if taught in 
the ordinary things of life, to care for him- 
self and family and yet have no knowledge of 
books at all. Flint, who was from the East, 
and perhaps not altogether free from preju- 
dice in the matter, says that many of the 
people living in the more remote districts 
made no effort to teach their children; that 
boys at fourteen or fifteen had learned to use 
the axe and the rifle, to perform the simple 



194 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST iMISSOURI 



operations of fanning as it was then prac- 
ticed, and that thus equipped they were inde- 
pendent and scorned any notion that they 
needed to know more than these things. 

Peck says that ' ' after having gained correct 
knowledge, by personal inspection in most of 
the settlements, or by the testimony of reliable 
persons * * * the conclusion was that at least 
one-third of the schools were really a public 
nuisance, and did the people more harm than 
good. Another third about balanced the ac- 
count by doing about as much harm as good, 
and, perhaps, one-third were advantageous to 
the community in various degrees. Not a few 
drunken, profane, worthless Irishmen were 
perambulating the country and getting up 
schools, and yet they could neither speak, 
read, pronounce, spell or write the p]iiglish 
language."* 

Peck further says that there existed a cus- 
tom of turning the schoolmaster out of the 
house at Christmas and Easter. He records 
one instance of a schoolmaster who provided 
a treat for the children, in order to be per- 
mitted to re-enter the house. The treat con- 
sisted of a drink known as ' ' Cherry Bounce. ' ' 
Both teacher and pupils were partly intoxi- 
cated by their treat and the teacher was dis- 
missed. Peck gives this picture of the life 
of some of the people in the frontier settle- 
ments. He is careful to discriminate and 
point out that not all the people, by any 
means, were like those described. After la- 
menting their deplorable condition, religious- 
ly, and their ignorance of the Bible, and their 
indifference to the calls made upon them, and 
saying of them that few could read and fewer 
had Bibles or other books to read, he says that 
they were almost equally as poorly off con- 
cerning other matters. A small corn field, he 
says, and a truck patch was the height of their 
ambition. Venison, bear meat, and hog meat 

*Life of Peek, p. 123. 



dressed, cooked in a most slovenly and filthy 
manner, with corn bread baked in the form 
of a pone, and when cold as hard as a brick 
bat, constituted their provisions. Coffee and 
tea, he says, were prohibited articles amongst 
this cla.ss, for had they possessed the articles, 
not one woman in ten knew how to cook them. 
He adds, however, "doubtless in a few years, 
when the land came into market, this class of 
squatters cleared out." 

In June, 1808, the territorial assembly char- 
tered the Ste. Genevieve Academy with the 
following as trustees: James Maxwell, John 
Baptiste Valle, Jacques Guibord, St. James 
Beauvais, Francois Janis, John Baptiste 
Pratte, Joseph Pratte, Walter Fenwick, An- 
drew Henry, Timothy Phelps, Aaron Elliott, 
Nathaniel Pope, Joseph Spencer, Jr., "William 
James, Frank Oliver, Joshua Penniman, Wil- 
liam Shannon, George Bullett, Henry Dodge 
and Harry Diel. 

The trustees were authorized to receive and 
expend money for the use of the academy, and 
they were bound to have instruction given 
in both French and English. One clause of 
the act of incorporation forbade their making 
any distinction in the employment of teachers, 
or in filling vacancies in the board of trustees, 
regarding religious beliefs. The academy was 
a necessity for all people and no religious dis- 
tinction was to be made. The trustees were 
farther commanded to admit poor children 
and children of Indians to the academy free 
of any charge for instruction. Power was 
conferred on them, also, to arrange, when- 
ever it seemed best to them, to open an insti- 
tution for the instruction of girls. 

On October 14th, 1820, the territorial as- 
sembly chartered the academy in Jackson 
with the following trustees: David Armour, 
Joseph Frizzell, Thomas Neal, Van B. De 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



195 



Lashmutt and William Surrell. The same 
restriction was placed on them with regard 
to religious privileges and discrimination as 
in the case of the Ste. Genevieve academy. 

In spite of these things, there was a feeling 
among the leading men in the territory that 
provision must be made for a system of public 
education. Congress was early asked to set 
aside lands for the support of schools. 

We have seen that one of the early assem- 
blies chartered an academy at Potosi and also 
organized a public school board for St. Louis. 
Ste. Genevieve and Little Prairie, along with 
one or two other towns, received grants of 
the land which was held in common, the in- 
come from the property to be used for school 
purposes. Out of these feeble beginnings and 
most unpromising circumstances there grew 
up a great system of public schools. 

We may suppose that under the conditions 
we have described there were few libraries 
in the southeast part of the state. In fact, 
there was not a public library of any kind in 
all this section until 1820. There were only a 
few private libraries deserving of the name. 
In many homes there were no books of any 



kind whatever, in others there were copies of 
the Bible and very few other books. A few 
men who lived in the district, however, had 
good libraries; these were usually the minis- 
ters. 

The dress of the people did not differ much 
from the dress as described in a former chap- 
ter ; everybody wore home-spun. Every house 
was a factory, the women spun the thread and 
wove the cloth and made the garments for 
the entire family. By the close of the terri- 
torial period thei"e had grown up in the larger 
towns something of the society that gave at- 
tention to dress. Some people began to bring 
clothing from the eastern states and to devote 
time and money to these matters. The great 
majority of people, however, were dressed as 
we have seen. To them dress was not an 
adornment nor a luxury, but a necessity. 
John Clark, the famous pioneer minister, who 
spent many years in traveling throughout 
Southeast Missouri, preaching, was always 
dressed in home-spun. He was a bachelor and 
his clothing was made for him by members 
of his congregations. 



CHAPTEK XIII 

PROTESTANT IMMIGRATION 

Visits op Protestant Ministers — John Clark — Josiah Dodge — Thomas Johnson — An- 
drew Wilson — Religious Condition of the Settlers — Motives Which Brought Them 
to Louisiana — The Work op the Baptists — David Greene — Bethel Church Near 
Jackson — Its Early Members — The First Meeting House — Relics op old Bethel 
Church — Memorial Services in 1906 — Growth op the Church — Other Churches Or- 
ganized BY Members op Bethel — Early Ministers op the Church — Wilson Thompson 
— Thomas Stephens — Thomas P. Greene — -The First Missionary Collection — The For- 
mation OP AN Association op Churches in Missouri — John M. Peck — The Work op the 
Methodist Church — First Preachers — John Travis — Organization op ]McKendree — 
Early Members — First ]\Ieeting House — Jesse Walker — The First Circuits — First 
Sermon in Cape Girardeau — Campmeeting at McKendree in 1810 — Harbison — New 
Circuits Formed — Organization op the Missouri Conperence — Rucker Tanner — The 
First Conperence Held in Missouri— The Work op the Presbyterians — Hempstead's 
Letter — A Church Organized in Washington County, 1816 — Organization op the 
Presbytery op Missouri — Early Ministers — Timothy Flint — The Columbian Bible 
Society — Flint's Writings — Disciples op Christ — William McMurtry — First Organ- 
ization IN Missouri, 1822 • — Dippiculties Under Which Early Ministers Labored — 
Progress JIade — Peck's Description — Debt Owed to Pioneer Ministers. 

We have seen something of the work of the eases of families moving to Upper Louisiana 
missionaries who came to the state in the early then, on finding what they were required to 
years, and have traced and outlined the subscribe to, declining to stay and returning 
growth of the Catholic church up to the time to the east side of the river. Of course, these 
of the transfer in 1804. Of course, unto this restrictions were swept away with the trans- 
time there was no religions history of the fer to the United States. The principle rec- 
state, except of the activity of the Catholic oguized by the American people of absolute 
church. While, as we have seen, there were toleration in religious matters was extended 
other persons living in the state, they were to Louisiana. It was not long before the 
required to conform to the Catholic religion, activity of the Protestant ministers brought 
to rear their children in the Catholic faith, them to the new territory, 
and they were forbidden to hold public serv- 
ices of any kind. These restrictions, while We have seen, in fact, that even before the 
they did not prevent Protestant immigration, transfer some ministers had, in violation of 
hindered it greatly. There are a number of the j^rovisions of the Spanish law, come to 

196 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



197 



Louisiana and lield services. John Clark, a 
minister of the Methodist church, was one of 
these who as early as 1796 came to Louisiana 
and visited a number of the settlements. 
Clark is described as a man simple, unaffected, 
and wholly disinterested. He violated the 
Spanish law in holding these services, but the 
lieutenant governor, then at St. Louis, Zenon 
Trudeau, was very much in favor of the com- 
ing of American settlers and, in order not to 
discourage tliem, he was disposed to allow 
these visits. He seemed to have warned Clark 
on a number of occasions, but he never really 
molested him, though he threatened him with 
imprisonment. Clark at the time resided in 
Illinois; he died in 1813; he became a Baptist 
at some time subsequent to his visits to Louis- 
iana. 

Doubtless the earliest of these ministers 
was Josiah Dodge. Dodge lived in Kentucky 
and was a Baptist. He was a brother of Israel 
Dodge, who lived near Ste. Genevieve. Dur- 
ing his visits to his brother. Rev. Josiah Dodge 
was accustomed to preach to the American 
settlers in the vicinity. It is possible that 
these sermons were the first non-Catholic ser- 
mons delivered west of the Mississippi river. 
This was in 1794. In the same year, it is 
recorded that he crossed the river to Illinois 
and baptized four persons in Fountain creek. 
Perhaps these were residents of Upper Louis- 
iana who were thus baptized in the Illinois to 
avoid violating the law regarding baptisms in 
Upper Louisiana. In 1799 Rev. Thomas John- 
son, another Baptist minister, came to Cape 
Girardeau district ; he was a native of Georgia. 
In that year he baptized Mrs. Agnes Ballou 
in Randol creek. This was, doubtless, the 
first baptism, not performed by a Catholic 
priest, west of the river. 

One of the men who came with Morgan to 
New Madrid was Andrew Wilson. He was a 



Scotchman and had been a Presbyterian min- 
ister. He never preached in New Madrid and 
it is probable that he had previously given 
up the ministry. 

The testimony of almost all observers as to 
some of the American settlers prior to the 
transfer to the United States is that their con- 
dition, religiously considei'ed,was deplorable. 
We cannot believe it to have been otherwise. 
In the first place, the fact that though they 
were Protestants they were willing to con- 
form to the nominal requirements of the 
Spanish law with regard to the rearing of 
their children as Catholics, and the further 
fact that they were compelled to forego any 
public religious services, are sufficient to show 
that they were not distinctly or deeply re- 
ligious. Cut off, as they were, from all re- 
ligious teaching by their situation and the 
reciuirements of tlie laws under which they 
lived, they must have fallen into a deplorable 
condition. It was reported by some observers 
that in some cases they had even forgotten 
the days of the week and that they made no 
attempt whatever to observe the Sabbath in 
any way, and where it was observed, too often 
it was a day given iip to amusements such aa 
the country offered. Andrew Ramsay's place 
in Cape Girardeau was used as an assembly 
place for all the people of the neighborhood. 
They came together, not for worship, but for 
the purpose of whatever amusement could be 
found. The condition of the early settlers, as 
here set out, unfavorable as it was with regard 
to religion, must not be taken to represent the 
feelings and convictions of all the people of 
Upper Louisiana. While those who were Pi'ot- 
estants in belief had to give up, as we have 
seen, the open practice of their religion, it 
should not be forgotten that the motives that 
impelled men to settle in the Louisiana terri- 



198 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI 



tory were very strong. American settlers who 
lived in the Northwest territory and who 
owned slaves found that in order to continue 
holding them they must give up their home- 
steads and seek another territory after the 
passage of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. 
Many of these men crossed the ilississippi 
river to Upper Louisiana ; others came because 
they were attracted by the ease with which 
land might be secured from the Spanish gov- 
ernment, and still others were moved by the 
love of adventure and of a free life in the open 
which characterized so many Americans in the 
early period of history. These motives were 
very strong and they induced many respect- 
able, honest and upright people to give up 
their homes and to take up their residence in 
what is now IMissouri. 

These people no doubt felt the deprivation 
of religious service and experience. That 
they still meditated on religion and wished for 
an opportunity to exercise it openly is made 
evident by the cordial reception which was 
given to the few Protestant ministers who, in 
spite of the proclamation of Spain, made their 
way into the territory. In the life of John 
Clark, which was no doubt written by John 
Mason Peck, it is clearly set out that the 
American families were very glad indeed to 
receive Clark into their homes and to listen 
to him as he read and preached, and were re- 
joiced at an opportunity to hear the Gospel 
in their new territory and according to their 
own beliefs again. 

It seems that the first Baptists in Missoiiri 
were Thomas Bull, his wife and mother-in- 
law, Mrs. Lee. They moved to the Cape Gir- 
ardeau district from Kentucky in 1796. They 
were followed, in 1797, by Enos Randol and 
wife, and the wife of John Abernathy. For a 
number of years they lived without any re- 



ligious services, except such as they held at 
private houses. At one time they were in 
fear of being required to leave the province 
on account of their religious belief, but Lori- 
mier was favorable to them and they con- 
tinued to reside here. Elder Thomas John- 
son, of Georgia, was perhaps the first Baptist 
minister who preached in Upper Louisiana. 
He was a resident of Georgia. He came to 
the Cape Girardeau district on a visit in 
1799, and while there he preached. He per- 
formed the first non-Catholic baptism west of 
the river. He baptized Mrs. Ballou in Ran- 
dol 's creek. In 1805, Elder David Greene, a 
native of Virginia, but at that time a resi- 
dent of Kentucky, came to the district. 
Greene preached, first, about the settlements 
near Commerce. He organized a church in 
Tywappity bottom in 1805. This was the 
first Baptist church in Louisiana. It had only 
some six or seven members and soon dis- 
banded. Elder Greene, after a visit of some 
months, returned to Kentucky. He was im- 
pressed, however, by the importance of the 
field in Upper Louisiana and came back to the 
Cape Girardeau district in 1806. He resided 
in the district with his family until the time 
of his death in 1809. 

On July 19, 1806, Elder Greene gathered 
together the Baptists near Jackson and or- 
ganized a church which was called Bethel. It 
is not definitel.y known just where the organi- 
zation took place, but it is believed to have 
been made in the house of Thomas Bull. This 
church so organized was the center from 
which sprang the large number of early Bap- 
tist churches in Missouri. The members who 
took part in the organization of the church 
were David Greene, Thomas English, Leanna 
Greene, Jane English, Agnes Ballou, Thomas 
Bull, Edward Spear. Anderson Rogers, John 
Hitt, Clara Abernathv, Katherine Anderson, 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



199 



Rebecca Randol, Frances Hitt and William 
Matthews. 

The board which took part in the organiza- 
tion of the church was composed of Elder 
David Greene and Deacons George Laurence 
and Henry Coekerham. The officers of the 
church as organized were : David Greene, 
pastor; Thomas English, deacon. In August, 
after the organization, Thomas Bull was 
elected writing clerk, and in the following 
April, William IMatthews was elected singing 
clerk. 

Thomas English, who was thus one of the 
charter members of the church, was a native 
of Georgia. He came to Missouri about 1804, 
and lived in the Ramsay settlement. He re- 
mained a member of the church and a deacon 
until his death, May 16, 1829. He left a 
large family of sons and daughtere, and his 
descendants still live in Cape Girardeau 
county. His wife, Jane, was also a member. 
He died in 1842. 

William Hitt, who became a member of 
Bethel church in 1812, and who afterward 
served as its clerk for a number of years, was 
one of the prominent members. He was the 
grandfather of the late Deacon Smith Hitt 
of the Cape Girardeau Baptist church. Ben- 
jamin Hitt, who also united with Bethel 
church in 1812, was the father of the late 
Judge Samuel Hitt, of Cape Girardeau. 

The Randol family was one of the early 
Baptist families in the district. Enos Randol 
united with Bethel church in 1808. His son, 
Enos, was a sergeant in Peter Craig's com- 
pany of mounted rangers that fought the 
battle of the Sink Hole. The Randol family 
still live in Cape Girardeau county. 

Edward Spear, who was one of the charter 
members of the church, was afterward a lieu- 
tenant in Craig's company, and was killed at 
the Sink Hole. 



Some of the other members of the church in 
the early time were William Smith, John 
Sheppard and his wife, Nancy; Isaac Shep- 
pard, who united with Bethel church in 1809. 
Isaac Sheppard was elected deacon and treas- 
urer, and was also one of the judges both of 
the common pleas court at Cape Girardeau and 
the county court. 

Ezekiel Hill, Rachel Hill, William Hill, the 
Thompson family, John Daugherty and Hiram 
C. Davis were also among the early members, 
having imited with the church prior to the 
year 1820. 

John Juden, Sr., was a native of England, 
and came from Baltimore in 1805 to Missouri. 
In 1820 he and John Juden, Jr., joined Bethel 
cliurch. This family and its descendants were 
very prominent in Cape Girardeau coimty for 
many years. 

On October 11, 1806, the congregation voted 
to erect a meeting house. In pursuance of 
this resolution, a small log house was built on 
the farm of Thomas Bull. It proved, however, 
to be too small and in 1812 was replaced by a 
hewn log building. This second house was 
well and strongly constructed of poplar logs. 
It was thirty feet by twenty-four feet in size. 
This house was used by the church until about 
1861. The church then transferred its ses- 
sions to a house northwest of Jackson on 
Byrd 's creek. Sometime, about the same date, 
tlie old house was sold to a resident in the 
neighborhood who moved it away, about the 
distance of a mile, and rebuilt it into a barn. 
Some of the logs of the old house were saved 
at the time of the sale, and from them were 
constructed a number of walking canes and 
two gavels. One of these gavels was pre- 
sented to the Baptist General Association of 
the state at its meeting in St. Joseph in the 
year 1875 by the Rev. Dr. J. C. Maple. 
It was handsomely inscribed and is still in 



200 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



use by the moderator of the general associa- 
tion. The other of the two gavels made at 
the time remained in tlie possession of Dr. 
Maple until the year 1910, when it was pre- 
sented by him to the moderator of the Cape 
Girardeau Baptist Association at its meeting 
in Crosstown, Perry county, in September of 
that year. The old house as rebuilt still 
stands. The site on which it was erected has 
been purchased and is now owned by the Bap- 
tist General Association of IMissouri; In 1906 
this association held its annual nieetiug in 
Cape Girardeau. This was the one hundredth 
anniversary^ of the founding of Bethel 
church. One reason for the selection of Cape 
Girardeau as the place of meeting was to hold 
appropriate exercises in commemoration of 
the foimding at the site of the old church, 
and to unveil a monument which had been 
erected on the spot. 

One day during the meeting of the body 
was set aside for a visit to the site. After a 
session held in the Baptist church in Jackson 
on the morning of October 24th, the Associa- 
tion adjourned to meet in the grove of trees 
on the spot where the old church stood. This 
is about two miles from the town of Jackson 
and was reached after some difficulties. The 
meeting was called to order by E. W. Steph- 
ens of Columbia, the moderator of the Gen- 
eral Association. After prayer and singing, 
E. W. Stephens delivered an address on the 
subject, "The Reason for Baptist Existence 
and Baptist Work One Hundred Years Ago 
and Now." The monument was then un- 
veiled by ]\Irs. E. W. Stephens and ]Miss Mae 
Brown of Jackson. 

The monument which was erected by the 
association is four feet high of granite and 
bears this inscription: "Here stood Bethel 
Baptist church, the first permanent non- 
Catholic church west of the Mississippi river. 



Constituted July 19, 1806, with these mem- 
bers: David Green, Thomas English, Will- 
iam ]\Iatthews, Leanna Green, William Smith, 
Jane English, Agnes Ballou, Thomas Bull, 
Clara Abernath.y, Catherine Anderson, An- 
derson Rogers, Edward Spear, Rebecca Ran- 
dol, John Hitt, and Frances Hitt. What 
Hath God Wrought ? ' ' 

The membership of the church had grown 
to eighty by the year 1812 and in 1813 it was 
one hundred eighty-six. In June. 1814, forty- 
five of its membei-s were dismissed to organize 
a church in what is now St. Francois county, 
but even after this dismissal there remained 
one hundred seventy-three members. In 1809 
Bethel church became a member of the Red 
River Association, which held its meeting that 
year at Red River church, near Clarksville, 
Tennessee. It remained a member of this 
association luitil 1816, when it was decided to 
form a new association of the churches in 
Missouri. 

One thing which distinguished the members 
of Bethel church from the very day of the or- 
ganization was their fervent missionary spirit. 
They were untiring in their efforts to have the 
gospel preached in every possible place within 
the bounds of Upper Louisiana. To this end 
thej' contributed money and encouraged their 
ministers to visit the different parts of the dis- 
trict. We find them organizing congregations 
wherever that was possible. The.se congrega- 
tions remained for a time as members of 
Bethel church, and were looked after, as much 
as possible, by the pastor of that church. As 
soon as these congregations became large 
enough they were organized into regular 
churches and their direct connection with 
Bethel church ceased. 

The first of these in point of time was or- 
ganized in the Bois Brule Bottom in what was 
then Ste. Genevieve coimty, but what is now 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



201 



Perry county. Members were received there 
in 1807. Among them was Thomas Donohoe, 
who afterward became a preacher. This con- 
gregation of members seems to have disap- 
peared after the year 1815. Donohoe and, 
perhaps some of the other members, then 
joined a church called Barren church in the 
same vicinity. This church was constituted in 
1816 at the house of Jesse Evans. It soon 
disappeared, also, and was succeeded by an- 
other church known as Hepzibah. 

The second organization constituted by 
Bethel was that at St. Michaels. This was in 
October, 1812. On the same day John Parrar 
was obtained as a minister. He was a mem- 
ber of this congregation. In 1814 this con- 
gregation was organized into a church known 
as Providence church, and Farrar became its 
pastor. 

In January, 1813, a committee was sent 
from Bethel to organize a congregation on 
Saline creek. This soon became a church and 
seems to have been united, later, with Barren 
church and .still later with Hepzibah. 

In 1813 there were twenty-three members 
of Bethel church who lived about twenty-five 
miles south of Fredericktown. In 1814 they 
were organized into a church called St. Fran- 
cois. 

A church was organized on Turkey creek 
in 1815. There had previously been a num- 
ber of members of Bethel church living in 
that vicinity. 

In June, 1820, an organization was estab- 
lished on Apple creek, near Oak Ridge, and 
it was formed into a church in September of 
that year. The committee which had charge 
of the organization of the church was com- 
posed of Elders T. P. Greene. James Williams, 
and J. K. Gile, and Isaac Sheppard, Benjamin 
Thompson, Abraham Randol, Thomas Eng- 
lish and Benjamin Hitt. 



In June, 1821, it was resolved to constitute 
a church in the Big Bend. The church so 
organized was called Ebenezer and was sit- 
uated near the site of Egypt Mills. 

On May 11, 1822, fourteen members of 
Bethel church were dismissed for the purpose 
of organizing Hebron church, five miles south- 
east of Jackson. These members so dis- 
missed, were, most of them, of the Randol, 
Poe and Hitt families. Seven members of 
Bethel were dismissed in April, 1824, and they 
constituted a church at Jackson. 

In the period from the organization of the 
church in 1806 to 1824, nine church were con- 
stituted thi'ough the efforts of Bethel church. 
Of these nine churches, only two seem to have 
survived to the present date. They are Prov- 
idence church at Fredericktown and the Jack- 
son church. 

The ministers of Bethel church from its 
foundation were David Greene, 1806 to 1809 ; 
Wilson Thompson, 1812 to 1814; Thomas 
Stephens, 1817; Thomas P. Greene, 1818 to 
1826; Benjamin Thompson, 1826 to 1853; 
Jolm Canterbury, 1853 to 1861, and Joel 
Foster, 1866. 

David Greene, who organized the church, 
had spent some years as a minister in the 
Carolinas. Pie loved the life of the frontier, 
and moved from Carolina to Kentucky, where 
he preached among the frontier settlers of that 
date. In 1805. as we have said, he visited 
Missouri and stopped for a time in the Ty- 
wappity Bottom. There were some Baptists 
living in the neighborhood, and he preached 
to them and organized a church. The mem- 
bers of this church were Henry Cockerham, 
Jolm Baldwin, William Ross and a few others. 
After residing in this settlement for a few 
months. Elder Greene paid a visit to the vi- 
cinity of Jackson, but after preaching for a 



202 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



time he returned to Kentuekj'. The eondi- 
tion of the Baptists in Missouri, however, 
rested heavily on his mind, and, though he 
was old and had spent a long life in the min- 
istry, he resolved to visit the Cape Girardeau 
district again. This time he moved and lo- 
cated with his family near Bethel chm-ch. He 
was the pastor of the church imtil his death 
in 1S09. 

The second pastor of Bethel church was 
Wilson Thompson. It was the work of Thomp- 
son that made the church a power in ilissouri. 
Like so many other famous preachers, he was 
of Welsh descent. He was born in Woodford 
county. Kentucky, August 17, 1788. In 1810 
he was married to Miss Mary Gregg, and in 
January, 1811, they moved to the Cape Girar- 
deau district, settling near Jackson. They 
were accompanied by his father and mother, 
and the entire family united with Bethel 
church. Ho had begun preaching at the 
age of twenty, before his removal from Ken- 
tuclr\', and his preaching was attended with 
marvelous results. Shortly after he united 
with Bethel church there occurred the great 
earthtiuake at New Madrid, and the shocks 
were felt over a large part of Upper Louisi- 
ana. In the following February Thompson 
began a revival service in Bethel church. It 
was one of the most remarkable religious 
manifestations in Missouri. It covered a 
period of two years, and spread to almost" all 
the congregations which had been organized 
by the church. There was evidence of the 
power of the revival at Bois Brule, Saline, 
Providence and St. Francois, and during its 
progress Thompson baptized about five hun- 
dred persons. Up to this time he had not 
been an ordained minister, but on April 11, 
1825, a council composed of John Farrar and 
Stephen Stilly ordained him. The following 
Jul.\- he was chosen pastor of the church and 



served until September, 1814. At that time he 
resigned, and with his family moved to Ohio. 
He died in Indiana in 1865. He was, doubt- 
less, the most powerful of the preachers ever 
connected with the church. 

For some years the church seems to have 
been without a regular pastor, but in Febru- 
aiy, 1817, it called Thomas Stephens, who 
was a resident of Louisville, Kentucky. He 
served the church imtil December of that year. 
In the following year Thomas Parish Greene, 
a native of North Carolina, who had lived for 
some time in Tennessee, was chosen as the 
fourth of the church's pastors. This was in 
jMarch. 1818. Elder Greene had moved to 
Missouri in 1817. He served as pastor of the 
church for eight years, and it was under his 
leadership that an interest was arou.sed in 
missions and Sunday schools. Elder Greene 
was an ardent advocate of the church's duty 
to assist in preaching the gospel to the entire 
world. While he was pastor of the church it 
was voted that the association should cor- 
respond with the board of foreign missions. 
Under his leadership the church welcomed the 
visit of John Mason Peek, who had come from 
the east imder the direction of the board of 
missions to evangelize Missouri. During 
Peck's visit to Bethel church he organized a 
missionary society, and on November 8, 1818, 
after a missionary sermon, he took up a col- 
lection for missions, amounting to $31.37. 
The entire work of the church prospered, so 
long as Greene was its pastor. He closed his 
pastorate of the church in 1826, when he was 
called to the care of Hebron church. In 1828 
he removed to Rock Springs, Illinois, where 
he was associated with Peek in publishing the 
^Ycstenl Pioneer. He was also at the time 
agent of the American Sunday School Union, 
and assisted in establishing Sunday schools 
and libraries in New Madrid, Seott, Cape Gir- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



203 



ai'deaii. Perry, Madison, St. Francois, Wayne 
;nid Stoddard counties. He later became a 
missionary for the American Baptist Home 
iMission Society. In 1834 he organized a Bap- 
tist church at Cape Girardeau. There were 
nine members at that time and Elder Greene 
became the first pastor. After two years he 
removed to St. Louis, where he was pastor of 
the Second Baptist church. Elder Greene 
had been educated as a printer, and had at 
one time conducted a little weekly paper him- 
self. This was a combination paper, being 
part a religious weekly and in part a news- 
paper. It was this training and experience 
which led to Greene's selection as an associate 
of John ilason Peek in the attempt to publish 
a paper at Rock Spring, Illinois. He was to 
look after the actual details of printing and 
publication. 

Thomas P. Greene was a man of great abil- 
ity. He is said to have resembled Senator 
Benton, and to have possessed something of 
Benton's oratorical capability. He had only 
limited opportunities for education, but con- 
tinued his studies all through his life and 
became quite a scholar. Hon. Samuel M 
Greene, of Cape Girardeau, is his son. 

Some of the other ministers who were con- 
nected with Bethel church, or with the asso- 
ciation during this period, were John Farrar, 
William Street, James P. Edwards and Win- 
gate Jackson. William Street was one of the 
early settlers in Wayne county, and was held 
in high esteem both as a citizen and a minis- 
ter. He died in 1843. John Farrar was a 
resident of Madison county until 1825, when 
he was removed to Washington county. He 
died there in 1829. In 1811 James P. Ed- 
wards moved to Cape Girardeau from Ken- 
tucky. He was a lawyer, but was ordained as 
a minister in 1812, and afterward removed to 
Illinois. Wingate Jackson was a Virginian. 



He was born in 1776 and resided for a num- 
ber of years in Kentucky. About 1804 he 
located at New Tennessee, Ste. Genevieve 
county, where he died in 1835. It was under 
his ministry that Hepzibah church was estab- 
lished in 1820. The constituent members were 
Wingate Jackson, Obadiah Scott, Noah Hunt, 
and Joel and Enos Hamers. 

In 1814 a committee of Bethel church was 
appointed to draw up a plan for the organi- 
zation of an association of the Missouri 
churches. Invitations were sent to the va- 
rious churches to meet the committee from 
Bethel church and for the consideration of 
this matter the representatives of the various 
churches met in Bethel in June, 1816. Bethel 
chvirch was represented by Thomas Bull, John 
Sheppard, Benjamin Thompson and Robert 
English. Tywappity church was represented 
by Henry Cockerham, John Baldwin, and 
William Ross. Providence church was rep- 
resented by William Savage; Saline church, 
by Elder Thomas Donohoe and John Duvall ; 
St. Francois church, by Elder William Street 
and Jonathan Hubble ; Turkey Creek church, 
by William Johnson, Daniel Johnson, E. Re- 
velle and S. Baker. 

The organization thus effected was in the 
nature of a preliminary organization and it 
was decided to hold another meeting in Sep- 
tember, 1816, at Bethel church. At this meet- 
ing, which was participated in by Bethel, 
Tywappity, Providence, Barren, Bellevue, St. 
Francois and Dry Creek churches, an associa- 
tion was constituted which was named Bethel 
association. These seven churches had an 
aggregate membership of 230, and there were 
five ministers included in the association. 

One of the famous and most active Baptist 
ministers of this time was John Mason Peck. 



204 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



lie did not live in Southeast Missouri, but 
spent most of the years of his residence within 
the state, in St. Louis. On various occasions 
he visited the churches in Southeast Missouri 
and exercised a great influence on the devel- 
opment of religious work in this section. He 
resided for a time in New York and began his 
ministerial work there. He was appointed by 
the Home Missionary Society to prosecute the 
work of the church in Missouri. Accompanied 
by his family and by another minister named 
James E. Welch, he came to the state in 1817. 
The next twenty years of lis life were spent in 
teaching, preaching and organizing all over 
the section. He was a student and collected 
most copious notes on social, religious and po- 
litical conditions of ]\Iissouri. He was an in- 
defatigable writer. His influence was very 
great over the course of Baptist development, 
and he, more than any other man, was respon- 
sible for the missionary spirit that prevailed 
among the churches of the early day. 

The itinerant preachers of the Methodist 
church have always been found among the 
first in every new country. As soon as the 
restrictions on religious worship were removed 
from the people of Louisiana by the transfer 
to the United States, arrangements began to 
be made for sending a Methodist preacher to 
the territory. The "Western Conference, which 
included all the territory west of the Alle- 
ghany mountains, at its meeting in Greenville, 
Tennessee, in 1806, appointed John Travis to 
the Missouri circuit. He entered upon his 
work here and established two districts, the 
Missouri district and the Maramec district, 
the latter being south of the jMissouri river. 
In 1807 Edward Wilcox was appointed to the 
Maramec circuit, and in 1808 Joseph Oglesby 
was appointed ; he, however, did not take up 
the work and his place was supplied by 



Thomas Wright, and Z. !iMaddox v.-as ap- 
pointed as local preacher to look after the 
Cape Girardeau district. 

The first Methodist society west of the Mis- 
sissippi river was organized about 1806 at 
JIcKendree, three miles west of Jackson in 
Cape Girardeau county. Among the members 
of this church were William Williams and 
wife, John Randol and wife, Thomas Blair, 
Simon and Isaiah Poe, Charnel Glascock and 
the Seeleys. Within a short time after the 
organization of this church a meeting house 
was erected of large, hewn poplar logs. The 
house was in a beautiful situation near a 
spring and shaded by large oak trees. It soon 
became famous as a camp ground and was the 
site of many camp meetings. The house, with 
some alterations and repairs, is still in exist- 
ence. It is, perhaps, the oldest Protestant 
meeting house west of the Mississippi river. 

It is a question as to what minister organ- 
ized this early Methodist society. When John 
Travis came to Missouri he found this church 
already in existence, and it seems probable 
that it had been organized by Rev. Jesse 
Walker, who, in 1801, was stationed near the 
mouth of the Cumberland river, and who 
afterward came to Missouri. In 1806, while 
the Western Conference sent Travis to Mis- 
souri, it also sent Walker to Illinois. It 
seems, however, to be fairly certain that he 
did not confine his labors to Illinois, but 
crossed over, preached, and organized churches 
in what is now Missouri. When the confer- 
ence met in 1807, at Chillicothe, Ohio, Travis 
reported that the two circuits. Cape Girar- 
deau and the Maramec, had one hundred and 
six memliers. At this time Walker was as- 
signed to the Cape Girardeau circuit. He 
came to Missouri in the summer of that year 
and was accompanied on his trip by William 
McKendree, who was then presiding elder of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI 



205 



the Illinois district. He held the first quar- 
terly meeting with Travis in that year on the 
Maramec river, it seems, at the place where 
Lewis chapel is now located. 

In 1808 the Western Conference appointed 
the Rev. Jesse Walker for the Cape Girar- 
deau circuit and Rev. David Young and Rev. 
Thomas Wright for the Maramec circuit. 
This territory was then part of the Indiana 
district, over which Samuel Parker was pre- 
siding elder. Rev. Parker visited the Cape 
Girardeau circuit in that year, and came to the 
town of Cape Girardeau, where he preached 
the first sermon ever heard in the town. This 
was at the house of William Scripps, who was 
an Englishman, having come to America in 
1791 and to Cape Girardeau in 1808. Scripps 
was a tanner by trade and he and Rev. Parker 
had been acquainted in Virginia. One of the 
sons of William Scripps, whose name was 
John, was admitted, at the conference in 
1814, as a preacher on trial. Later, he was 
taken into full connection with the church 
and was active as a minister until his removal 
to Illinois in 1820. 

In 1810 Jesse Walker and John Scripps 
crossed the big swamp to the New Madrid dis- 
trict and organized the New Madrid circuit. 
They traveled this circuit in connection with 
the Cape Girardeau circuit. There were thirty 
members in this circuit the first year. In this 
year, 1810, the first camp meeting in Cape 
Girardeau county was held on the camp 
ground in connection with McKendree 
chapel. Walker, Wright, and Presiding 
Elder Parker were present and conducted the 
camp meeting. 

The conference of 1810 assigned John Mc- 
Parland to the Maramec circuit and reap- 
pointed Walker to the Cape Girardeau circuit. 
Walker did not remain and McFarland min- 



istered to both the circuits. In 1811 McFar- 
land was placed in charge of both Cape Gir- 
ardeau and New Madrid circuits and Thomas 
Wright was sent to the Maramec. In 1812 
Cape Girardeau and the New Madrid circuits 
were divided. Benjamin Edge was appointed 
to the work at Cape Girardeau and William 
Hart to that at New IMadrid. In 1813 Thomas 
Wright was assigned to Cape Girardeau and 
Thomas Nixon to New Madrid. 

In 1812 a camp meeting was held in what 
is now Madison county, though it was then 
a part of Ste. Genevieve county. The meet- 
ing was conducted by Thomas Wright and it 
was the first camp meeting held in Ste. Gene- 
vieve county. Like the great revival meeting 
by Wilson Thompson, in Bethel Baptist 
church, it followed very closely after the 
earthquake at New Madrid. 

In 1814 the conference received John C. 
Harbison on trial. Harbison had been a resi- 
dent of the district since 1798, but up to this 
time had been employed as a teacher at Mt. 
Tabor, and had also practiced law for a short 
period. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and 
had lived in other states before coming to 
Missouri. His descendants still live in Scott 
county. It is said that Harbison had been, 
for a long time, addicted to gambling and 
drunkenness before he became a member of 
the church, and that after he was converted 
and living an exemplary life as a minister, he 
met some of his former companions who chal- 
lenged him to play a game of poker. He 
agreed to do this, provided that after the 
game was over they would listen to the ser- 
mon which he was to preach at the church. 
They agreed to this, and he preached such a 
powerful and convincing sermon that those 
who heard abandoned their wicked courses of 
life.* 

In the same year Thomas Wright was ap- 
' Houek, Vol. Ill, p. 238. 



206 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



pointed to the Cape Girardeau circuit, and 
Asa Overall began work in the New Madrid 
circuit. There was also formed this year a 
new circuit to include the territory between 
the Maramec and Apple creek. This was 
given the name of Saline circuit. Preaching 
was held at several points within this circuit, 
principally at the Murphy settlement, Cook 
settlement, Callaway settlement and new Ten- 
nessee. 

The Murphy settlement was the oldest 
Methodist comnniuity west of the Mississippi 
river, and probably contained more Method- 
ists than any other. The first Methodist ser- 
mon west of the river was preached in the 
Murphy settlement in 1804, by Joseph Ogles- 
by. This was at the house of Mrs. Sarah 
Murphy. One of the early IMethodist preach- 
ers in the Saline circuit was Jacob White- 
side. This circuit had, at the close of the 
year 1815, one hundred and fifteen members. 

The conference in 1815 appointed Philip 
Davis to the New Madrid circuit, Jesse Haile 
for the Cape Girardeau circuit and Thomas 
Wright for the Saline circuit. 

In 1816 a new conference w'as organized 
at Shiloh meeting house near Belleville, Illi- 
nois. It comprised Saline, Cape Girardeau, 
New Madrid and the St. Francois circuits and 
w-as called the Missouri Conference. Samuel 
H. Thompson was made presiding elder of 
the conference, and Bishop Roberts presided 
at the meeting. The conference appointed 
Thomas Wright and Alexander ]\IcAlister to 
the Cape Girardeau and New Madrid circuits, 
and John C. Harbison to Saline circuit. In 
1817 Thomas Wright was sent to Saline cir- 
cuit, Joseph Spiggott to New Madrid circuit 
and Rucker Tanner to St. Francois circuit, 
while the Cape Girardeau circuit was left to 
be supplied. 



Tanner was a rather remarkable man. He 
had been a very reckless youth and had spent 
his early life in the New Madrid district. It 
is related of him that on one occasion he and 
an elder brother made a trip to New Orleans, 
and while there ran short of funds. After 
all their money was exhausted, it was ar- 
ranged between them that R. Tanner, whose 
complexion was very dark, should be sold by 
his brother as a slave. This arrangement was 
carried out and the elder brother departed 
with the money. After a considerable diffi- 
culty, R. Tanner succeeded in regaining his 
freedom and escaped from the country. He 
started to walk home but on the way hired 
himself out to a local Methodist preacher. 
He lived with this preacher for some time, 
becoming converted and professing a desire 
to preach. It may be imagined that his re- 
turn home was a great surprise to his friends, 
who had thouglit him long since dead. Almost 
immediatel}' upon his return he announced an 
appointment to preach. It was such a sur- 
prising thing that this reckless youth should 
be preparing for the ministry, that a very 
large congregation assembled to hear his first 
attempt. He was very soon admitted to the 
conference and appointed, as we have said, 
to the St. Francois circuit. For the years 
1818 and '19 Saline circuit was served by 
Thomas Wright, Cape Girardeau circuit by 
John Scripps and the St. Francois circuit by 
John McParland. 

There is a question as to when the first con- 
ference west of the river was held. Septem- 
ber 14, 1819, is sometimes given as the date of 
the beginning of the first conference. This 
conference was held at McKendree chapel. 
There is some authority, however, for believ- 
ing that there had been a conference held in 
1818 at Mt. Zion church in the IMurphy set- 
tlement, at which conference Bishop JIcKen- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



207 



dree presided. The appointments made in 
1819 were John McFarland to the Saline cir- 
cuit; Joseph Spiggott to the Bellevue circuit 
(which had, in the meantime, been organ- 
ized) ; Philip Davis to the St. Francois cir- 
cuit; Samuel Glaize to the Cape Girardeau 
circuit, and William Townsend to the New 
Aladrid circuit. 

When the conference met in 1820 it was 
decided to create a new district. Tiiis was 
called the Cape Girardeau district and 
Thomas Wright was appointed as presiding 
elder. The preachers for the year were : 
Bellevue circuit, John Harris ; Saline and St. 
Francois circuits, Samuel Bassett ; Spring 
River, which was a new circuit, Isaac Brook- 
field ; White River, another new circuit, W. 
W. Redman ; Cape Girardeau circuit, Philip 
Davis ; and New Madrid circuit, Jesse Haile. 

When Missouri was admitted to the Union 
in 1821, Thomas Wright was continued as 
presiding elder, Thomas Davis was sent to 
the Cape Girardeau circuit, Philip Davis to 
the Saline circuit, John Cord to the St. 
Francois circuit, Abram Epler to Spring 
River, and Washington Orr to the New Mad- 
rid circuit. 

The Presbyterians did not begin their work 
in Southeast Missouri quite so early as the 
Baptists and IMethodists. The beginning of 
their interest in Missouri probably dates from 
the year 1812. In that year the Missionary 
Society of New England appointed two men, 
the Rev. John T. Schermerhorn and the Rev. 
Samuel J. Mills, as agents to ascertain the 
religious conditions of the western country 
and the places most in need of religious in- 
struction, and to formulate some plan for 
the preaching of the gospel in the destitute 
places. These two men seem to have intended 
to visit St. Louis, and perhaps other parts 



of the territory, but, for some reason, they 
abandoned their visit and contented them- 
selves with writing a letter of inquiry to 
Stephen Hempstead, of St. Louis. In the 
letter they asked concerning the condition of 
religion in Upper Louisiana, the number of 
clergymen and the places where they were 
settled, whether there was much infidelity ex- 
isting, whether the Sabbath was observed, and 
whether it was thought best to attempt to 
foimd a Bible society. They offered to send 
two or tliree hundred Biljles and some tracts 
for distribution among the poor, provided it 
was thought best to do so. Mr. Hempstead 
replied to these inquiries, and gave a picture 
of the religious conditions existing in the ter- 
ritory. He says that "the Catholic church 
has services; that there are some Methodists 
in the territory; that .some of the Presby- 
terians, in the absence of their own preachers, 
have joined the Methodists, and that the Bap- 
tists have ten churches and two himdred and 
seventy-six members." And finally .says that 
he "knows of no place in the United States 
that needs a Presbyterian missionary more 
than Missouri." He further requests that the 
Bibles and ti-acts be sent, which was done. 

The first church in Southeast Missouri of 
the Presbyterian faith was organized in the 
Bellevue settlement in Washington county 
August 2, 1816. The Presbytery of Missouri 
was formed by the Sj'nod of Tennessee and 
held its first meeting in St. Louis, December 
]8, 1817. Its territory was all of the United 
States west of the Cumberland river. The 
Presbytery of Missouri had, as its ministers, 
Solomon Giddings, Timothy Flint, Thomas 
Donnell and John Matthews. The only 
churches represented were those at Bellevue, 
Bonhomme, in St. Louis coimty, and St. Louis. 
In 1819 he number of ministers was increased 
by the addition of Rev. C. S. Robinson and 



208 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the Rev. David Tenney. Jlr. Tenney died in 
the same year. The Rev. Edward Hollister 
was connected with the Presbytery for a short 
time in 1821. The Rev. Timothy Flint was 
one of the most active of the Presbyterian 
ministers in Southeast Missouri in the early 
times. He seems to have organized a Bible 
society in Jackson about 1820 and also a 
Sunday school at the same place. This so- 
ciety was called the Columbian Bible Society. 
Its officers were Jason Chamberlain, president ; 
Christopher G. Houts, treasurer; and A. 
Hayue, secretary. Rev. Timothy Flint seems 
to have traveled all through Upper Louisiana. 
He preached at Jackson, New Madrid, St. 
Charles and in Arkansas. He was a very vig- 
orous, energetic and earnest man, had been 
thoroughly educated at Harvard college, and 
wrote a number of books bearing on Missouri 
history. He spent the winter of 1819 at New 
Madrid. He was a man who had consideTable 
influence but, also, considerable trouble, as he 
was not always able to adapt himself to the 
conditions under which he found himself 
placed. 

Among the publications written by Flint 
were the "Life of Daniel Boone," a "History 
and Geography of the Mississippi Valley," 
and "Recollections of the Last Ten Years in 
the Mississippi Valley." 

In 1818 a presbytery was held at Potosi 
and a yoimg man, who had been a ministerial 
student was ordained by Rev. Timothy Flint 
and Rev. INIatthews. They rode from St. 
Louis to Potosi on horseback to perform this 



That one of the Christian denominations 
knovsTi as Disciples, or simply Christians, 
seems to have begun its labors in Southeast 
Missouri in 1819. The teachings of this de- 
nomination had spread from Kentucky and 



Pennsj-lvauia to the west, and in the year 
mentioned the Rev. William Mcilurtry came 
from Virginia and located in Madison coimty. 
He was a carpenter by trade, but preached 
also. He began to teach the doctrines of the 
church as soon as he was located within the 
state, and in 1822 organized a church in what 
is now the town of Libertyville. There were 
only three members of the church at that 
time, and they held their meetings in the log 
school house. The increase was slow at first, 
for in 1826 there were only nine members of 
the church. 

"We have thus recounted something of the 
beginning of effort by the Christian denom- 
inations in the early years in Missouri. We 
find that the only formal organization before 
1804 was the organization of the Catholic 
church ; that its teachings had spread in prac- 
tically every commimity in Upper Louisiana; 
that its work had been organized and at least 
two houses of worship constructed. There 
were members of other denominations in Up- 
per Louisiana before the transfer; that they 
held their regular services in private fam- 
ilies, but were not allowed to build meeting 
houses or to perfect any kind of organiza- 
tions. Upon the transfer to the United 
States, the Baptists and Methodists, and a 
little later the Presbyterians and Christians, 
or Disciples, began to prosecute the work of 
evangelism in a systematic way. There seem 
to have been two distinct methods of carrying 
on the work. The first Baptist church withiu 
the state was organized through the efforts of 
a visiting minister, and this church became 
the center for the sending out of the gospel 
to other parts and for the organization of 
other churches. In the same way the organi- 
zation of the Disciples was begun. The first 
work performed by the Presbyterians within 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



209 



the state, as we have seeu, was the result of 
the sending of missionaries from the East. A 
similar movement assisted and encouraged the 
work of the Baptists, when Peck and his 
companion, Welch, were sent into the terri- 
tory. The work of the Methodists began in 
an organized form by the erection of part 
of the territory into a circuit, and the ap- 
pointment of a minister to supply the needs 
in the vast territory included within his cir- 
cuit. 

By the time of the transfer to the United 
States these denominations were flourishing, 
their work was progressing and they were 
building houses of worship, establishing Sun- 
day schools and schools in many parts of the 
territory. It is plain to be seen that they 
labored imder very great difficulties. The ter- 
ritory over which the ministers were called to 
travel was very extensive, the means of trans- 
portation very poor, the roads were simply 
paths and there were but few accommodations 
provided, in most places, for visitors. Many 
of the ministers were accustomed to travel on 
foot for distances that seem almost impossible. 
It is said of Clark, who was an early min- 
ister of the Baptist church, that he would 
never ride to his appointments. Some of his 
friends presented him with a horse, but he 
was dissatisfied with it and returned it, pre- 
ferring to walk from one place to another. 
Some of the Methodist circuit riders traveled 
over immense distances to reach their various 
appointments. Those who lived east of the 
river, not infrequently walked for miles to 
reach a place where the river might be crossed 
and, having crossed, walked a long distance 
on this side to the place where they were to 
preach. 

Another thing which very greatly retarded 
and made more difficult the work of the early 



ministers, was a feeling among the people 
that these ministers should labor without 
pay. Not all of them were of this belief, but 
it was sufficiently prevalent to render the sup- 
port of the ministers very meagre and very 
uncertain. Perhaps all of the preachers in 
the early time were compelled to recoup their 
salary by work of one kind or another, that 
they might support their families. We have 
seen that Elder ]\IcMurtry, an early minister 
of the Christian church, was a carpenter, and 
we find that Peck supported himself, in part, 
by teaching, as did Flint and many others. 

Another thing which made their work diffi- 
cult and their lives hard was the condition of 
many people among whom they must labor. 
Many of them were illiterate and could not 
appreciate the eiforts which were being made 
for them. Some of these people lived imder 
the most severe conditions of life, and some 
of them had no hope or ambition for better 
things. It was a work of the very greatest 
difficulty to arouse the people to action and to 
get them to accept the things which the min- 
isters brought to them. Peck and Flint both 
relate amusing but unpleasant experiences 
concerning their visits in different parts of 
this section. They frequently were received 
into homes, if a single roomed log cabin may 
be so described, in which only the barest 
necessities were to be found. 

These hardships are set out fully in the ac- 
count which Peck gives in describing one of 
his trips from St. Louis, on horse back, to 
Bethel association in Cape Girardeau county. 
He made this trip in September, 1818, and 
the experience through which he passed in- 
duced him to moralize a little on the hard- 
ships which attended the life of the traveler. 
He says: "The route was the same one I last 
traveled until I got below Herculaneum, and 
then gradually bearing to the left and down 



210 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the direetiou of the Mississippi, through an 
extensive tract of barrens very thinly set- 
tled. It was in passing through these barrens 
that Joseph Piggott, a ilethodist circuit 
preacher, in the year 1820, came near freez- 
ing to death, on an extremely cold night, and 
without food for himself or his horse. He 
gave the writer a narrative of his sufferings 
that night, four years after, at his residence 
on the Macoupin, Illinois, and yet we were so 
hard hearted as not to express a word of sym- 
pathy. A few stunted and gnarled trees, and 
a sprinkling of brushwood, with now and 
then a decayed log, appeared above the snow. 
He was nearly chilled, after wandering about 
a long time in search of a path, and with 
great difficulty with his tinder-box, flint and 
steel, could he get a fire. He then scraped 
away what snow he could, and with his 
blanket lay down, broadside to the fire ; but 
before he secured much warmth the other 
side was nearly frozen. Then he would turn 
over, but finding no relief would get up and 
stamp his feet, while the wind seemed to pass 
through him. When daylight appeared he 
was too cold to mount his horse, but led him 
while he attempted to find his way on to some 
lonel.v cabin, which proved to be not many 
miles distant. There he spent the day and 
enjoyed the hospitality of the squatter fam- 
ily. We listened to the distressing tale 
with amazement ! This man was born and 
raised in Illinois and accustomed all his life 
to the frontiers, and yet had never learned 
one of the indispensable lessons of a back- 
woodsman — how to camp out, make a fire and 
keep warm. Eating was not so very impor- 
tant, for any man in the vigor of life in those 
days in this frontier country who could not 
go without food for twenty-four hours, and 
more especially a preacher of the Gospel, 



ought to be sent back where he came from, to 
the kind care of his friends. 

"The writer had not been in the country 
one year before he had learned half a dozen 
lessons in frontier Imowledge of great value 
in practical life. One branch was how In- 
dians, hunters, surveyors, and all others who 
had to travel over uninhabited deserts, made 
their camping-place and kept themselves com- 
fortable. The first thing is to select the right 
place — in some hollow or ravine, protected 
from the wind, and if possible behind some 
(lid forest giant which the storms of winter 
have prostrated. And then, reader, don't 
build .vour fire against the tree, for that is 
the place for your head and shoulders to lie, 
and around which the smoke and heated air 
may curl. Then don't be so childish as to lie 
on the wet, or cold frozen earth, without a 
bed. Gather a quantity of grass, leaves and 
small brush, and after you have cleared away 
the snow and provided for protection from 
the wet or cold earth, you may sleep comfort- 
abl.y. If you have a piece of jerked venison, 
and a bit of pone with a cup of water, you 
may make out a splendid supper — provided 
you think so — ' for as a man thinketh so is he. ' 
And if you have a traveling companion you 
may have a social time of it. So now offer 
your prayers like a Christian, ask the Lord to 
protect you, wrap around you your blankets 
with your saddles for pillows, and lie down to 
sleep under the care of a watchful Providence. 
If it rains, a very little labor with barks or 
even brush, with the tops sloping downward, 
will be no mean shelter. Keep your feet 
straight to the fire, but not near enough to 
bum your moccasins or boots, and your legs 
and wliole body will be warm. The aphorism 
of the Italian physician, which he left in a 
sealed letter as a guide to all his former pa- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



211 



tients, contaius excellent advice to all frontier 
people: 'Keep your feet warm, your back 
straight, and your head cool, and bid defiance 
to the doctors.' "—("Life of Peck," pp. 103 
to 105.) 

In .spite of these and many other difficulties, 
of which we can have no proper appreciation 
at this time, the work progressed. There were 
men in the early days whose hearts were filled 
with enthusiasm for the work. They were not 
daunted by difficulties nor stopped by hard- 
ships. They labored unceasingly in season 
and out of season. The journals and diaries 
of these early men reveal to us a remarkable 
story of energy and of self-sacrificing devo- 
tion to the work which they had in hand; 
that their labors were abimdantly blessed and 
that they exercised a great influence over the 
course of early history is amply evidenced. 
Under their ministrations hundreds, and even 
thousands, of men and women were changed 
in their lives ; received something of inspira- 



tion and uplift; schools were fomided by 
them and the beginning of culture, as well as 
of religion, were made imder their direction. 
Many of these early ministers were educated 
men. They brought with them a knowledge 
of the world and they brought, also, the first 
libraries within the state. The example of 
their devotion and earnestness of purpose was 
contagions. The great religious denomina- 
tions now within the state owe to the memory 
of these early pioneer preachers a debt which 
it is impossible for them to pay. 

It should not be forgotten, either, that not 
only do the churches owe to them a debt ; the 
state as a state is equally under obligations to 
them. If intelligence and morality are the 
twin pillars on which popular government 
rests, then these men who so largely contrib- 
uted, not only to morality but also to the 
spread of education and the increase of intel- 
ligence, certainly deserve well at the hands 
of all the people in the state. 



CHAPTER XIV 

NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE 

Time and Area — Unique Among Earthquakes — Contemporary Accounts Mentioned — 
The Scene Described — Direction of the Shocks — Size op Affected Area — Character 
OP Disturbances — Small Loss op Life Explained — A Death from Fright — Persons 
Drowned — Appearance op the Air — Vapors — Lights and Glows — Earth Changes — 
Fissures — Lignite — Areas op Surface Raised — Sunk-Lands — Observations Made by 
Lyell — Distribution op Sunk-Lands — Effect on Timber — Expulsion of Material 
prom the Earth — Water-Sand — Sand Blows — Sand-Sloughs — Sinks — Suggested 
Causes — Contemporary Accounts — Mrs. Eliza Bryan — Long — Bradbury — Flint — 
Faux — LeSieur — Col. John Shaw — Letter of an Unknown Writer — Long — Nuttall 
— Flagg — Former Drainage as Described by LeSieur — -Government Assistance to Suf- 
ferers — The New Madrid Claims — DeLisle vs. State of Missouri — Loss of Popula- 
tion. 



On the night of December 15, 1811, there 
occurred the first of a series of severe earth- 
quake shocks in the region about New Bladrid, 
which caused great suffering and distress 
among the inhabitants, changed the surface of 
the earth in places, and resulted in the de- 
population of parts of the region affected. 
This earthquake has been the subject of much 
contention among historians and scientists. 
and has recently been made the subject of 
much careful study. 

Myron L. Fuller, a member of the United 
States Geological Survey, has given as much 
time and study to the phenomena of the New 
Madrid earthquake as any other person. In 
1912 the Geological Survey issued a bulletin 
by Mr. Fuller, entitled "The New Madrid 
Earthquake." His introductory statement is 
as follows : ' ' The succession of shocks desig- 
nated collectively the New Madrid earthquake 



occurred in an area of the central Mississippi 
valley, including southeastern Missouri, north- 
eastern Arkansas, and we.stern Kentucky and 
Tennessee. Beginning December 16, 1811, 
and lasting more than a year, these shocks 
have not been surpassed or even equaled for 
number, continuance of disturbance, area 
affected, and severity by the more recent and 
better-known shocks at Charleston and San 
Francisco. As the region was almost unsettled 
at that time relatively little attention was 
paid to the phenomenon, the published ac- 
counts being few in number and incomplete in 
details. For these reasons, although scientific 
literature in this country and in Europe has 
given it a place among the great earthquakes 
of the world, the memory of it has lapsed from 
the public mind." 

Shaler, writing of the earthquake in 1869, 
said: "The occurrence of such a shock in a 



212 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



213 



region like the Mississippi valley, on the bor- 
ders of a great river, is probably laiiprece- 
dented in the history of earthquakes. * * * 
Many of the events of that convulsion were 
without a parallel. Scientifically this earth- 
quake may be regarded as a type, exhibiting 
in unusual detail the geologic effects of great 
disturbances upon imconsolidated deposits. 
For this reason its phenomena have an im- 
portance which, in the absence of any previous 
systematic discussion, warrants detailed con- 
sideration." 

It is the intention here to give as full an 
account of the earthquake itself as collected 
from contemporary accoimts as is possible, 
and a description of the condition of 
the lands affected by the shocks. It is 
fortunate that there are in existence a 
number of accounts written by eye wit- 
nesses, some of them being scientific men 
and some others, men of education and train- 
ing. Perhaps the best known scientist who 
felt the shocks and described them, was the 
great naturalist, John James Audubon, who 
at the time was in Kentucky. John Brad- 
bury, an English botanist, was on a keel boat 
on the Mississippi river a few miles below 
New Madrid; the expedition of Major Long 
was passing through the region on its way 
from Pittsburgh to the Rocky moimtains; L. 
Bringier, an engineer and surveyor, was on 
the scene of the shocks; and Captain Roose- 
velt was on board a steamer going down the 
river. Besides these men of scientific train- 
ing who were on the scene, there were others 
at a somewhat greater distance who made a 
record of the shocks, among them being Dan- 
iel Drake at Cincinnati and Jared Brooks at 
Louisville ; while S. L. Mitchill, a well known 
geologist and member of congress, collected 
all the available information about the earth- 



quakes. It was fortunate, too, that the scene 
was visited by Timothy Flint, a Presbyterian 
minister and a writer on geography, and by 
Sir Charles Lyell the great English geologist. 
In addition to these there were accounts writ- 
ten by a number of other persons ; one of these 
accounts, that of Mrs. Eliza Bryan, is given 
in this chapter. Godfrey LeSieur, the former 
well-known citizen of New Madrid and a mem- 
ber of the famous French family that founded 
the town, was at the time at Little Prairie 
and has given a vivid and interesting account 
of his experiences ; this account is abbreviated 
in this chapter, also. Senator Lewis F. Linn 
was interested in the catastrophe and collected 
information concerning it which he made 
public in a letter containing a full account 
of the shocks. Besides all these there exist 
fragmentary statements from a number of 
other persons, so that contemporaiy accounts 
of events are reasonably full. 

A comparison of all these accounts discloses 
the fact that they are in reasonable accord in 
their description and the main facts con- 
cerning the earthquake shocks seem to rest 
on the concurring testimony of these wit- 
nesses. The night of December 15, 1811, was 
as quiet and iindisturbed during its early 
hours as any other of the hundreds of nights 
that had passed. There seems to have been 
nothing to give warning of any change im- 
pending. Some who wrote afterwards speak 
as if there was a peculiar condition of the air, 
but these accounts indicate only that it was 
probably damp and foggy weather. About 
2 o'clock in the morning of December 16, the 
earth suddenly shook and vibrated with ter- 
rific force ; the houses, most of them built of 
logs, were greatly shaken, some of them being 
thrown into instant ruin. The inhabitants 
made their way as best they could out of 



214 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI 



their houses into the open. The shocks con- 
tinued; they were accompanied by low rum- 
bling sound ; the earth was thrown into waves 
like the waves of the sea ; this waving motion 
was so violent that it was impossible to stand 
or to walk. One man gives it that he at- 
tempted to return to the house for a member 
of the family who was sick; he was thrown 
down five or six times in attempting to walk 
a short distance owing to these waves. The 
crest of the waves was elevated some three 
or four feet above the usual level of the earth, 
forming long lines running from the south- 
west to tlie northeast, and having depressions 
between tliem ; some of these waves or swells 
burst, forming fissures in the earth some three 
to seven feet in width and extending to an 
unknown depth. These fissures were in some 
cases short, but others of them extended for 
miles. Out of the fissures thus formed there 
spouted great quantities of water, sand, and 
a kind of charcoal or lignite. In many cases 
there seems to have been a sort of gas having 
a sulphurous smell. The banks of the rivers 
fell into the stream owing to their being split 
off by these fissures. The quantities of earth 
carried into the river were very great, hun- 
dreds of trees being swept down into the 
stream. The shaking of the earth and the 
rising and falling of these swells or waves 
threw down whole forests and inclined many 
of the trees left standing at an angle. Some 
of the timber was split and much of it snapped 
off, as told by Mrs. Bryan. In places on the 
side of the high bluffs faalts were formed in 
the earth, resulting in occasional land slides; 
the surface of some areas seem to have been 
raised, while other areas were sunk several 
feet below their former level. In other 
places small craters were opened in the 
earth' from which spouted quantities of sand 
and water, the sand being deposited on top 



of the alluvium forming sand blows. The 
river itself was greatly agitated. In many 
places there were falls formed in it, due to the 
faulting of the surface ; these falls were in 
places six to eight feet in height and the pour- 
ing of the water of the streams over them 
produced tremendous and unusual soiuids. In 
other places the bottom of the river seems to 
have been raised, ponding water before these 
places so that the level of the river was raised 
several feet in a very short time. The waters 
receded from either .shore to the center of the 
river and were piled up there for a time, 
leaving boats stranded on the bare sands. In 
a moment the waves returned and washed up 
on the shore and out into the timber, carry- 
ing the boats with them. Through the de- 
pressions formed in the banks of the river 
great volumes of water made their way, cov- 
ering parts of the country to a depth of sev- 
eral feet. The falUng of trees into the river 
and the shaking loose from the bottom of 
thousands of logs previously accumulated, 
covered its whole surface with floating tim- 
bers ; the waters were agitated and churned 
into a foam so that it was almost impossible 
for a boat to live upon its surface. The in- 
habitants of the country were of course ex- 
ceedingly terrified by these things and even 
the wild animals and fowls were thrown into 
confusion and uttered cries of alarm. This 
shaking of the earth continued at intervals for 
more than a year, though the last severe shock 
of the series was felt on the 7th of February, 
1812. The shaking was felt over great re- 
gions, extending to the lakes on the north and 
to the Atlantic seaboard on the ea.st, being 
observed in such widely separated places as 
Charleston, N. C. ; Cincinnati, Ohio; Savan- 
nah, Ga. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Washington, D. C, 
and Pittsburgh, Pa. In all these places the 
shocks were violent and all of them were 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



215 



noted as occurring about the same time as the 
shocks at New iladrid. 

The shocks seemed to travel from the south- 
west to the northeast, and a study of all the 
recorded evidence indicates that the center 
of the disturbance was within the alluvial re- 
gion. It is the opinion of Mr. Puller, who has 
made a careful study of the situation, that 
the line marking the center of disturbance 
extended from a point in New Madrid county 
just east of Parma, in a southwesterly direc- 
tion, crossing the sand ridge just east of Ken- 
nett, and ending south of St. Prancis lake in 
Arkansas.* 

The area affected, as we have said, was very 
large, including perhaps the east half of the 
United States. The smaller area in which 
there was an unusual earth disturbance char- 
acterized by sunken lands, fissures, sinks, 
sand-blows, etc., includes the New Mad- 
rid region as it is called, which extends from 
a point west of Cairo on the north to the lati- 
tude of Memphis on the south, a distance of 
more than 100 miles, and from Crowley's 
ridge on the west to the Chickasaw bluffs on 
the east, a distance of over 50 miles, the total 
area affected in this striking way being from 
30,000 to 50,000 square miles. 
~ It is not possible to give the number of 
shocks that were felt, bwt there were probably 
at least a hundred that could be detected 
without the use of instruments, a number of 
them being severe. 

Attempts have been made to determine the 
exact character of the disturbances that took 
place in the surface of the earth. Here de- 
pendence must be put upon the observations 
within the area of the great disturbances. It 
is difficult to reconcile the opinions of the 
different observers on this particular point 
differences arising, doubtless, from the diffi- 

*U. S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 494. Plate 1. 



culty experienced during the earthquake in 
observing and recording the facts as they 
actually existed; the feeling of terror was so 
great that it was almost a matter of impossi- 
bility to make accurate and exact observa- 
tions. The disturbances of the crust is .said by 
Bringier to have been like the blowing up of 
the earth accompanied by loud explosions.** 

Casseday says : "It seems as if the .surface 
of the earth was afloat and set in motion by a 
slight application of immense power and when 
this regular motion is moved by a sudden cross 
.shove all order is destroyed and a boiling 
action is produced, during the continuance of 
which the degree of violence is greatest and 
the scene most dreadful.*** 

Plint was told by other witnesses that the 
movement was an undulation of the earth 
resembling waves, increasing in elevation as 
they advanced, and when they had attained 
a certain fearful height the earth would 
burst, t 

This agrees with LeSieur's account also, 
and Haywood writes that the motions were 
undulating, the agitating surface quivering 
like the flesh of beef just killed, and the mo- 
tion progressed from west to east and was 
sometimes perpendicular, resembling a house 
rising and suddenly let fall to the ground.J 

Audubon, describing his experiences in 
Kentucky, says that the ground rose and fell 
in successive furrows like the ruffled waters of 
a lake ; the earth moved like a field of corn 
before the breeze. Tj 

This wave motion of the crust seems to have 

** Bringier, American Jour, of Science, 1st se- 
ries. Vol. Ill (1821), p. 1546. 

*** Casseday, History of Louisville, p. 122. 

+ Timothy Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten 
Years, p. 223. 

X Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal History of 
Tennessee, p. 124. 

H Audubon, J. J., .Journal, Vol. II, p. 234. 



216 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



been the most common form of disturbance 
though there were also certain vertical mo- 
tions which seem, however, not to have been 
so destructive as the wave motion. 

It is plainly evident that if these accounts 
of the waving of the earth are accurate the 
shocks must have been very severe and de- 
structive. That such was the case is amply 
evidenced by the testimony of men who visited 
the scene shortly afterward, Flint, who saw 
the country within a short time after the 
shocks, says: "The country exhibited a 
melancholy aspect of chasms, of sand covering 
the earth, of trees thrown down, or lying at 
an angle of 45 degrees, or split in the middle. 
The earthquakes still recurred at short inter- 
vals, so that the people had no confidence to 
rebuild good houses, or chimneys of brick."* 

One of the remarkable things connected 
with the earthquakees is that notwithstanding 
their very great violence, few people were 
killed. The inhabitants were very naturally 
greatly alarmed and for a time refused to live 
within their hovises, but they finally came to 
pay little or no attention to them. It seems 
that the earthquakes killed only one person 
by means of falling walls. This remarkable 
fact, when we compare the record of this 
earthquake with the record of other shocks 
which were possibly no more severe, is due to 
a number of circumstances. In the first place 
the country was very thinly settled. Within 
the whole New Madrid region as we have de- 
fined it, there were only a few hundred per- 
sons living. The character of the buildings 
also contributed to this escape from death. 
There were no brick or stone buildings; most 
of the houses were built of logs and were only 
one story in height. These log houses were 
strongly built and at the same time were 
elastic and fitted to give before the shook of 
• Flint, Eeeolleetions of the Last Ten Years. 



the earthquake. Then, too, the most severe 
shocks came after the people had gotten out 
of their hoiLses. Besides the person killed by 
the falling of a house, one woman died from 
the effects of fright. She was so terrified that 
.she ran until she was entirely exhausted and 
died.! 

A number of men seem to have been 
drowned, some of whom were in boats that 
were overthrowTi and sunk by the violence of 
the waves. And there were others who were 
drowned, it seems, by falling into the river 
from caving banks. Some men were drowned 
by the disappearance of Island No. 94 near 
Vicksburg. Broadhead saj-s: "They tied 
up at this island on the evening of the 15th of 
December, 1811. In looking around they 
found that a party of river pirates occupied 
part of the island and were expecting Sarpy 
with the intention of robbing him. As soon 
as Sarpy foimd that out he quietly dropped 
lower down the river. In the night the earth- 
quake came and next morning when the ac- 
companying haziness disappeared, the i.sland 
could no longer be seen. It had been quietly 
destroyed, as well as its pirate inhabitants." 

Having given some of the general features 
of the earthquake, of the effect upon the peo- 
ple living within the district, it is now 
intended to give a more particular account 
of some of the phenomena that accompanied 
the .shocks. Many of the okservers speak of 
the darlmess that accompanied the most severe 
disturbances. In the account of Eliza Bryan, 
given herewith, she speaks of the awful dark- 
ness of the atmosphere ; Godfrey LeSieur says 
a dense black cloud of vapor overshadowed 
the land. At Herculaneum it is said that 
the "air was filled with smoke or fog so that 
a boat could not be seen twenty paces, nor a 
house fifty feet away ; the air did not clear 

t Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, 
p. 223. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



217 



until the middle of the day after the shocks. ' '* 
At New Madrid it is said that at the time 
of the shock the air was clear but iii five min- 
utes it become very black and this darkness 
returned at each successive shock, t 



r 



Geologists have sought an explanation of 
this darkness and some have ascribed it to 
dust projected into the air by the agitation 
of the surface, the opening and closing of fis- 
sures in dry earth, land slides, and falling 
chimneys and buildings. Besides the dust it 
is probable that the water vapors coming from 
the warm water sent up from the cracks and 
small craters was condensed and helped to 
make the air foggy. The darkness observed 
in places outside of the earthquake area may 
very probably be ascribed to other causes than 
the earthquakes themselves ; perhaps to storms 
and clouds. 

Besides the darkness the shocks seem to have 
been accompanied by sulphurous or other ob- 
noxious odors and vapors. Mrs. Bryan speaks 
of the saturation of the atmosphere with sul- 
phurous vapors; other observers tell of sul- 
phur gas escaping through the cracks and 
tainting the air and even the water so that it 
was not fit for use. These vapors or odors 
were probably due to buried organic matter 
which had been covered by the alluviiim. Gas 
from this matter was released through the 
fissures and small craters formed by the earth- 
quake. 

Some accounts speak of the light flashes and 
glows in connection with the shocks. D — 
says that there issued no burning flames but 
flashes such as would result from an explosion 
of gas or of the passing of electricity from 
cloud to cloud, and Senator Linn says the 

* Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc, New 
York. Vol. I. p. 291. 
t Mitchill, p. 297. 



shock was accompanied by flashes of electric- 
ity. Another observer says sparks of fire were 
emitted from the earth. Over all the affected 
area, indeed, there were reports of lights and 
flashes like lightning about the time of the 
earthquake shocks. 

It is not possible to accoimt for these lights 
and glows in any satisfactory way. Some 
have doubted their presence at all, but they 
are mentioned by so many observers as to 
make it difficult to deny their existence alto- 
gether. They might possibly have been light- 
ning accompanying storms. There .seems to 
be no good reason for ascribing them to burn- 
ing gas. The suggestion has been made by 
some that the light was due to magnetic dis- 
turbances and was perhaps of electrical char- 
acter. 

One of the phenomena accompanying the 
earthquakes and one of the mosst noticeable of 
all, was the noise. This noise was remarked 
by many persons. Among the quotations 
given from contemporary accounts, a number 
speak of the tremendous sounds terrifying in 
their nature, Haywood says : "A murmuring 
noise, like that of fire disturbed by the blow- 
ing of a bellows, issued from the pores of the 
earth ; a distant rumbling was heard almost 
without intermission and sometimes seemed 
to be in the air." (Haywood, Natural and 
Aboriginal History of Tennessee.) Senator 
Linn compares the sounds to those produced 
by a discharge of one thousand pieces of artil- 
lery and says also that hi.ssing sounds accom- 
panied the throwing out of the water from the 
crevices. Flint says the sounds of the ordi- 
nary shocks were like distant tlumder, but 
that the vertical shocks were accompanied by 
explosions and terrible mixture of noises. 
Mrs. Bryan speaks of the "awful noises re- 
sembling loud and distant thunder but more 
hoarse and vibrating." The noise of the escap- 



218 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



I. 



ing water is compared to the escape of steam 
from a boiler by some of the observers. Au- 
dubon speaks of the sound as if it were "the 
distant rumbling of a violent tornado," while 
Bradbury mentions the fact that he "was 
awakened by a tremendous noise" and noticed 
the fact that the sound which was heard at 
the time of every shock always preceding it at 
least a second and uniformly came from the 
same point and went off in the opposite direc- 
tion. 

Other observers describe the sound in dif- 
ferent ways. One said "'when the shocks 
came on the stones on the surface. of the earth 
were agitated by a tremulous motion, like 
eggs in a frying pan, and made a noise similar 
to that of the wheels of a wagon in a pebbly 
road." Others speak of the sound as resem- 
bling a blaze of fire acted upon by the wind, 
or the wind rushing through the trees, or a 
carriage passing along the street, or distant 
thmider. 



P Tlie effects of the earthquake on the surface 
of the earth itself may be summed up as con- 
sisting of fissures, sand-blows, a rising of parts 
of the earth and sinking of other portions, 
faulting of the crust and in some cases land 
slides. One of the most common of these 
phenomena was fissuring; the earth waves 
which we have described as accompanying the 
shocks burst in many cases, leaving a fissure, 
some of these as long as five miles. This was 
an estimate made by LeSieur ; others mention 
fissures 600 or 700 feet long and 20 to 30 feet 
wide.* 

Flint says that some of the fi.ssures were 
wide enough to swallow horses or cattle, t 
He also says that people fell into these 
fissures and were gotten out with great diffi- 



* Foster, The Mississippi Valley, p. 19. 

t Flint, Eeeollections of the Last Ten Years, p. 



226. 



culty. In some instances the inhabitants 
felled trees crosswise of the fissures and took 
refuge on their trunks to prevent being swal- 
lowed up. Out of these fissures there were 
ejected quantities of water and sand; mixed 
with the sand in many cases were particles of 
coal or lignite. This lignite seems to have 
been a feature of the sand which was thrown 
out from the fissures, and much of it is still 
to be found in many places throughout the 
district. ]\Iost of the contemporary accounts 
speak of it as "carbonized wood" or lignite. 
The material seen by Lyell near New IMadrid 
is described in one place as bituminous coaly 
shale (clay), such as outcrops in the river 
bank and is found in shallow wells 35 feet 
or so below the surface and in another as 
lignite. The best description of its behavior 
on combustion is given by Mitchill, who ex- 
amined samples submitted by a correspondent. 
I found it very inflammable ; it consumed with 
a bright and vivid blaze. A copious smoke 
was emitted from it, whose smell was not at 
all sulphurous, but bituminous in a high de- 
gree. Taken out of the fire in its ignited and 
burning state, it did not immediately become 
extinct, but continued to burn until it was 
consi;med. "While blowed upon, instead of 
being deadened it became brighter by the 
blast. The ashes formed during the combus- 
tion were of a whitish color and when put 
into water imparted to it the quality of turn- 
ing to a green the blue corolla of a phlox whose 
juice was subjected to its action 

Some specimens of the lignite matter were 
coated with a whitish or yellowish substance, 
suggesting sulphur, but it was probably the 
sulphate of iron common in lignite and cer- 
tain coals. Wood not lignitized was also re- 
ported by some observers.^ 

Another form of fissure seems to have been 
formed only near banks of streams ; the por- 

t IT. S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 46. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



219 



tioii of the alluvial soil between the fissure 
and the stream bank moved in the direction of 
the stream and left a considerably larger fis- 
sure than would otherwise have been formed. 
All these fissures of both characters extend in 
the general direction of the earthciuake shocks. 
To understand their formation and also to 
account for the depth to which they extended, 
it must be remembered that practically all of 
the country affected by the earthquake is 
underlain at a depth of 10 to 20 feet by quick- 
sand and that over this quicksand is a coating 
of alluvial soil consisting at the top of loam 
and then of layers of sand and clay alternat- 
ing. The fissures opened out usually to the 
layers of quicksand, a depth of 10 to 20 feet. 
There are numbers of these fissures still to be 
seen. They have been partly filled by the 
action of the weather and by blowing in of 
leaves. 

When Lyell visited the New Madrid region 
in 1849 he saw a number of fissures still open, 
some of which he followed continuously for 
over a mile. They ranged in depth from five 
to six feet and from two to four feet in width. 
Lyell also saw' a fault produced by the earth- 
quake near Bayou St. John east of New Mad- 
rid, where the descent was eight to ten feet. 
Puller says that at Beechwell, northeast of 
Campbell in Dunklin county, is a fine fissure 
filled with sand. Pieces of lignite and shaly 
clay were seen in the trench, which appears 
to have been pvishecl diagonall.y upward into 
the clay alluvium, but not with sufficient force 
at least on one side, to break through.* 
He also gives an account of various fissures 
seen by him near Caruthersville, near Blythes- 
ville, and many of them across the Arkansas 
line. They are also to be seen east of the 
Mississippi river. 

These fissures in many cases were partly, if 
* U. S. Oeolosrical Survey, Bulletin 404. p. .54. 



not entirely, filled. This was caused by the 
caving in of banks or walls and also by the 
pushing up of material from below. As the 
walls of the fissure opened, sand and water 
below the alluvium were pushed up, in some 
eases overflowed the walls of the fissure. It 
seems evident, too, that many of these cracks 
or fissures did not extend entirely to the sur- 
face of the earth but were stopped before 
reaching it. Into these cracks sand was forced 
up from below, filling the cracks and forming 
what geologists term a dike. These dikes are 
sometimes seen in the digging of wells or 
cellars and take the form of a narrow streak 
of sand pressed in between the other mate- 
rials. Thomas Beckwith of Charleston photo- 
graphed a remarkable dike of this character 
in Mississippi county, f 

Besides these fissures there were also formed 
what geologists term "faults" in the surface, 
though these were nothing like so common as 
the fissures. It was probably due to these that 
falls were formed in the Mississippi river, the 
faults running crosswise of the channel. Sev- 
eral accounts speak of these falls, some of 
them being as much as six feet in height and 
extending entirely across the river. 

No other effect of the earthquake has caused 
so much discussion or so wide a difference of 
opinion as that effect which geologists call 
' ' warping, ' ' a term used to include the rising 
of part of the crust and the depression of 
other parts. The accounts given by several 
of those who witnessed the shocks speak of 
the uplifting of parts of the surface of the 
earth. In the accoimt of Mrs. Bryan it is 
said that the beds of some ponds were lifted 
up so that the ponds were drained and their 
former beds raised several feet. A. N. Dillard 
says : ' ' Previous to the earthquake keel boats 
would come up the St. Francois river and 

t U. S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 494, plate 3. 



220 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



pass into the Mississippi river three miles be- 
low New Madrid; the bayou is now dry 
laud."*' 

Others mention the terrible depression in 
the river, which was probably due to the up- 
lift of part of its bed. 

"" j\Iore general and much more important, 
probably so far as Southeast Missouri is con- 
cerned, were the effects of the earthquake in 
producing a depression of the surface. Fuller 
divides the lands which were depressed and 
which are characterized as sunk lands, into 
three divisions — the first, those marked by 
sand-sloughs ; second, those characterized by 
river swamps, and third, those covered by 
lakes of standing water. 

The sand-sloughs are broad, shallow sloughs 
generally of considerable length, several feet 
in depth and marked by well defined ridges 
covered by extruded sand and interspersed 
with depressions, in which the timber has been 
killed by standing water. 

The river swamps include the depressed 
areas along certain of the streams, the level 
of which is such that water stands over them 
for considerable periods but does not cover 
them so deep as to prevent the growth of 
timber. They are, therefore, characterized by 
wet-land timber, most of which is young 
growth. Often the stumps of characteristic 
upland varieties of trees killed by the sub- 
sidence may be seen. 

The sunk-land lakes are broad, shallow and 
essentiallj' permanent bodies of water occiu*- 
ring in depressions of the bottom lands near 
the ]\Iississippi and other streams or along the 
depressed channels of streams like the St. 
Francois, t 

The amoimt of depression caused by the 
earthquakes varied in different localities from 

* Foster, The Mississippi Valley, p. 9. 

t IT. S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 494, p. 65. 



two to probably twenty feet. According to 
Fuller the sunk lands are limited to the flat 
bottom lands in Mississippi, Little and St. 
Francois rivers. The testimony of those who 
were present is that the land where New 
i\Iadrid now stands subsided fifteen feet. 
Lyell, who visited the region in 1846, when 
the evidences were much clearer than at pres- 
ent, says: "The largest area affected by the 
convulsions lies eight or ten miles westward 
of the Mississippi and inland from the town 
of New Madrid, in ]\Iissouri. It is called the 
'sunk country' and is said to extend along 
the course of the White Water (Little river?) 
and its tributaries for a distance of between 
70 and 80 miles north and south and 30 miles 
or more east and west. Throughout this area 
innumerable submerged trees — some standing 
leafless, others prostrate — are seen, and so 
great is the extent of the lake and marsh that 
an active trade in the .skins of muskrats, 
minks, otters and other wild animals is now 
carried on there. In March, 1846, I skirted 
the borders of the simk country nearest to 
New ]\Iadrid, passing along the Bayou St. 
John and Little Prairie, where dead trees of 
various kinds — some erect in the water, others 
fallen and strewed in dense masses over the 
bottom, in the shallows and near the shore — 
were conspicuous." (Lyell.) 

Farther south similar conditions existed. 
Dillard says: "I have trapped there (in the 
region of the St. Francois) for thirty years. 
There is a great deal of siuiken land caused 
by the earthquake of 1811. There are large 
trees of walnut, white oak and mulberry, such 
as grow on high land, which are now seen 
submerged ten and twenty feet beneath the 
water. In some of the lakes I have seen 
cypresses so far beneath the surface that with 
a canoe I have paddled among the branches." 



HISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



221 



According to the map published by the 
United States geological survey in 1912, the 
principal areas of depression due to the earth- 
quake which are to be found in Southeast 
Missouri are as follows: The low land lying 
south of Morley and on both sides of the 
Sikeston ridge, two narrow strips between 
Sikeston and Charleston, a part of the valley 
of Little river lying west of Lilbourn, a small 
area northwest of Hayti and another similar 
area lying south of Hayti, the bed of Little 
river south of the crossing on the Frisco be- 
tween Hayti and Kennett, the section called 
Lake Nicormy and extending south of Big 
lake, a large section lying east and south of 
Maiden, the section west of Maiden known as 
"West Slough and extending as far as Chillete- 
caux Slough, a large part of the valley of 
Buffalo creek, the sloughs lying between Buf- 
falo creek and the St. Francois river includ- 
ing Seneca and Kinnamore, the bed of Varner 
river, and a part of the valley of the St. 
Francois west and south of Kennett. These 
are the principal areas of land submerged at 
the time of the earthquake in Southeast Mis- 
souri. Other large areas are to be found in 
Craighead and Green counties in Arkansas 
and include the territory about Lake City and 
the St. Francis lake. 

In some places the sinking was enough to 
cause the land to be covered with water dur- 
ing the entire year. This resulted in the death 
of the timber. Some of this was timber found 
only on high land. The stumps are still to be 
seen. In many places the remains of these 
old trees are still to be seen, sometimes stand- 
ing up above the water and in other cases 
entirely submerged. The writer remembers 
to have seen the bed of Little river, east of 
Hornersville, at a time of low water, when 
the stumps of hundreds of trees were visible, 
showing conclusivelv that this channel of the 



river was at one time much higher land. 
Its level was in all probability changed by 
the earthquake and the timbers killed by the 
incoming of the water. 

At other places throughout the submerged 
region old cypress trees are to be found grow- 
ing in the water, having still a feeble, linger- 
ing life in them, although the large bole at 
the root of the tree which is characteristic of 
the cypress, is entirely submerged. Some of 
these old trees were at Coker Landing on 
Little river and at many other places along 
that stream. 

The sinking of the land is evidenced not 
alone by the existence of the stumps and 
trunks of trees killed by the water, but also 
by the existence of parts of the old banks of 
Little river. It was said by the inhabitants 
of the section before the earthquake, that the 
territory now known as Little river swamps, 
extending from within New Madrid coimty 
to within Dunklin county, was formerly a level 
plain covered with timber, but not a swamp ; 
and that through this level plain Little river 
made its way, a stream with high banks and 
a well defined channel. That this was the case 
seems to be showTi by the fact that at a num- 
ber of places along the course of Little river 
there are still to be seen parts of these high 
banks. Throughout the greater part and 
course of the river it spreads out over im- 
mense territory, with scarcely anything to 
define its banks ; but at places there are seen 
what are believed to be the remains of its 
former banks. 

One other effect of the earthquake on the 
land is still to be described, and that is the 
forcing out upon tlie surface of water, 
sand, mud and gas. Bringier says the water 
forced its way by blowing up the earth with 
loud explosions. "It rushed out in all quar- 
ters bringing with it enormous quantities of 



222 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



carbonized wood reduced mostly into dust, 
which was ejected to the height of 10 and 15 
feet and fell in a black shower mixed with 
the sand which its rapid motion had forced 
along. At the same time the roar and whis- 
tling produced by the impetuosity of the air 
escaping from its confinement seemed to in- 
crease the horrible disorder. * * * i^ the 
meantime the surface was sinking and a black 
liquid was rising to the saddle-girths of my 
horse."* 

Great quantities of this water were thrown 
out. Flint says that the amount ejected in 
the neighborhood of Little Prairie was suffi- 
cient to cover a tract many miles in extent 
from three to four feet deep. Some districts 
were still covered when he saw them seven 
years after the earthquake.! 

Out of the fissures and small craters there 
was blown, along with other material of vari- 
ous kinds, great quantities of sand, which 
eame from below the strata of clay which 
underlies the alluvial top soil of the district. 
It was in this sand that the lignite was prin- 
cipally contained. 

The sand thus ejected formed the sand 
blows characteristic of part of the New Madrid 
area. The name seems to have been given 
them from the fact that the sand was blown 
out of the craters or fissures. The ordinary 
sand blow is a patch of sand nearly circular 
in shape, from 8 to 15 feet across, and a few 
inches higher than the .surroimding soil. Some 
of them are much larger and many of them 
are not circular. The material contained in 
the sand blows is a white quartz sand, mixed 
in some cases with clay, and in nearly all 
cases with lignite. 

These sand blows at the present time are 

* Bringier, Amer. Jour, of Science, 1st Series, 
Vol. Ill, p. 15. 

+ Flint, Eeeollections of the Last Ten Years, 
p. 222. 



found scattered over a considerable part of 
the area covered by the- earthquake. They da 
not occur, however, in all parts of it. They 
are not found immediately along the river 
nor seldom upon the domes or wplifts previ- 
ously described. ]\Iany of them are to be 
found in the neighborhood of New Madrid, 
along the railroad leading to Campbell, about 
Campbell, in the neighborhood of Lilbourn 
and Portageville. There are also many be- 
tween Hayti and Caruthersville, and about 
Pascola. and some are found on the ridge 
extending south from Dexter, especially in the 
southern part of Dunklin county. 

The origin of these sand blows, as we have 
said, seems fairly evident. Out of the cracks 
opened in the alluvial top soil was forced sand 
and water in the form of a fountain and the 
sand was distributed over a .small area about 
this crack. 

Besides the sand blows there are certain 
depressions three to five feet in depth bor- 
dered on either side by ridges of sand parallel 
with one another, which are called sand 
sloughs. Some of these sloughs are wide and 
they are found only in the lower lands of the 
district. It has been considered by some stu- 
dents that they were formed at the time of 
the earthquake. The fissures which were 
opened were in many cases large, and out of 
them were forced enormous quantities of sand, 
which was piled in ridges coinciding in part 
with the sides of the fissures and spread over 
the area between them, helping to form the 
channel now Imown as a sand slough. 

Of the phenomena of the earthquake among 
the most interesting are the sinks still to be 
seen in some places of the earthquake area. 
They are perhaps the most conspicuous of all 
the evidences of the shocks and perhaps the 
rarest. They are circular depressions in the 
alluvium originally from a few feet up to 
fifteen yards or more in diameter, and from 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



223 



5 to 30 feet in depth. Lyell gives this account 
oi the cavities which he saw at Xew Madrid : 
"Hearing that some of these cavities still 
existed near the town, I went to see one of 
them, three-quarters of a mile to the west- 
ward. There I found a nearly circular hol- 
low, 10 yards wide and 5 feet deep, with a 
smaller one near it, and I observed, scattered 
about over the surrounding level ground, 
fragments of black bitiuninous shale, with 
much white sand. Within a distance of a few 
hundred yards were five more of these sand- 
bursts, or sand blows, as they are sometimes 
termed here, and rather more than a mile 
farther west, near the house of Mr. Savors, 
my guide pointed out to me what he called 
'the sink hole where the negi'o was drowned.' 
It is a striking object, interrupting the regu- 
larity of a flat plain, the sides very steep and 
28 feet deep from the top to the water's edge. 
The water now standing in the bottom is said 
to have been originally verj^ deep, but has 
grown shallow by the washing in of sand and 
the crumbling of the bank caused by the feet 
of cattle coming to drink. I was assured that 
many wagon loads of matter were cast up out 
of this hollow, and the cjuantity must have 
been considerable to account for the void; 
yet the pieces of lignite and the quantity of 
sand now heaped on the level plain near its 
borders would not suffice to fill one-tenth part 
of the cavity. Perhaps a part of the ejected 
substance may have been swallowed up again 
and the rest may have been so mixed with 
water as to have spread like a fluid over the 
soil." 

Bringier says: "The whole surface of the 
country remained covered with holes which, 
to compare small things with gi'eat, resembled 
so many craters of volcanoes surrounded with 
a ring of carbonized wood and sand, which 



rose to the height of about seven feet. I had 
occasion a few months after to sound the 
depth of several of these holes and found them 
not to exceed 20 feet ; but I must remark the 
quicksand had washed into them." 

Perhaps the most noticeable of these sinks 
still to be found in the earthquake region are 
along the west side of the Little river bottoms. 
Just east of the town of Caruth in Diuiklin 
eoimty there are a number of these sinks well 
defiaied in portions and still known to the 
inhabitants as having been caused by the 
earthquake shocks. They exist, of course, in 
other parts of the section, but are not numer- 
ous. It is difficult to determine exactly how 
they were cavised, but in all probability were 
the result of the forcing out of large quanti- 
ties of sand through the cracks in the allu- 
vium, or through the sinking away of the sand 
at the bottom into the nearby bed of some 
stream. It must be remembered that the sand 
was in a semi-fluid condition and would easily 
flow away through a crack opened in the bank 
of a stream. 

Various conjectures as to the cause of these 
shocks have been suggested. A few persons at 
the time advanced the idea that they were 
caused by volcanic action. This idea was 
rejected, however, by those acquainted with 
the country, owing to the absence of any indi- 
cation of volcanic action. Another opinion 
was that they were due to disturbances in the 
moiuitains to the west. 

Some have thought the earthquakes were 
caused by some change taking place in the 
alluvial soil itself; they have suggested the 
caving of the banks of the river, the filling in 
of imderground caverns, the explosion of 
masses of gas and oil. The quotation of Nut- 
tall in another place refers to the earthquake 



224 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



as caused bj' the decomposition of beds of 
lignite near the level of the river and filled 
with pyrites. 

It is sufficient to point out in an analj'sis 
of these suggested causes that they are entirely 
inadequate to accoiuit for the violence of the 
shocks and especially for the wide area over 
which they were felt. The caving of the 
banks of the river, no matter how extensive, 
could have affected the soil for only a few 
feet, and no explosion of gas could have 
shaken the western half of the United States. 
In fact, no disturbance of any character what- 
ever, taking place within the alluvial soil, 
could have been eommimicated through the 
Appalachian mountains to the east coast. 
There seems to be but one alternative and that 
is to suppose the earthquakes to have been 
caused by a movement not in the alluvial soil 
but in the underlying rocks, which extend not 
only imder the alluvium but also throughout 
the eastern half of the coiuitrj'. Faulting or 
other disturbances in these underlying rocks, 
no matter where originating, might have been 
communicated to any part of the country. 
Such movement seems on tlie w'hole to be the 
most probable origin of these tremendous dis- 
turbances. 

There follow the accounts of a number of 
persons who witnessed the scenes of the earth- 
quakes or studied them shortly afterward. 
They are given in order to preserve as many 
as possible of the facts of that time. The first 
of these is a letter written in 1816 by Mrs. 
Eliza Bryan, who at the time of the shock 
was at New Madrid. 

New Madrid, Territory of Missouri, March 

22, 1816. 

On the 16th of December, 1811. about 2 
o'clock a. m., we were visited bv a violent 



shock of an earthciuake, accompanied by a 
very awful noise resembling loud, distant 
thunder, but more hoarse and vibrating, which 
was followed in a few minutes by a complete 
saturation of the atmosphere with sulphurous 
vapor, causing total darkness. 

The screams of the affrighted inhabitants 
running to and fro, not knowing where to go 
or what to do ; the cries of the fowls and 
beasts of every species; the cracking of trees 
falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi, the 
current of which retrograded for a few min- 
utes, owing as is supposed to an eruption in 
its bed, all formed a scene truly horrible. 
From that time until nearly simrise a number 
of lighter shocks occurred, at which time one 
still more violent than the first took place, 
with the same accompaniments as the first, 
and the terror which had been excited in 
everyone, and indeed in all animal nature, was 
now, if possible, doubled. The inhabitants 
tied in every direction to the country, suppos- 
ing that there was less danger at a distance 
from than near the river. 

There were several shocks of a day, but 
lighter than those mentioned, until the 23d 
of Januaiy, 1812, when one occurred as vio- 
lent as the severest one of the former ones, 
accompanied by the same phenomena as the 
former. From this time until the 4th of 
February the earth was in continual agitation, 
visibly waving as a gentle sea. On that day 
there was another shock nearly as hard as the 
preceding ones. Next day four shocks, and 
on the 7th about 4 o'clock a. m., a concussion 
took place so much more violent than those 
which had preceded it that it was denominated 
the hard .shock. The awful darkness of the 
atmosphere, which was as formerly saturated 
with sulphurous vapor, and the violence of the 
tempestuous thundering noise that accom- 
panied it. together with all the otlier phenom- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



225 



ena mentioned, formed a scene the description 
of which required the most sublimely fanciful 
imagination. At first the Mississippi seemed 
to recede from its banks and its waters gath- 
ered up like a moimtaiu, leaving for a moment 
many boats on the bai-e sand, in which time 
the poor sailors made their escape from them. 
It was then .seen rising fifteen or twenty feet 
perpendicularly and expanding, as it were, at 
the same moment, the banks were overflowed 
with a retrograde current rapid as a torrent. 
The boats which before had been left on the 
sand were now torn from their moorings and 
suddenly driven up a creek at the mouth of 
which they laid, to the distance in some in- 
stances of nearly a quarter of a mile. The 
river falling as rapidly as it had risen, receded 
within its banks again with such violence that 
it took with it whole groves of young cotton- 
wood trees which hedged its borders. They 
were broken off with such regularity in some 
instances that persons who had not witnessed 
the fact would be with difficulty persuaded 
that it had not been the work of art. A great 
many fish were left on the banks, being unable 
to keep pace with the water; the river was 
covered with the wrecks of boats. 

In all the hard shocks mentioned the earth 
was horribly torn to pieces; the surface of 
hundreds of acres was from time to time cov- 
ered over, of various depths, by sand which 
issued from the fissures which were made in 
great numbers all over this country, some of 
which closed up immediately after they had 
vomited forth their sands and water; in some 
places, however, there was a substance some- 
what resembling coal or impure stone coal 
thrown up with the sands. It is impossible to 
.say what the depth of the fissures or irregular 
breaks were; we have reason to believe that 
some of them are very deep. The site of this 
town was evidently settled down fifteen feet. 

Vol. I— 1 5 



and not more than half a mile below the town 
there does not appear to be any alteration on 
the bank of the river, but back from the river 
a short distance the numerous large ponds, or 
lakes, as they were called, were nearly all 
dried up. The beds of some of them are ele- 
vated above their former banks several feet, 
and lately it has been discovered that a lake 
was formed on the opposite side of the Missis- 
sippi river in the Indian coimtry upwards 
of one hundred miles in length and from one 
to six miles in width, of the depth of from ten 
to fifty feet. It has connection with the river 
at both ends and it is conjectured the princi- 
pal part of the Mississippi river will pass 
that way. "We were constrained by the fear 
of our houses falling to live twelve or eighteen 
months after the first shocks in little light 
camps made of boards; but we gradually be- 
came callous and returned to our houses again. 
Most of them who fled from the country in 
time of the hard shocks have returned home. 
We have slight shocks occasionallj^. It is 
seldom we are more than a week without feel- 
ing one and sometimes three or four in a day. 
There were two this winter past much harder 
than we have felt them for two years before. 
Since, they appear to be lighter, and v>'e begin 
to hope that ere long they will entirely cease. 
There is one circumstance worthy of re- 
mark; this country was subject to very hard 
thunder, but for twelve months before the 
earthquake there was none at all, and but very 
little since. 

Your humble servant, 

Eliza Bryan.* 

Long says that the Missouri Indians be- 
lieved earthquakes to be the effort of a supe- 
rior agency connected with the immediate 
operations of the Master of Life. The earth- 

*Le Sieur, in New Madrid Eeeord. October 4, 1892. 



226 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



quakes which in the year 1811 almost de- 
stroyed the town of New Madrid on the Missis- 
sippi, were very sensibly felt on the upper 
portion of the Missouri country and occa- 
sioned much superstitious dread among the 
Indians.* 

Bradbury, who at the time of the earth- 
cjuake was on a keel boat not far south of the 
Chickasaw bluffs, says that on the night of 
the first shock they had tied their boat to a 
small island about 500 yards above the en- 
trance to the channel known as the Devil's 
channel. He was awakened about 10 o'clock 
in the uight by a nmst tremejidous noise ac- 
companied by so violent an agitation of the 
boat that it appeared in danger of upsetting. 
He found the other four men on the boat in 
verj' great alarm and almost luiconscious from 
terror. "When he reached the deck of the boat 
and could see the river he foimd it agitated 
as if by storm and although the noise was 
inconceivably loud and terrific, he could dis- 
tinctly hear the fall of trees and the scream- 
ing of the wild fowl of the river. After some 
moments, during which all on the boat 
thought they would be destroyed, they made 
their way to the stern of the boat in order to 
put out a fire which had been kindled on the 
flat surface of a large rock. By this time the 
shock had ceased, but they were further 
frightened by the fact that the perpendicular 
banks, both above and below the boat, began 
to fall into the river in such vast masses as 
to nearly sink the boat by the large swells 
which it occasioned. 

After some difficulty he managed to send 
two men up the bank of the island to which 
they were moored to see if the island itself 
had not been cut in two by the shock; they 
had suspected this was the fact, owing to the 
noise which they had heard. Bradburj^ him- 
self went on shore at about half past two in 

* Long Journal, p. 57. 



the morning; just as he was making his way 
to the shore another shock came, terrible in- 
deed, but not equal to the first. On reaching 
the shore he found that the bank to which his 
boat was tied was divided from the rest of the 
island by a chasm four feet in width and that 
the bank itself had sunk at least two feet ; the 
chasm which had opened seemed to be about 
80 yards in length. A number of other shocks 
were felt during the uight but they were not 
so violent as the first two. It was noticed that 
the soiuid which was heard at the time of 
eveiw shock always preceded it at least a sec- 
ond ■•nul that the sound came every time from 
the same point and went off in an opposite 
direction ; the shocks seemed to travel from a 
little north of east to the westward. By day- 
light they had eomited twenty-seven shocks 
but on lauding they were unable to cross the 
channel, the river at that time was covered 
with foam and drift timber and had risen con- 
siderably, but the boat was still safe. 

They observed two canoes floating down 
the river, in one of which there was some 
Indian corn and some clothes. They found 
later that the men who had been in these 
canoes, as well as some others, had been 
drowned at the time of the shock. Just as 
they loosened the boat, preparing to depart, 
there came another shock almost equal to the 
first. At intervals during the day there were 
other shocks, among them a very strong one 
occurred, and the river was very greatly agi- 
tated. Mr. Bridge, one of Bradbury's com- 
panions, was standing on the bank during 
one of these and the shock was so violent that 
he was almost thrown into the river. 

At 11 o'clock that morning there came an- 
other violent shock that seemed to affect the 
men in the boat as seriously as if tliey had 
been on the land ; the trees on both sides of 
the river were violently agitated and the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



227 



banks iu sevxTal places fell into the river, 
carrying with them innumerable trees. The 
soimds were very terrifying ; the crash of fall- 
ing timber, the sound of the shock itself, and 
the screaming of the wild fowl produced an 
idea that all nature was in a state of dissolu- 
tion. The river was greatly agitated, so much 
so, in fact, that Bradbury's companions re- 
fused to remain in the boat though he himself 
was of the opinion that it was much safer 
there than on the land. The shocks continued 
from day to daj^ until the 17th. They found 
the people on the river to be very much 
alarmed, many of them having fled away, and 
those that remained were very anxious to do 
so. Bradbury was told by some of them that 
a chasm had opened on the sand bar and on 
closing had thrown water to the height of a 
tall tree and that chasms had opened in the 
earth in several places back from the river.* 
Flint, on visiting America in 1818, wrote an 
account of the New Madrid earthquake as 
reported to him at that time: "During the 
year 1812 two considerable shocks and many 
lesser vibrations were observed. It appeared 
that the center from which the convulsions 
proceeded were in the vicinity of New IMadrid. 
At that place a dreadful commotion prevailed 
in December, 1812 ; the trees beat upon one 
another and were either twisted or broken, the 
site of the town subsided about eight feet, 
many acres of land sunk and were overflowed 
by the river and the water rushed in torrents 
from crevices opened in the land, boats were 
sunk and simk logs of timber were raised from 
the bottom in such quantities that almost cov- 
ered the surface of the river, and that at slight 
intervals of a few days slight vibrations were 
felt to the present time. Many of the people 
deserted their possessions and retreated to 

* Bradbury's Travels, p. 204. 



the ilissouri where lands were granted them 
by congress.** 

Faux quotes a man who lived in Ohio and 
whom he visited in 1818, as follows: "It 
shook people out of their beds, knocked down 
brick chimneys and made old log houses crack 
and rattle. On the ]\Iississippi, too, the con- 
vulsive motion of the water was truly awful, 
running and rising mountains high and the 
solid land on the high banks was seen in an 
imdulated agitation like the waters of the sea. 
New IMadrid siuik down several feet, the land, 
however, in many parts aroimd this town, is 
covered with w-ater.f 

From the proceeds of the land granted to 
him on account of the New Madrid earth- 
quake, August Chouteau established the first 
distillery in St. Louis.$ 

LeSieur says that at the time of the earth- 
quake there was living on a bayou called 
Terre Rouge, one of the tributaries of Pemis- 
cot bayou, a man by the name of Culberson. 
The bayou at that point formed a short curve 
or elbow and on the point was Culberson's 
house; between the house and the extreme 
point was his well and smoke house. On the 
morning of the 16th of December, 1811, just 
after a hard shock had subsided, Mrs. Culber- 
son started to the well for water and to the 
smoke house for meat, and discovered that 
they were on the opposite side of the river; 
the shock had opened a new channel across 
the point between the house and the welL^I 

In 1871 Professor Hager asked Mr. LeSieur 
certain questions concerning this earthquake 
and these answers, which shed some light on 
the situation, are reproduced here: "First — - 

** Flint, Letters from America, p. 246. 
t Faux, Journal, p. :i80. 
t Early Western Travel, Vol. IV, p. 138. 
11 LeSieur in Weekly Record, Oct. 4, 1893. 



228 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



That earthquakes in this region of country 
mentioned in my former communications were 
never known, nor are there any signs left on 
the surface of the earth as in that of 1811 and 
1812, to indicate that there had ever been any. 
And in many conversations had with the old 
men of several tribes — Shawnees, Delawares 
and Cherokees — all said they had no tradi- 
tionary account that earthquakes had ever 
visited the country before. 

' ' Second — With regard to the charcoal men- 
tioned, it may be the kind you mention (alber- 
tine, or solidified asphaltum). The peculiar 
odor of the coal induced the belief that it was 
impregnated with sulphur, yet it may have 
been the odor of petroleum. Its smell was 
unlmown to us at that period. 

"Third — The water thrown up during the 
eruption of the ' land waves ' was luke warm ; 
so warm, indeed, as to produce no chilly sen- 
sation while wading and swimming through 
it. Since the year 1812 the shakes have been 
of frequent occurrence, appearing at intervals 
and not periodical, and seemingly growing 
less every j'ear. 

"Fourth — It would be difficult to say with 
any degree of certainty how high the water, 
coal and sand were thrown up. The numer- 
ous fissures opened were of different sizes, 
some twelve to fifteen feet wide, while others 
were not over four or five feet ; by guess I 
would say the waters, etc., thrown up were 
from six to ten feet high. Besides these long 
and narrow fissures the water, sand and coal 
were thrown out to a considerable height in 
a circular form, leaving large and deep basins, 
some of them one hundred yards across and 
sufficiently deep to retain water during the 



driest seasons." (LeSieur, M'eekly Tlccord.) 
In order to arrive- at some conclusion as to 
the general and permanent effects of the 
shocks on the level and the drainag^i of the 
country, a description is here inserted of the 
drainage of the section before the earthquakes. 
The account as given is condensed from tlie 
articles written in 1893 by Mr. Godfrey Le- 
Sieur and published in the Weekly Record 
of New Madrid. ]Mr. LeSieur was familiar 
with the country and understood the system 
of drainage. It should be borne in mind that 
he is describing the streams and lakes as they 
were before the shocks. 

St. James Bayou had its source zn Scott 
count}' near the southern limit of the Scott 
County hills and flowed south through Scott, 
Mississippi and a part of New Madrid coun- 
ties. It received its waters from cypress 
ponds and lakes, principally those in Missis- 
sippi county. It emptied into the Mississippi 
river about ten miles northeast of New 
Madrid. 

St. John's bayou, which was from ten to 
fifteen miles west of St. James, flowed parallel 
to it. It received its waters from lakes and 
also from connection with Little river just 
south of the present town of Benton. This 
bayou was about forty miles long and emptied 
into the river at the east side of the town of 
New Madrid. Eight miles above its mouth it 
received East bayou. At the point where 
these two join, the Spaniards, during their 
occupation of the country, built a water mill, 
and on a branch of St. John's called Little 
bayou, which connected with the river, the 
French built a mill in about 1790. This mill 
site and, indeed, the entire bayou has dis- 



The "Personal Narrative of Col. John Shaw the year 1855, gives an accoimt of the New 

of Marquette County, Wisconsin," contained Madrid earthquake of 1811 and 1812: "While 

in the second annual report and collections of lodging about thirty miles north of New 

the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, for Madrid, on the 14th of December, 1811, about 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



229 



appeared, having been carried away by the 
river. Both of these bayous, St. James and 
St. John's, were named by Francois and Jo- 
seph LeSieur. 

The next stream east of St. John's bayou 
was Little river, called by the French Eiviere 
Petite. It was about seven miles west of New 
Madrid. About eight miles above New Mad- 
rid it flowed for a distance of a mile from a 
ledge strewn with boulders of bog ore. It 
received the following tributaries from the 
east: Otter bayou, which drained the lakes 
in the north part of the district ; the Decypri, 
a cypress swamp which leaves the Mississippi 
river at New Madrid and flows into cypress 
lakes and then into Little river. Two miles 
South of New Madrid, Bayou Fourche left the 
Mississippi river, entered Lakes St. Marie and 
St. Ann, then flowed past La Grande Cote 
or the Big Mound, and entered Little river. 
In the early days a ferry across this stream 
w-as maintained near this mound. Four miles 
further south. Bayou Portage flowed out from 
the Mississippi river, running to the south- 
west and entering Little river one mile south 
of Weaverville. This bayou was fi-equently 
used for the purposes of transportation. 



2 o'clock in the morning, occurred a heavy 
shock of an earthquake. The house where I 
was stopping was partl.y of wood and partly 
of brick structure; the brick portion all fell, 
but I and the family all fortunately escaped 
luihurt. At the still greater shock, about 2 
o'clock in the morning of the 7th of February, 
1812, I was in New Madrid, when nearly two 
thousand people of all ages, fled in terror from 
their falling dwellings in that place and the 
surroiuiding country, and directed their 
course north about thirty miles to Tywappity 
Hill, on the western bank of the Mississippi, 
and about seven miles back from the river. 



Barges and keel-boats were accustomed to 
come up the St. Francois and Little rivers to 
Weaverville and then pass up through Bayou 
Portage to the Mississippi. In time of low 
water it was necessary to make a carry across 
the ridge which separated a part of the bayou 
from the Mississippi. This carry was usually 
made to a point on the river where there was 
an Indian village; this place was afterward 
called Point Pleasant. This strip of high 
ground over which the carry was made came 
to be called the Poi-tage also. Four miles 
south of Point Pleasant a low place in the 
banks of the river allowed the water to flow 
into a lake which, from its grassy banks, was 
called Cushion lake. The outlet from Cush- 
ion lake to Bayou Portage was called Portage 
bay. It is upon the bank of this bay that 
the present town of Portageville is situated. 
Between Cushion lake and the next large 
bayou there were a number of small tribu- 
taries which flowed from cypress lakes into 
Little river. Pemiscot bayou drained the lakes 
and swamps of Pemiscot county and also 
received water in three difl^ereut places from 
the Mississippi river, and finally flowed into 
Little river. 



This was the first high groimd above New 
Madrid and here the fugitives formed an en- 
campment. It was proposed that all should 
kneel and engage in supplicating God 's mercy 
and all simultaneously — Catholic and Protes- 
tant — Imelt and offered solemn prayer to their 
Creator. 

"About twelve miles back towards New 
IMadrid a young woman about seventeen years 
of age, named Betsy Masters, had been left 
by her parents and family, her leg having 
been broken below the knee by the falling of 
one of the weight poles of the roof of the 
cabin, and although a total stranger I was the 



230 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



The tributaries of Little river on the west 
were principally those that it received from 
the St. Francois river and will be mentioned 
in connection with the St. Francois. The 
St. Francois, for the most of its course within 
the low lands, made its way east of Crowley's 
ridge ; it entered the low lands from the hills 
of Upper Louisiana, coming into this section 
further west and south than Little river. It 
received many tributaries from the west, but 
sent out many outlets from its western side 
to Little river. The fii'st of these western out- 
lets was ill the early times called Laque Ter- 



ouly person who would consent to return and 
see whether she still survived. Receiving a 
description of the locality of the place I 
started, and foiuid the poor girl upon a bed, as 
she had been left, with some water and corn 
bread within her reach. I cooked up some 
food for her and made her condition as com- 
fortable as circum.stauees would allow, and 
returned the same day to the grand encamp- 
ment. Miss blasters eventually recovered. 

"In abandoning their homes on this emer- 
gency the people only stopped long enough to 
get their teams and hurry in their families 
and some provisions. It was a matter of doubt 
among them whether water or fire would be 
most likely to burst forth and cover all the 
country. The timber land aroimd New Mad- 
rid sunk five or six feet, so that the lakes and 
lagoons, which seemed to have their beds 
pushed up, discharged their waters over the 
sunken lands. Through the fissures caused 
by the earthquake were forced up vast quanti- 
ties of a hard, jet black substance which ap- 
peared very smooth, as though worn by fric- 
tion. It seemed a verj^ different substance 
from either anthracite or bituminous coal. 

' ' This hegira, with all its attendant appall- 
ing circumstances, was a most heartrending 



rible; it is now called Taylor's slough. It 
left the St. Francois. river four miles south of 
Chalk bluff, then continued southeast and con- 
nected with Little river near the mouth of 
New river. From Taylor's slough, or Laque 
Terrible, as it was formerly called, two 
branches made out on the west side ; the first 
of these was called New river, and the second 
Old river. Varner's river, which was for- 
merly called Chillitecaux, makes out from the 
St. Francois, runs to the east, then south and 
then west, and joins with the St. Francois 
again. The island thus formed was the last 



scene and had the effect to constrain the most 
wicked and profane earnestly to plead to God 
in prayer for mercy. In less than three 
months most of these people returned to their 
homes and though the earthquakes continued 
occasionally with less destructive effects, they 
became so accustomed to the recurring vibra- 
tions tliat they paid little or no regard to 
them, not even interrupting or checking their 
dances, frolics and vices." 

A correspondent of the Louisiana Gazette, 
whose name is not known, wrote from Cape 
Girardeau on February 15, 1812, the follow- 
ing letter : ' ' The concussions of the earth- 
quake still continue, the shock on the 23rd ult. 
was more severe and longer than that of 
December 16th, and the shock of the 7th inst. 
was still more violent than any preceding and 
lasted longer perhaps than any on record 
(from 10 to 15 minutes) — the earth was not 
at rest for an hour ; the ravages of this ter- 
rible convulsion having nearly depopulated 
the district of new ^Madrid, but few remain 
to tell the sad tale. The inhabitants have 
fled in every direction. It has done consid- 
erable damage in this place by demolishing 
chimneys and cracking cellar walls : some 
have been driven from their houses and a 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



231 



refuge of the buffalo in this section of the 
country. This island was divided b.y a small 
stream which connected the St. Francois with 
Varner's river. It was on this stream that 
there was located the Indian village of Chil- 
litecaux. Five miles south of this village 
there was another permanent bayou known 
as Buffalo creek, which finally emptied into 
Little river. 

On the 17th of Februaiy, 1815, Congress 
passed an act for the relief of persons who 
had sustained losses of real property. This 



number are yet in tents. No doubt volcanoes 
in the mountains of the west which have been 
extinguished for ages are now reopened. ' ' 
(Goodspeed, History of Southeast Missouri.) 
While Long was at Cape Girardeau in 1819 
he says: "On the 9th at 4 p. m. a shock of 
earthquake was felt; the agitation was such 
as to cause considerable motion of furniture 
and other loose articles in the room where 
we were sitting. Several others occurred dur- 
ing our stay at the Cape, but they all hap- 
pened at night and were all of short duration. 
Shakes, as these concussions are called by the 
inhabitants, are in this part of the country 
extremely frequent and are spoken of as mat- 
ters of every day occurrence. It is said of 
some passengers on a steamboat who went on 
shore at New Madrid and were in one of the 
houses of the town looking at a collection of 
books, they felt the house so violently shaken 
that they were scarce able to stand upon their 
feet. Some consternation was of course felt, 
and as several of the persons were ladies, much 
terror was expressed. ' Don 't be alarmed, ' said 
the lady of the house, 'it is nothing but an 
earthquake.' Several houses in and about 
Cape Girardeau have frequently been shaken 
down, forests have been overthrown and other 



act provided that any person owning lauds 
in New Madi'id county on 10th day of Novem- 
ber, 1812, and whose lands were materially in- 
jured by the earthquake, might locate a like 
ciuantity on any public lands of the territory, 
no location, however, to embrace more than 
640 acres. 

The provisions of this act led to the cele- 
brated New jNIadrid claims. Locations were 
made on some of the most fertile lands in the 
state in Boone, Howard, Saline and other 
counties. Many of the claims were filed by 
persons who had no right to them and who 



considerable changes produced by their 
agency. These concussions are felt through a 
great extent of country, from the settlements 
on Red river to the fall of the Ohio and from 
the mouth of the Missouri to New Orleans. 
Their extent and very considerable degree of 
violence with which they affect not only large 
portions of the valley of the Mississippi, but 
the adjacent hilly country, appear to us to be 
caused by causes far more efficient and deep 
seated than the decomposition of beds of lig- 
nite or wood coal situated near the bed of 
the river and filled with pyrites, according 
to the suggestion of Mr. Nuttall." (Long, 
Expedition, p. 88.) 

In speaking of Point Pleasant, Nuttall sa3-s : 
' ' This place and several islands below were 
greatly convulsed by the earthquake and have 
in consequence been abandoned. I was shown 
a considerable chasm still far from being filled 
up, from whence the water of the river, as 
they say, rushed in an elevated column." He 
says, also: "In the evening we arrived at 
the remains of the settlement called Little 
Prairie, where there is now only a single 
house, all the rest, together with their founda- 
tions, having been swept away by the river 
soon after the convulsions of the earthquake, 



232 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



sustained their claims by perjury. This is 
evidenced by the fact that the claims located 
under this act, presumably by people owning 
land in New Madrid county, covered more 
than the entire area of the county. 

Out of these grants there arose a very fa- 
mous lawsuit. It is known in legal history 
as De Lisle vs. State of Missouri. 

The De Lisle family was one of the earliest 
in New ]\Iadrid. Eustache De Lisle and John 
Baptiste De Lisle came to New Madrid in 
1795 from Detroit. They were brothers of 
the third wife of Francois LeSieur. It should 
be said that the family continued to reside in 
New Madrid and that many of its descend- 
ants are among the prominent and influential 
citizens of the county now. In 1808 John 
Baptiste De Lisle left New Madrid for a visit 
to his sister, JMrs. Gremar, who then lived in 
Vincennes, Indiana. This was about the be- 
ginning of the war with Great Britain, and 
De Lisle enlisted in the United States army 
and served through the war. He then settled 
in New York, where he married, but was de- 
prived of all of his family during the great 
epidemic of cholera in 1839. He returned to 
Vincennes in 1841 and found his sister yet 
living. 

Up to this time he had supposed that his 
brother, Eustache, and his sister, the wife of 
Francois LeSieur, had been killed in the earth- 
quakes; he was informed by his sister, how- 
ever, that his relatives in New Madrid were 
still living. He at once communicated with 
them, to their very great astonishment, for 



in consequence, as the inhabitants say and as 
was also affirmed in New JIadrid, of the land 
having sunk 10 feet or more below its former 
level." (Nuttall Journal, pp. 78-79. '( 

The force of the shocks was felt over a very 
wide area and extended as far north as the 
Missouri river. Flagg, who visited Cape Gir- 



they had considered him to be dead; in fact, 
after his leaving New Madrid in 1808, a re- 
port had come back to the post of his death, 
and they had sold the land that had been 
granted to him, consisting of 160 arpens of 
land, for a veiy small sum. This land had 
then passed into the hands of the persons who 
speculated in the land grants after the time 
of the earthquake. The state of Missouri had 
given to the purchasers of the Delisle land 
the right to locate an equal amount of land at 
some other place in the state and they had 
located this claim on the Missouri river where 
the city of Jeiferson City now is. This grant 
from the state included within it the capitol 
grounds. Now, when John Baptiste De Lisle 
received this information that the land which 
he had possessed had passed away from him 
in this manner and that the state had given 
to the purchasers of his land a valuable grant, 
he brought suit against the state of iVIissouri 
to have the title to the lands thus granted 
declared to be in him. After various trials, 
the case was finally appealed to the Supreme 
court of the United States. It continued in 
that court from 1844 to 1862. In that year 
the court rendered a decision denying the 
claim of De Lisle to the land. 

The earthquakes resulted in an immediate 
loss of population throughout all the region 
affected. Most people who could do so moved 
away at once. Those who remained were 
either the more determined and daring of the 
population or they were the poorest who could 
not afford to leave. The flourishing village 



ardeau in 1836, says that the great earthquake 
of 1811 agitated the site of Cape Girardeau 
very severely, many brick houses were shat- 
tered, chimneys thrown down and other dam- 
age effected, traces of the repairs of which 
are yet to be viewed. (Flagg, Far West, 
p. 87.) 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 233 

of Little Prairie which, in 1803, had a popu- in the same way, the population showing a 

lation of 103, almost entirely disappeared, great falling off shortly after the shocks. The 

Only a few families remained. Among them same thing was true of the settlements and 

was Col. J. H. Walker, who was not frightened small villages all over the district, 
enough to leave. New Madrid suffered greatly 



CHAPTER XV 

STATEHOOD ATTAINED 

Petition for Organization as a State — Bill to Organize a State Government — The 
Slavery Controversy — The Tallmadge Amendment — Debate Over the Amendment — 
Deadlock of the Two Houses — The Missouri Compromise — Feeling in the State — 
The Constitutional Convention — Members from the Southeast — The Constitution in 
Congress — Further Opposition to Admission — The Debate — Clay's Compromise — 
The Solemn Public Act — The President's Proclamation Admitting the State — Pe- 
culiarities op the Transaction^State Boundaries — Missouri — Arkansas — "Wolf 
Island. 



The territory of Missouri grew, as we have 
seen, verj^ rapidly in wealth and population. 
The people, though living since 1816 under 
the third or highest form of territorial gov- 
ei"nment, desired to be organized as a state 
and to be admitted to the Union. Accord- 
ingly, we find that in 1817 a number of peti- 
tions were drawn up and circulated among 
the people of the territory asking Congress to 
authorize the organization of a state govern- 
ment. Most of these petitions were lost, but 
recently Mr. Bartholdt, a member of Congress 
from St. Louis, found one of the copies and 
had it framed and preserved. It is set out 
below : 

' ' ]\Iemorial of the Citizens of Missouri Ter- 
ritory — To the Honorable, the Senate and the 
House of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress Assembled : — The pe- 
tition of the undersigned inhabitants of the 
Territory of Missouri respectfully showeth: 
That your petitioners live within that part of 



the Territory- of Missouri which lies between 
the latitudes of 36 degrees and 30 minutes 
and 40 degrees north, and between the Missis- 
sippi river to the east and the Osage boundary 
to the west. They pray that they may be 
admitted into the Union of the states with 
these limits. 

"They conceive that their numbers entitle 
them to the benefits and to the rank of a stafe 
government. Taking the progressive increase 
during former years as the basis of the calcu- 
lation they estimate their present numbers at 
40,000 souls. Tennessee, Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi state were admitted with smaller num- 
bers, and the treaty of cession guarantees this 
great privilege to your petitioners as soon as 
it can be granted under the principles of the 
Federal Constitution. They have passed eight 
years in the first grade of territorial govern- 
ment, five in the second ; they have evinced 
their attachment to the honor and integrity 
of the Union during the late war and they 
with deference urge their right to become a 



234 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



235 



member of the great republic. They forbear 
to dilate upon the evils of the territorial gov- 
ernment but will barely name among the 
grievances of this condition: 

" ] . That the.y have no vote in your honor- 
able body and yet are subject to the indirect 
taxation imposed by you. 

"2. That the veto of the territorial execu- 
tive is ab.solute upon the acts of the territorial 
legislature. 

' ' 3. That the Superior Court is constructed 
on principles unheard of in any other system 
of jui'isprudenee, having primary cognizance 
of almost every controversy, civil and crim- 
inal, and subject to correction by no other 
tribunal. 

"4. That the powers of the territorial leg- 
islature are limited to the passage of laws of 
a local nature owing to the paramount au- 
thority of Congress to legislate upon the same 
subject. ' ' 

And after describing the boundaries of the 
proposed new state the memorialists say that 
the boundaries, as solicited, will include the 
country to the north and west to which the 
Indian title has been extinguished, also the 
body of the population ; that the Missouri 
river will rim through the center of the state; 
that the boundaries are adapted to the coim- 
try ; that ' ' the woodland districts are f oimd 
towards the great rivers ; the interior is com- 
posed of vast ridges and naked and sterile 
plains stretching to the Shining mountains;" 
and that the country north and south of the 
Missouri is necessary to each other, the former 
possessing a rich soil destitute of minerals, the 
latter abounding in mines of lead and iron 
and thinly sprinkled with spots of ground fit 
for cultivation. In conclusion the memorial- 
ists say that they "hope that their voice may 
have some weight in the division of their 
eountrv and in the formation of their state 



boundaries; and that statesmen ignorant of 
its localities may not undertake to cut out 
their territory with fanciful divisions which 
may look handsome on paper, but must be 
ruinous in effect." 

This petition was signed by Jacob Petit, 
Isaac W. Jameson, Sam S. Williams and 
others, nearly all of whom were at the time 
citizens of Washington coimty. The memorial 
was presented to Congress in January, 1818, 
but no action seems to have been taken upon 
it, nor upon other similar or perhaps identical 
petitions presented at the same time. In 
December of the same year, however, the terri- 
torial assembly of Missouri drew up a memo- 
rial on the same subject, which was presented 
to Congress by John Scott of Ste. Genevieve, 
the territorial delegate. This memorial was 
thereupon presented to a committee for con- 
sideration and report. This committee re- 
ported in favor of the organization of a state 
government in Missouri, and a bill was dra'mi 
and presented to the house for that purpose. 
The consideration of this bill precipitated a 
great discussion and brought to the front for 
the first time, in an acute way, the slavery 
question. 

To imderstand the history of this bill and 
the great controversy that raged over the ad- 
mission of the state, we must recall the situa- 
tion that existed in the Union. The slavery 
question was alread.y exciting jjeople. It had 
not yet come to be regarded with such pas- 
sionate earnestness as a moral question as it 
was later destined to be considered, but as a 
political question it was already before the 
people. A fierce contest raged between the 
north and south for the control of Congress. 
Power in political affairs had for some years 
vacillated between slave and free .states. A 
few years prior to the introduction of this 



236 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



bill the north had a preponderance in both 
houses of Congress. That preponderance still 
maintained so far as the house was concerned. 
The organization of Alabama and its pending 
admission, however, threatened to increase the 
already superior power of the south in the 
senate. It was this political situation, the de- 
sire to control Congress, rather than opposi- 
tion to slaverj' as an institution, that caused 
the opposition to the organization of Mis- 
souri. If ]\Iissouri and Alabama should both 
come into the Union as slave states, as was 
very probable, then the balance of power 
would be destroyed and the south would have 
a very great preponderance in the senate. It 
was determined to prevent this if possible. 

It was considered almost certain that if the 
people of Missouri were left free to determine 
the question of slavery in the state for them- 
selves that the constitution of the state would 
permit the existence of the institution. Some 
way must be accordingly found by which the 
matter of determining the question could be 
taken out of the hands of the people and trans- 
ferred to Congress. It had been suggested, in 
the case of Alabama, that a provision in the 
act permitting the organization of the state, 
require the prohibition of slavery as a condi- 
tion precedent to its admission. It was ob- 
jected to this course, however, that when 
Georgia ceded the territory out of which Ala- 
bama was subsequently organized it was stip- 
ulated that no restriction should be placed 
upon slavery. This was regarded as standing 
in the way of any attempt to dictate to the 
people of the state their attitude toward it. 
Accordingly nothing was said concerning 
slavery in the act authorizing the admission 
of Alabama. It was felt, however, that some 
provision must be made concerning slavery in 
Missouri. 

Accordingly, Mr. Tallmadge of New York, 



moved to amend the bill by inserting the fol- 
lowing provision: "And provided that the 
further introduction of slavery or involuntarj' 
servitude be prohibited, except for pimish- 
ment of crimes, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, and that all <;'hildren 
born within the said state after the admission 
thereof into the Union shall be free at the age 
of twenty-five years. ' ' 

The debate over this amendment was long 
and bitter. The opponents of the amendment 
contended that such action was contrary to 
the action of Congress in the admission of 
Kentuekj', Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi 
and Alabama, all of which had been admitted 
as slave states without such provision; that it 
violated the treaty entered into with France 
at the time of the cession of Louisiana, one 
clause of which guaranteed to the people of 
that territory, including Missouri, the posses- 
sion of their property. It was urged that if 
Congress had respected the provision made by 
Georgia in ceding Alabama, then it should re- 
spect the treaty obligations of the government 
of the United States. It was further urged 
that such a clause, hampering the free action 
of the people of a state, was beyond the power 
of Congress to make, and therefore unconsti- 
tutional ; that it put a stigma upon the people 
of Missouri, in that it did not admit them upon 
equal terms with the other states ; and finall.v, 
that if the clause were inserted in the state 
constitution it could be repealed or amended 
at anj- time by action of the people of Mis- 
souri. 

The friends of the amendment contended 
that the very fact that Congress could admit 
or reject a state was sufficient evidence that it 
possessed the power to prescribe the terms of 
admission ; that the fact that slavery was 
morally wrong ; that it was a political and 
economic evil existing only by virtue of local 
laws, conferred on Congress the right and 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



237 



power to supersede, if necessary, treaty obli- 
gations, and tal^e those measures needed for 
the best interests of the country. 

After long debate the amendment passed 
the house, but the amended bill was rejected 
by the senate, and the fifteenth Congress ad- 
journed with a deadlock between the houses. 
The question was presented to the sixteenth 
Congress in December, 1819. Neither house 
seemed ready to recede from its position, but 
a new element entered into the discussion. 
Maine had applied for admission to the Union. 
It would come in, if admitted, as a free state. 
Its admission was desired by those who wished 
to place a i-estriction on the admission of Mis- 
souri. The senate, therefore, at the sugges- 
tion of Senator Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, 
united the measures for the two states into 
one bill. It was declared by those opposed to 
the restriction on Missouri that, unless that 
restriction was abandoned and Missouri ad- 
mitted on terms of equality with other states, 
Maine should not be admitted at all. The 
debate over this matter continued for several 
weeks. A deadlock again occurred between 
the two houses. Out of that disagreement 
came the measures which are collectively 
known as the Missouri Compromise. 

Maine was admitted as a free state; the 
people of Missouri were authorized to form a 
government without anj-^ clause in the act re- 
ferring to slavery, and it was stipulated that 
slavery should be excluded from "all the ter- 
ritory ceded by France to the United States, 
under the name of Louisiana, north of thirty- 
six degrees and thirty minutes north lati- 
tude," except, of course, Missouri. 

This series of measures known as the Mis- 
souri Compromise was approved on March 6. 
1820. As we have said, this authorized the 
formation of a state government in Missouri ; 



but, contrary to the usual practice, did not 
provide for the admission of the state into the 
Union. The people had no sort of guarantee 
that they would be admitted, even after the 
formation of their government. In pursu- 
ance of the terms of the act, an election was 
held in the territory in May, 1820, to select 
members of a constitutional convention. This 
convention was empowered, by the terms un- 
der which its members were elected, to de- 
termine by majority whether it was expedient 
for them to frame a constitution, and, if con- 
sidered expedient, to proceed to the work of 
making the constitution. If, on the other 
hand, they felt that it was not the time for this 
work, they were authorized to provide for the 
election of another convention. 

It is quite probable that a constitution 
favoring slavery would have been adopted in 
the state, no matter at what time the mem- 
bers of the convention had been elected. What 
v;as a mere probability, however, became a 
certainty, owing to the feeling of irritation 
over the attempted restriction on what was 
felt to be the right of the people of the state 
to decide the slavery question for themselves 
free from the dictation of Congress. John 
Scott had declared during the discussion of 
the Tallmadge amendment that the proposed 
limitation of the power of the people was an 
insult to them, and this was the prevailing 
sentiment in the state. Under such conditions 
the members of the constitutional convention 
were chosen and they were for a slavery con- 
stitution by a large majority. 

This convention met in St. Louis, June 12, 
1820. Its sessions were held in the hotel at 
the corner of Third and Vine streets, laiown 
as the "INIansion House." There were forty- 
one members of the convention. The South- 
east Missouri members were as follows : From 



238 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Cape Girardeau couuty, Stephen Byrd, James 
Evans, Richard S. Thomas, Alexander Buck- 
ner and Joseph MeFerron; Jefferson county, 
Daniel Hammond ; jMadison county, Nathaniel 
Coolc ; New ]\Iadrid county, Robert D. Dawson 
and Christopher G. Houts; Ste. Genevieve 
coimty, John D. Cook, Henry Dodge, Jolm 
Scott and R. T. BrowTi ; Washington covmty, 
Jolm Rice Jones, Samuel Perry and John 
Ilutchings; Wayne county, Elijah Bettis. 
David Barton, of St. Louis, was made presi- 
dent of the convention and William G. Pettis, 
secretary. 

The convention was in session for a little 
more than a month, adjourning July 19, 
1S20. It was at once agreed that a constitu- 
tion should be framed and the month the con- 
vention was in session was devoted to this 
work. The constitution thus made was in 
force in this state until superseded by the 
Drake constitution in 1865. It was compar- 
atively short, concise in statement, and was 
evidently the work of a statesman and thinker. 
It sanctioned slavery, as was almost certain 
in any case, but doubly so after the attempted 
restriction by Congi-ess. This constitution, 
imder the terms of the election of the mem- 
bers of the convention, did not require to be 
submitted to the people of the state for their 
approval; it became effective at once, upon 
the close of the convention. 

The second session of the sixteenth Congress 
met November 13, 1820, and on the 16th of 
November Mr. Scott, the delegate from ]Mis- 
souri, presented to the house a copy of the 
constitution of the state. This constitution 
was referred to the committee which reported 
on the 23rd, reciting the fact that Congress 
had previously authorized the formation of the 
state government ; that the people of the state 
had held the convention and formed the con- 
stitution ; and that said constitution "is Re- 



publican and in conformity with the provi- 
sions of said act." Accompanying this pre- 
amble was a resolution to admit the state into 
the Union on equal terms with the other 
states. 

Doubtless it was supposed by the people of 
the state that there would be no further dif- 
ficulty over its admission. They had com- 
plied with the terms of the act authorizing 
the formation of a government. That act con- 
tained no prohibition on .slaverj' and it would 
seem that there was no possible ground on 
which the state might be refused admission. 
In spite of these facts, the resolution to admit 
the state was very bitterly fought. The os- 
tensible groimd of objection was the follow- 
ing clause in the constitution itself: "It 
shall be their duty, as soon as may be. to pass 
such laws as may be necessary to prevent 
free negroes and mulattos from coming to and 
settling in this state under any pretext what- 
soever. ' ' 

The opponents of the admission of IMissouri 
argued that this clause in the constitution of 
the state was in direct violation of that clause 
in the eon.stitution of the United States which 
guarantees equal privileges in all the states 
to the citizens of each state, of which priv- 
ileges the right of emigration is one. On the 
other hand, it was pointed out that similar 
clauses controlling emigration existed m the 
constitutions of a number of states and that 
no objection had ever been raised to them ; 
and it was further pointed out that if this 
clause was in reality in opposition to the con- 
stitution of the United States, it would be de- 
clared null and void by the supreme court of 
the United States. 

It is clear, of course, that the real ground of 
objection to the admission of Missouri was not 
this paragraph. The motive of the men who 
opposed Missouri was not to protect the rights 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



239 



of a few negroes who might possibly wish to 
move to Missouri. In spite of the fact that 
the Missouri Compromise had been agreed to, 
there were a large number of the members of 
the house who had determined that the state 
should never be admitted as a slave state, and 
their real motive was the desire to keep the 
state from being admitted imtil a constitu- 
tion prohibiting slavery should be adopted. 

The debate on this resolution was one of 
the fiercest that ever took place in Congress. 
The whole country was stirred to fever heat 
by the charges and counter charges, by the 
threats of cession and the breaking up of the 
Union that were made on both sides. The 
whole institution of slavery was attacked with 
utmost vehemence and the right of the people 
of the states to decide this question for them- 
selves was defended with equal fervor. After 
several weeks of debate, and at a time when it 
seemed the very foundations of the govern- 
ment itself would crumble ; when fear was 
present everywhere that the Union could not 
long survive, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, in- 
troduced a resolution, which was adopted, pro- 
viding that a committee of twenty-three mem- 
bers should be appointed by the senate and 
the house, who should take the whole matter 
under consideration and make a report to 
Congress. After long discussion, this commit- 
tee reported to each house of Congress, Febru- 
ary 26, 1821, a resolution which provided that 
Missouri should be admitted to the Union on 
an equal footing with the original states 
upon the fvmdamental condition that the 4th 
clause of the 26th section of the 3rd article of 
the constitution — the clause which forbade im- 
migration of negroes — should never be con- 
strued to authorize the passage of any law by 
which any citizen of either of the states should 
be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the 
privileges to which he is entitled under the 



constitution of the United States. The resolu- 
tion further provided that the legislature of 
Missouri by a solemn public act should de- 
clare the assent of the state to this funda- 
mental condition, and should transmit to the 
president of the United States a copy of their 
actions. The president was thereupon author- 
ized to issue a proclamation reciting the fact 
that the legislature had passed such an act 
and that upon the making of this proclama- 
tion the admission to Missouri should be con- 
sidered as complete. 

The resolution so reported was adopted on 
February 28th. The reason for referring the 
matter to the president and making his proc- 
lamation the basis for the final admission of 
the state, rather than an act of Congress, was 
to avoid any further discussion or agitation of 
a question which was felt to be dangerous to 
the safety of the country. All that remained 
to be done, under the terms of this resolution 
was for the legislature of the state to publish 
the solemn public act required of it. In order 
to do this, Governor Clark convened the legis- 
lature in special session June 24, 1821, and 
on June 26th the legislature adopted the fol- 
lowing act: "Forasmuch as the good people 
of this state have, by the most solemn and 
public act in their power, virtually assented 
to the said fundamental condition, when, by 
their representatives in full and free conven- 
tion assembled, they adopted the constitution 
of this state, and consented to be incorporated 
into the federal Union, and governed by the 
con.stitution of the United States, which, 
among other things, provides that the said 
constitution and laws of the United States, 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties 
made or which shall be made under the 
authority of the United States, shall be the 
supreme law of the land; and the judges in 
every state shall be bound thereby, anything 



240 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



in the constitutiou or law of any state to the 
contrary notwithstanding. And although this 
general assembly do most solemnly declare 
that the Congress of the United States have 
no constittuional power to annex any condi- 
tion to the admission of this state into the fed- 
eral Union, and that this general assembly 
have no power to change the operation of the 
constitution of this state, except in the mode 
prescribed in the constitution itself, neverthe- 
less, as the Congress of the United States has 
desired this general assembly to declare the 
assent of this state to said fundamental condi- 
tion, and forasmuch as such declaration will 
neither restrain nor enlarge, limit nor extend, 
the operation of the constitution of the United 
States or of this state; but the said constitu- 
tiou will remain in all respects as if the said 
resolution had never passed, and the desired 
declaration was never made ; and because such 
declaration will not divest any power or 
change the duties of any of the constitutional 
authorities of this state or of the United 
States, nor impair the rights of the people of 
this state, or impose any additional obligation 
upon them, but may promote an earlier en- 
joyment of their vested federal rights, and 
this state being, moreover, determined to give 
to her sister states and to the world the most 
unequivocal proof of her desire to promote 
the peace and harmony of the Union, there- 
fore 

"Be it enacted and declared by the general 
assembty of the state of IMissouri, and it is 
hereby solemnly and publicly enacted and de- 
clared. That this state has assented and does 
assent that the fourth clause of the twenty- 
sixth section of the third article of the consti- 
tution of this state shall never be construed to 
authorize the passage of anj^ law-, and that no 
law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by 
which any citizen, of either of the United 



States, shall be excluded from the enjoyment 
of any of the privileges and immunities to 
which such citizens are entitled under the 
constitution of the United States." 

This act was transmitted to the president 
who, on August 10, 1821, made a proclama- 
tion announcing the admission of Missouri 
into the Union. 

It is evident that this is one of the most 
remarkable transactions ever made by a leg- 
islative body. The whole matter of the con- 
troversy over the admission of Missouri is a 
striking evidence of the terrible passion that 
stirred the minds of men over the question of 
slavery. Prejudices were so strong they 
seemed to have blinded men's eyes to some 
very obvious things. 

The first of these compromises which is dis- 
tinctly known as the Missouri Compromise, 
whose author was Honorable Jesse B. Thomas, 
provided that the people of the state should 
be left free to organize a state government, 
without any restriction as to their action con- 
cerning slaver_y. It was well known at the 
time that, in all human probability, the con- 
stitution so formed would permit the holding 
of slaves and in return for this permission, if 
it may be so considered, the friends of slavery 
agreed to the exclusion of it from all the vast 
domain of the Louisiana Purchase north of 
the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes. It 
can hardly be called a compromise, for the 
friends of slavery conceded practically every- 
thing and gained nothing. 

Under the terms of this act the people of 
the state framed a constitution which allowed 
slavery, and presented it to Congress, in the 
full expectation that the state would be ad- 
mitted. Thej' found themselves opposed by a 
large number of their original opponents ; this 
time on the ground that one article in their 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



241 



proposed constitution was in opposition to the 
constitution of the United States. This oppo- 
sition to the admission of Missouri was strong 
enough to prevent all action upon the bill 
for a number of weeks. Quite probably, it 
w as strong enough to keep the state out of the 
Union for an indefinite period. The matter 
was settled by another compromise. It, too, 
can hardly be termed a compromise, for it 
was also one-sided. At this time, however, 
the opi)osition conceded practically every- 
thing. They agreed that the offending clause 
in the fundamental law of Missouri should 
remain as it was. This concession they made, 
provided the legislature of the state should 
pass a solemn public act setting aside a clause 
in the constitution of the state. The legisla- 
ture evidently had no authority or power to 
amend or in any way change the constitution 
and any solemn public act of theirs which at- 
tempted to do so was a mere farce. The word 
solemn, indeed, would hardly be applied to an 
act having the preamble that this act carries 
with it, for the legislature of the state quite 
evidently regarded the thing they were at- 
tempting to do as entirely beyond tlieir power 
and authority. 

Out of all the contention and bitterness, out 
of the conflicting claims and so-called com- 
promises, one fact emerges with clearness and 
distinctness, and that is that Missouri was ad- 
mitted to the Union and became the twenty- 
fourth state. 

The eonstitiitional convention which closed 
its labors July 19, 1820, in accordance with 
Ihe terms of the act of Congress providing 
for the organization of the state government 
in ^Missouri, framed and adopted an ordinance 
which was expressly declared by its terms to 
be forever irrevocable and binding on the 
people of the state. This ordinance had in it 



five sections, which were designed to carry into 
effect five different demands made on the 
l^eople by Congress. The first of these sec- 
tions set aside the 16th section of every town- 
.ship in the state for school purposes. The 
second section of the ordinance dedicated the 
i-alt springs of the state, not to exceed twelve 
in number with six sections of land adjoining 
each of these springs, to the state. The third 
section set aside five per cent of the net pro- 
ceeds of the state land for the purpose of 
building roads and canals. The fourth section 
provided that four sections of land should be 
set aside at the point afterward to be selected 
for the state capitol. The fifth section pro- 
vided that one entire township should be re- 
served and forever dedicated to the purpose 
of a seminary of learning. 

The convention inserted in the ordinance, 
however, a request that Congress should so 
modify its demand that five per cent of the 
net proceeds of the land should be set aside 
for roads and canals, so as to permit the fimd 
bonus arising to be used not only for roads 
and canals, but also for school purposes. 

The southern boundary of the state, as sug- 
gested in the memorial presented to Congress 
asking for the organization of a state govern- 
ment, was fixed at the parallel of 36 degrees 
and 30 minutes noi-th latitude. It was so 
fixed on the theory that this left 3i{> degrees 
south of the state for the territory of Ar- 
kansas. 

This boimdary was not at all satisfactory 
to people who lived ia Little Prairie, now 
called Caruthersville. The settlements along 
Black river and "White river were also dissatis- 
fied with the suggested boiuidary. They did 
not wish to be attached to the territory of Ar- 
kansas. Another petition was presented to 
Congress in March, 1818, asking that the ter- 



242 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ritory south of Missouri river be formed iuto 
a separate state. It was to be extended further 
to the west than the proposed western boun- 
dary' of Missouri which, at that time, was fixed 
at the western limit of the Osage Purchase. 

In 1818, on November 22nd, the territorial 
legislature adopted a memorial to Congress 
for the admission of Missouri as a state, and 
proposed new boundaries for the state. It is 
probable that the agitation over the southern 
boundary was carried on in the legislature bj' 
Stephen Ross of New Madrid coimty, in the 
house of Dr. Robert D. Dawson, also of New 
Madrid county, in the legislative council, and 
by the members from Laurence county, as it 
was then constituted, which were : Perry 
Magness, Joseph Harden and John Davidson. 
It was their desire that the boundary should 
be moved far enowgh south to include the prin- 
cipal settlements on the Mississippi and also 
on White river. Owing, doubtless, to their 
influence, this memorial fixed the southern 
boimdary as foUows: "Beginning at a point 
in the middle of the main channel of the Mis- 
sissippi river at the 36th degree of north lati- 
tude and running in a direct line to the mouth 
of Black river, a branch of "White river; 
thence in the middle of the main channel of 
White river to where the parallel of 36 de- 
grees and 30 minutes north latitude crosses 
the same; thence with that parallel of lati- 
tude due west." 

This memorial, with its proposed boun- 
daries, was the subject of considerable debate 
in Congress, and after this discussion, the 
southern boundary was fixed as it now stands, 
that is to say, rvmning west from the Missis- 
sippi on the parallel of 36 degrees to the St. 
Francois river; thence up and in the middle 
of the main channel thereof to a parallel of 
36 degrees and 30 minutes, and thence west. 



There can be no doubt that the man most in- 
fluential in securing the joining of the terri- 
tory now included in Dimljlin and Pemiscot 
coimties to Missouri, was J. Hardeman 
Walker. He was at that time a most influen- 
tial, energetic resident of Little Prairie and 
he carried on a vigorous agitation to secure 
the extension of the southern boundary to in- 
clude this territory. It is quite probable that 
he had the assistance of other representatives 
from Southeast Missouri, including John 
Scott, the territorial delegate, Alexander 
Buckner, John James Evans, Judge Richard 
S. Thomas and Dr. Dawson. 

Those who were interested in this extension 
of the boimdary and the inclusion of the ter- 
ritory in Missouri were actuated b.y a number 
of motives : one was the feeling that Little 
Prairie and the other settlements in what is 
now Pemiscot coimty were really a part of 
Missouri. They had been made about the 
same time of the Missouri settlements, they 
had practically the same population, and were 
engaged in the same general industries. Their 
trade and association had been very largely 
with Missouri, and for this reason they re- 
garded themselves as a part of the territory 
of Missouri. It was natural, too, for them to 
wish to be a part of a territory which was 
about to be admitted into the LTnion as a 
state. The advantages of state government 
over territorial government are obvious, and 
it was felt that it might be some years before 
the territory of Arkansas would be admitted 
as a state. These reasons, along with others 
of a similar nature, moved the men mentioned 
to vigorous effort to fix the boundary of the 
state as it now stands. 

The only other boundary dispute directly 
concerning Southeast Missouri occurred at a 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



243 



later date, bvit is here given as it rounds out 
the story of the state's boundaries in this 
section. 

One of the longest boundary disputes in the 
history of the United States was carried on 
between Kentucky and Missouri pver the 
possession of Wolf Island, which lies just be- 
low Belmont and is the largest in the Missis- 
sippi river, having an area of 15,000 acres. 
The main channel of the river lies east of the 
island and it is separated from the west bank 
by a narrow channel so that it seems to belong 
to Missouri. When the state boundaries were 
defined in 1820 Wolf Island was left as a 
part of Kentucky because at that time the 
channel of the river was west of the island. 
After a time, however, the channel shifted to 
the east and the i.sland came to be claimed as 
a part of Missouri. Most people regard it as 
belonging to New Madrid county and at one 
time a man living on the island was elected 
sheriff of New Madrid county. Kentucky, 
however, claimed jurisdiction over the island 
and finally the state of Missouri, by its attor- 
ney general, brought suit in the supreme court 
of the United States for possession of the 
island. The ca.se was tried by a number of 
distinguished lawj'ers on each side and was 
before the court for eleven years. Kentucky 
was represented by John J. Crittenden, Gar- 
ret Davis and Henry Stanberry. Missouri 
was represented by Governor Blair and F. A. 
Dick. During the course of the trial a great 



many persons were examined and a great 
many old books and maps produced in evi- 
dence in order to determine the location of 
the channel of the river in the early days. It 
was shown by most of the maps that the main 
channel was east of the island and witnesses 
said that from 1850 back to 1830 the main 
channel was east of the island and that from 
1830 to 1794 both channels were navigable. 
It was shown also that the land was surveyed 
by United States surveyor in 1821 as part of 
Missouri ; other witnesses, however, introduced 
by Kentucky, testified that the channel of the 
river was west of the island during most of 
this period and that about the year 1830 there 
was enough water for boats between the island 
and Kentucky ; it was also shown that Ken- 
tucky had exercised continuous authority 
over the island since 1792 when it came into 
the possession of the title formerly held by 
Virginia. The court also heard evidence to 
show that the soil and the plant life of the 
island were similar in character to those of 
the Kentucky side and dissimilar to those on 
the Missouri side. It was also showTi that the 
level of the island was the same as that of the 
second bottom of the Kentucky side and four 
or five feet higher than the western bank. 
These considerations, together with the fact 
that Kentucky had had jurisdiction over the 
island for a great number of years, decided 
the question in favor of Kentucky. 



SECTION IV 



Period 1 820-1 S 60— Town Histories 



CHAPTER XVI 



GENERAL DEVELOPMENT 



Analysis op Population, 1820-1830 — Comparative Census Table, 1820-1860 — French 
AND German Elements — Period op Town Growth. 



In 1820, when the state was organized, just 
before its admission to the Union, the. popu- 
lation of Southeast Missouri was as follows: 

Cape Girardeau county 5,968 

Jefferson county 1,835 

Madison county 2,047 

New Madrid county 2,296 

Ste. Genevieve county 4,962 

Washington county 2,769 

Wayne county 1,443 

Of this population, the greater part were 
white people, but there were a few free 
negroes and several hundred slaves. The pop- 
ulation grew very rapidly for a number of 
years after the admission of the state into the 
Union. Southeast Missouri still had all the 
advantages which had attracted men to it in 
the earlier days and, added to this now, was 
the fact that it was part of a regularly organ- 
ized state which had been admitted into the 
Union. The people were, as far as possible, 
under our republican form of government, 
self-governing, and from every part of the 
Union there was a movement toward the new 
state. 

In 1830 the population of the counties in 
the southeast was as follows : 



Cape Girardeau county 7, 445 

Jefferson county 2,592 

Madison county 2,371 

New Madrid county 2,350 

Perry county 3,349 

St. Francois county 2,366 

Scott county 2,136 

Washington county 6,784 

Wayne county 3,264 

Ste. Genevieve county 2,186 

Analysis op Population, 1820-1830 

It will be observed that in this decade the 
principal growth of population was in Wash- 
ington county. This was due, largely, to the 
development of the mining industry in this 
county. Some of the counties, notably Ste. 
Genevieve, decreased in population, but this 
was owing to a cutting off of some of the 
territory in order to form new counties and 
not to an actual loss of population in the 
county itself. 

The population of Southeast Missouri in- 
creased steadily during this period of its his- 
tory. This is especially true of the counties 
along the Mississippi river and the settlements 
in adjoining counties. Those which lay fur- 



247 



248 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ther back and were, consequently, more difB- 
cult of access, as was the case in Carter, Rip- 
ley, Butler and Dunklin counties, grew in 
population much more slowly. They were 
separated too far from river transportation, 
and they were unprovided with either rail- 
roads or ordinary roads over which traveling 
could be easily made and were, therefore, al- 
most cut oft' from any easy or reg:ular com- 
munication with the different parts of the 
country. It is true that even in these coun- 
ties settlements were made during this period 
and that by the close of it there were consid- 
erable numbers of people to be found in their 
limits, but their growth was nothing like 
the rapid growth of the counties along the 
river. The same causes which operated to 
increase rapidly the population of the section 
after the purchase of Louisiana operated with 
even more force to increase the population 
after the admission of the state into the Union. 
I\Iore and more people were attracted by the 
richness of the soil, the advantages of the cli- 
mate and the possibility of earning a living 
and a competence which was offered to rich 
and poor alike. Most of the settlers who came 
were farmers who scattered themselves over 
the territory, opening up new farms and 
clearing away the wilderness. The section 
was distinctly agricultural in its life, with 
the exception of the mining region, and even 
there, as we have noted, most of the people 
depended in part at least upon farmuig for 
a living. A table is here inserted showing 
the population of each of the counties in the 
southeast at each of the census periods from 
1820 to 1860, and also the total popuhition at 
each date : 



Comparative Census Table, 18201860 



Counties. 


Population 




1820 


1830 


1840 


1850 


1860 


Bollinger . . .... 




.... 




7,371 


Butler 




.... 


1.616 


2,891 


Cape Girar- 










deau ....5,968 


7,445 


9,359 13,912 


15,547 


Carter 




.... 




1,235 


Dunklin 






1,229 


5,026 


Iron 


.... 






5,842 


Jeft'erson . . . 1,835 


2,592 


4,296 


6,928 


10,344 


Madison . . . 2,047 


2,371 


3,395 


6,003 


5,664 


Mississippi 




.... 


3,123 


4,859 


New Madrid 2,296 


2,350 


4,554 


5,541 


5,654 


Pemiscot 








2,962 


Perry 


3,349 


5,760 


7,215 


9,128 


Reynolds 






1,849 


3,173 


Ripley 




2,856 


2,830 


3,747 


St. Francois .... 


2,366 


3,211 


4,964 


7,249 


Ste. G en e - 










vieve ....4,962 


2,186 


3,148 


5,313 


8,029 


Scott 


2,136 


5,974 


3,182 


5,247 


Stoddard 




3,153 


4,277 


7,877 


Washington.2,769 


6,784 


7,213 


8,811 


9,023 


Wayne ....1,443 


3,264 


3,403 


4,518 


5,629 



Total. . .21,320 34,843 56,322 81,311 130,497 

French and German Elements. 

These figures show that increase in popula- 
tion had been both steady and rapid. The 
greater numbers of those who came to the ter- 
ritory came from other states, so that the pop- 
ulation of Southeast Missouri, outside of the 
older settlements, was largely American. In 
a few coimties there was a considerable 
sprinkling of other settlers. The greater 
number of French were to be found in Ste. 
Genevieve county, though there were consid- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



249 



erable numbers of them in New Madrid 
county. 

German settlers were found in Cape Girar- 
deau county in large numbers, and in some- 
what smaller numbers in Scott, Bollinger and 
Perry coimties. Of coui'se, there was a sprink- 
ling of foreigners in other counties, but the 
population, with the exception of the counties 
noted, was very largely American in claar- 
acter. It is to be noted that the presence of 
large numbers of Germans and other foreign 
settlers in Cape Girardeau and surroundmg 
counties was one of the things which deter- 
mined the action of ]\Iissouri at the outbrealv 
of the Civil War. If it had not been for the 
presence of these people who were loyal to the 
Union, it is highly probable that the movement 
for secession in the state would have been suc- 
cessful, and Missouri would have aligned 
herself with the Confederate States govern- 
ment. 

The German element in the population of 
Southeast IMissouri is foimd largely in Perry 
and Cape Girardeau counties. There were a 
few German families in Ste. Genevieve in its 
early years ; the most prominent German fam- 
ily in Ste. Genevieve county was a family 
named Ziegler; there were three brothers of 
this name, Martin, Francis and Sebastian, who 
settled in the vicinity of Ste. Genevieve quite 
early in its history. About 1840 the German 
settlers came to New Offenburg and Zell ; 
these German families were mostly Catholics. 
In 1839 a colony of Germans made their 
home in Perry coimty. These were Luther- 
ans and came to America largely on account 
of dissatisfaction with religious teachings at 
home. Their leader was Martin Stephan. 
They came from a number of places in Ger- 
many and numbered more than seven himdred 
at the time of their sailing from Bremen. 
One of the five ships on which the party 



sailed was lost, at sea. The others arrived at 
New Orleans in January, 1839, and continued 
their travels until they reached St. Louis on 
February 19th of the same year and remained 
there until the following June. Before sail- 
ing from Germany the colonists liad collected 
a common fund of more than $100,000, and 
after reaching St. Louis they purchased 
lands in the soutlieastern part of Perry 
coimty out of this fimd ; they secured 4,400 
acres for the sum of $10,000, and most of the 
colonists removed to this place from St. Louis. 
They suffered very great hardships for a num- 
ber of years, as the land had to be cleared 
and some of it was of very little value. Be- 
fore they succeeded in building houses they 
lived in tents and log cabins and the exposure 
resulted in sickness and death. Stephan, who 
as their leader, had control of affairs, proved 
to be incapable and had to be depo.sed. Some- 
what later the land which had been held in 
common was distributed among the colonists 
and this lead to very great improvements in 
their condition. 

About 1840 another lot of colonists to the 
number of 75, imder the leadership of Rev. 
Maximilian Oertel, established themselves at 
Wittenberg. They were Lutherans, also, but 
their leader, Oertel, soon afterward retmmed 
to New York and there became a Catholic 
priest. 

The German settlers of Cape Girardeau 
county began to come to the county in 1834; 
the first of these were Otto Buehrman, Will,- 
iam Cramer and Rev. Frederick Picker. Thej' 
located on farms in the Big Bend. The 
Cramers and Picker came from Hanover and 
Buehrman from Brunswick. Shortly after 
liis arrival. Rev. Mr. Picker removed to the 
settlement on Whitewater and Cramer and 
John Anthony removed to Cape Girardeau 
and engaged in the manufacture of cigars. 



250 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



George H. Cramer, who was the son of Will- 
iam Cramer, lived in Cape Girardeau for a 
number of j^ears and was a very highly re- 
spected citizen, holding the office of mayor on 
several occasions. Hon. Wilson Cramer of 
Jackson, is a son of George H. Cramer. Of 
the family of Otto Buehrman there are still 
descendants living within the county and 
until within a few years one of his grandsons 
M'as a merchant in Cape GirardeaM. In 1835 
William Bierwirth, with his family, Daniel 
Bertling, Henry Friese and Chris Schatte 
came to Cape Girardeau eotmty from Ger- 
many and since that time there has been a 
stream of German immigration. The settle- 
ment in the neighborhood of Dutchtown was 
made about 1835-36 by families from Switz- 
erland. It was among these families that the 
German Evangelical church was organized in 
1838. 

Growth of Towns 
We have said that the period was prin- 



cipally one in which the population of the 
coimtry increased and farms were opened, but 
there was also a growth of the towns. With 
the coming of larger numbers of people, trade 
increased and therefore the trading centers 
grew rapidly in population. More and more 
men became interested in buying and selling 
goods, in the establishment of banks, and in 
a few eases, the establishment of factories of 
various kinds. These things were concen- 
trated in the towns of the section and, accord- 
ingly, we find all of these towns having a 
prosperous histor,y, and the new towns con- 
stantly springing up in every part of the dis- 
trict. We have previously referred to the his- 
tory of more important towns in the section, 
and it will be the purpose in this to continue 
the stor3' of these towns, and to trace the 
founding, and history of those whose story 
begins within the period we are now dis- 
cussing. 



CHAPTER XVII 
yTE. GENEVIEVE AND ST. MARYS. 



Shipping Center of Mineral Region — Ste. Genevieve-Iron Mountain Plank Road — 
150th Anniversary Celebrated — U. S. Senators prom Ste. Genevieve — Ste. Gene- 
viEVE op Todat — St. Marys. 



Ste. Genevieve, the oldest town in the state, 
continued its period of prosperity during the 
greater part of these yeai-s — 1820 to 1860. 
The succe.ssful application of steam to the 
propulsion of boats on the Mississippi river 
added very greatly to the river commerce and 
all the to^^^as situated on the river reaped the 
benefit of this increase. Ste. Genevieve in 
particular was fortunate in this matter. 

Shipping Center op Miner.-vl Region. 

Until the construction of the Iron Mountain 
railroad, Ste. Genevieve was the shipping 
point for almost all the mineral region. The 
lead from Washington and Jefferson coun- 
ties, and the iron from Iron county was all 
brought to Ste. Genevieve to be reshipped 
upon boats. Prom 1846, when the iron indus- 
try became very important, until the year 
18.58, when the Iron Mountain Railroad 
reached that region the quantities of iron 
which went by Ste. Genevieve were very 
large, indeed. The town became one of the 
greatest commercial centers of the state. The 
lead and iron traffic was like a living stream 
cf prosperity that poured by the town. The 
building of the railroad, however, and the 
consequent change in the shipping point from 
St. Genevieve to St. Louis marked the begin- 



ning of the town's decline. It is hardly too 
much to say that had the railroad been built 
from Ste. Genevieve to the mining region, 
rather than from St. Louis, the probabilities 
are that Ste. Genevieve, rather than the latter 
town, might have become the great commer- 
cial city of the state. 

As is set out in the chapter on schools and 
education, one of the principal things which 
marks the history of the towTi diu-ing these 
years was the establishment and conduct of 
.schools. The Ste. Genevieve academy, which 
was established by a corporation in 1808, was 
for many years a flourishing institution. The 
public schools were not neglected either, the 
first board of directors being chosen in 1846 
and a public school conducted from that time 
until the present. 

The first telegraph line in Missouri was the 
line which connected Nashville with St. Louis. 
It passed through Ste. Genevieve and was con- 
structed in the year 1820. Its use, however, 
was abandoned after a short time. 

Ste. Genevieve-Iron Mountain Plank 
Road. 

One of the most important improvements 
of the early period was the plank road built 
in 1851 between Ste. Genevieve and Iron 



251 



'101 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Mountain. This road was 42 miles in length ; 
it was considered a very great enterprise and 
a number of good engineers were emploj^ed in 
its building, among them being James P. 
Kirkwood, chief engineer of the Missouri Pa- 
cific Railroad, William R. Singleton, one Sul- 
livan and Joseph A. Miller. The road was 
for many years the scene of a great traffic, as 
most of the ore from the lead country was car- 
ried over it to Ste. Genevieve. 

150th Anniversary Celebrated. 

In 1885, on the 21st of July, there was held 
in the city of Ste. Genevieve the 150th anni- 
versary of the founding of the old to-\Mi and 
the 100th anniversary of the settlement of the 
new town of Ste. Genevieve. It was made a 
very great occasion. Maxwell Hill was se- 
lected as the site for the exercises of the day, 
which consisted of drills by soldiers that were 
jiresent and a sermon, a long procession con- 
sisting of bauds, city officers and most of the 
inhabitants of the town, and addresses. There 
were more than 5,000 persons present at the 
celebration, which was a most delightful event, 
except for the coming up of a great storm 
near the close of the day which scattered the 
people to their homes. The addresses were 
delivered by Fii-min A. Rozier, Hon. Alex- 
ander J. P. Garesche, Col. F. T. Laderberger, 
ilajor William Cozzens and Lyndon A. Smith. 

Tills town more than any other in South- 
east ^Missouri retains something of its original 
aspect ; this is due to several facts, one of 
which is that it is the oldest town in the state 
and the buildings which were erected here in 
the early da.vs were of a somewhat better class 
of architecture than the usual ones. They 
have been preserved, many of them, up to this 
time ; the oldest of these is the house of Louis 
Bolduc which was erected in 1785 and is still 



standing in a good state of preservation ; there 
are other houses which were built about the 
beginning of the nineteenth century. The 
town is strictly French in appearance, the 
streets are clean and well kept, and there are 
beautiful lawns about the houses. The old 
houses give an air of distinction to the town, 
as many of them are in a good state of pres- 
ervation. Many descendants of the old famil- 
ies still reside here. There is much to remind 
a visitor of the past. 

Y . S. Senators From Ste. Genevieve 

It is the peculiar good fortune of Ste. 
Genevieve to have reared four men who after- 
wards became members of the United States 
senate. Besides these men one other citizen 
of the southeast became a senator. This was 
George W. Jones, the son of John Rice Jones, 
for many years famous as a lawyer in this 
part of the state. John Rice Jones came to 
Missouri in 1810, and immediately became 
prominent in political circles. He was a 
member of the territorial legislature and also 
the constitutional convention, and later a 
member of the supreme court of the state. 
His son, George W. Jones, was born in Indi- 
ana, but came to Ste. Genevieve in 1809. He 
married a daughter of one of the early French 
families, received a good education, graduat- 
ing in law at Transylvania University in 
Kentucky. On returning to Missouri he be- 
gan the practice of his profession at Ste. 
Genevieve, and while living there was ap- 
pointed clerk of the United States district 
court. 

From Ste. Genevieve he removed to Iowa, 
and here he once more entered political life, 
becoming first postmaster, then delegate to 
Congress, and was then appointed surveyor- 
eeneral of Wisconsin and Iowa. In 1841 he 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



253 



became clerk of the supreme court of the 
United States and was later reappointed sur- 
veyor-general in 1845. 

On the admission of Iowa to the Union in 
1848, he was selected to represent the state in 
the senate, and was later re-elected, serving 
out two terms. After the close of his second 
term he was appointed minister to Bogota, 
serving until the outbreak of the Civil war. 
Senator Jones was one of the most respected 
and influential citizens of the city of Du- 
buque, where he made his home during the 
latter part of his life. 

His brother, Augustus Jones, himself be- 
came a famous man. He took part in the In- 
dian wars and later removed to Texas, where 
he soon became famous and influential. He 
was made a general in the army of the United 
States and served with distinction. 

The third one of the men who became sen- 
ators from St(^ Genevieve was Augustus C. 
Dodge, the son of Henry Dodge. He was 
born in Ste. Genevieve January 12, 1812, and 
when twenty-seven years old. after consider- 
able experience in both peace and war, I'e- 
moved to the territory of Wisconsin. Before 
his removal he married Miss Clara Hertich. 
the daughter of the famous teacher, Joseph 
Hertich. After removing to Wisconsin ]\Ir. 
Dodge then made his home in Iowa. He en- 
listed in the army and served in the Black 
Hawk war under his father. Governor Heniy 
Dodge, of Iowa. 

In 1838 he was appointed registrar of th<^ 
land office at Burlington, Iowa. In 1841 he 
became delegate to Congress, and in 1847 was 
elected United Senator, serving to 1855. Both 
he and his father were influential men and 
voted and worked for every measure having 
to do with the upbuilding of the west. Gen- 
eral Dodge was a particularly strong advo- 
cate of the homestead bill, of the bills for the 



establishment of military forts in the west, 
and worked for the admission of California 
as a state, and the establishment of territorial 
governments in New Mexico and Utah. 

It was rather an unusual scene in the sen- 
ate at this time when a father and son rep- 
resented two states, Wisconsin and Iowa. It 
is one of the few instances in the history of 
our country. 

After the close of his term in the senate, 
Senator Dodge was appointed as minister to 
Spain, and he discharged the duties of this 
position with great credit to himself. He 
died at Burlington, Iowa, November 20, 1883, 
but until the time of his death was an influ- 
ential man, well known throughout this part 
of the country. 

The fifth native of Ste. Genevieve who be- 
came a senator of the United States was 
Lewis V. Bogy. His father, Joseph Bogy, 
^^as a native of Kaskaskia. He became a citi- 
zen of Ste. Genevieve in the earlj* history of 
the state, and himself filled several places of 
trust under the Spanish and American gov- 
ernments. He was private secretary of Gov- 
ernor Morales, then a member of the terri- 
torial legislature, and afterwards a state sen- 
ator of Missouri. His wife was a member of 
the family of Beauvais, one of the pioneer 
families of the state. 

Lewis V. Bogy was born in Ste. Genevieve 
in 1813. He received a good education, stud- 
ied law in Kentucky, and taught for a .short 
time in Wayne county, Kentuckj'. He was a 
volunteer in the Black Hawk war of 1832, 
and established himself as a lawyer in Ste. 
Genevieve in 1835. He became a member of 
the legislature from St. Louis, to whieh place 
he removed in 1840. He was a Whig and a 
very strong supporter of Mr. Clay. In 1849 
he returned to Ste. Genevieve, taking part 
m all the political disputes of that time, and 



254 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



was very strongly opposed to Senator Benton. 
He opposed Benton as a candidate for Con- 
gress in 1852, bnt was defeated. Later he 
was a candidate for the legislature from Ste. 
Genevieve county, but was defeated. A little 
later he announced himself as a candidate for 
the legislature on an anti-Bentou ticket. His 
opponent was another of the famous citizens 
of Ste. Genevieve, Hon. Firman A. Rozier. 
The contest between these two men, both rep- 
resentatives of old French families, was a 
very bitter one. Bogy was successful and 
served a term in the legislature. 

At the conclusion of his term he again re- 
moved to St. Louis, and ran for Congress in 
1863 against Frank P. Blair. Blair defeated 
him. He was appointed commissioner of In- 
dian affairs in 1867 by President Johnson, 
but retired from the position after six months 
of service, because the senate refused to con- 
firm his appointment. 

Soon after his retirement he became a can- 
didate for the United States senate, and was 
elected in 1873, serving one term with great 
credit to himself and his constituents. He 
had become a Democrat by this time and was 
chosen as the representative of his party. He 
died in the city of St. Louis. 

Ste. Genevieve of Today 

The present town is a prosperous and flour- 
ishing community of 2,000 inhabitants. It is 
supported chiefly by the farming coimtry 
about it, though there are some manufactur- 
ing plants, among them two large flouring 
mills, an ice plant, electric light plant, cigar 
factories, and a lime kiln. There are about 
fifty other business establishments. The 
transportation facilities are good. ^luch 
freight is handled by the river, which is only 
half a mile from the towTi, and two railroads 



afford ample facilities for travel by rail. The 
main line of the Frisco passes through Ste. 
Genevieve, and it is on the Illinois Southern 
which crosses the Slississippi at this place and 
extends to Bismarck in St. Francois county 
to the west. 

The banking interests are cared for by the 
Bank of Ste. Genevieve, organized in 1902, 
with a capital of $10,000, and Henry L. 
Rozier, organized in 1891, with a capital of 
$10,000. The Catholic church building is one 
of the largest structures of its kind in this 
part of the state. 

Elsewhere an account of the schools has 
been given. There is a well-conducted public 
school employing six teachers, and the Cath- 
olic church maintains a large parochial school 
with an enrollment of more than 300. 

There are two weekly papers published in 
the town : The Fail- Play is owned and edited 
by Jules J. Janis, himself a descendant of one 
of the pioneer families, and is Democratic in 
politics ; and the Herald, published bv Joseph 
A. Ernst, is Republican. 

St. Mabys 

St. Marj'S, on the Mississippi river not far 
from the mouth of Saline creek, has been a 
town for a number of years. It was first 
known as Camp Rowdy. Its most prominent 
citizen in the early days was General Henry 
Dodge. For some years it was important as 
the shipping place for Perryville and Mine 
La Alotte. The first store in the town was 
opened by two men from the east under the 
firm name of Kent & Sparrow. Owing to the 
fact of their eastern origin, the settlement 
came to be known as Yankeetown. They were 
succeeded by Miles A. Gilbert. Another one 
of the merchants in the early history of the 
town was Richard Bledsoe. John F. Schaaf 
built a flouring mill about 1857 or '58. This 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



255 



mill was rebuilt after its destruction by fire 
and is still in operation. 

The town has grown recently since the 
building of the St. Louis & San Francisco 
Railroad. It is the shipping point for a con- 
siderable area of farming country and the 
town is supported principally by the farming 



interests. There is a large flouring mill and 
other business interests of the usual charac- 
ter; the town supports several church organi- 
zations, the largest and most flourishing being 
the Catholic church, and a public school. The 
population at present is 702. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CAPE GIRARDEAU COUNTY TOWNS 

Cape Girardeau a Steamboat Town — Incorporated as a City — Prosperity After the Wab 
— State Normal School Located — Stage of Stagnation — Really Remarkable Progress 
— Founding of Jackson — First Institutions and Persons — Civil Government — Pres- 
ent County Seat — Burfordville — Appleton — Pocahontas and Oak Ridge. 



Cape Girardeau is described iu 1817 as a 
village containing two stores and about fifty 
houses. Within a short time a tan yard was 
established by Moses ilcLain, near the cor- 
ner of Spanish and Independence streets. 
Another tan yard on the Painter place was 
established by William Scripps and his son, 
John. This tan yard was afterward pur- 
chased by the Painter brothers, who conducted 
it and also a saddler shop. A still was oper- 
ated just north of the town bj' Levy L. 
Lightner. 

In 1818 the estate of Louis Loritnier was 
divided and the commissioners made an addi- 
tion to the town. These lots were sold at 
public auction, November 22, 1818. The 
prices paid for the lots were very high. 
Ninety-three lots brought $34,733.00 and 
twenty-one out lots brought $26,523.00. These 
prices indicate the fact that Cape Girardeau 
was coming to occupy a more important po- 
sition and that its advantages were coming 
to be known. 

A Steamboat Tovfn 

Just as in the case of Ste. Genevieve, how- 
ever, it was the steamboat which made Cape 



Girardeau prosperous. The steamboat traffic 
assumed large proportion in the decade lying 
between 1830 and 1840, and dui-ing these 
j'ears Cape Girardeau experienced a remark- 
able expansion in its business. Some of the 
men who were in business here during these 
years were : Andrew Giboney, James P. Ful- 
kerson, Alfred P. Ellis, I. R. Wathen, H. L. 
Sloan, Robert Sturdivant, Thomas J. Rodney, 
A. D. Leech, T. and W. Johnson, Joseph Phil- 
lipson, J. and S. Albert, Eugene Garaghty 
and C. F. Gale. The first bank in the town 
was established in 1853. This was a branch 
of the state bank, and had formerly been in 
operation at Jackson. The fir.st president 
here was I. R. Wathen, with A. F. Lacy as 
cashier. Lacy being succeeded in 1857 by Rob- 
ert Sturdivant. A steam fiouring mill, the 
first of the town's manufacturing establish- 
ments of much importance, was built by 
James Reynolds and B. il. Horrell. The 
IMarble City mill was erected a few years 
later by I. R. Wathen. Attention was paid 
during these years in the town to education, 
the first schools being taught in the log house 
not far from the site of the St. Charles hotel. 
The schools were of a purely elementary char- 



256 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



257 



aeter, aud there seems reason to believe that 
the instruction was not always the best at the 
time, for children were sometimes sent to Mt. 
Tabor school. Cape Girardeau Academy was 
established in 1843, and in 1849 the "Washing- 
ton Female Seminary was incorporated. Both 
of these institutions were conducted until the 
time of the war. In 1843, too, St. Vincent's 
College was established and is still in oper- 
ation. 

The Southeast District Agricultural Society 
was organized and incorporated in 1855; it 
was to include all the counties in the con- 
gressional district. General N. W. Watkins 
was the president and the first meeting was 
held at Cape Girardeau and a fair was held 
during the first year, which was on a small 
scale but fairly successful. The next presi- 
dent of the society was Judge W. C. Ranney, 
who was elected in 1856 and served until 
1860. The society secured grounds and 
erected buildings and held fairs each year 
until the beginning of the war. During the 
war the society was disbanded and the grounds 
taken possession of by troops. It was later 
reorganized and is still in existence. 

Incorporated as a City 

We have seen that the first incorporation 
of the village of Cape Girardeau was in the 
year 1808. In 1843 the legislature of the 
state incorporated Cape Girardeau as a city 
with a special charter. It was provided in 
the charter that a mayor and seven council- 
men should have charge of the affairs of the 
city. E. Mason was the first mayor and the 
members of the first council were: W. S. 
Watson, Thomas J. Rodney, J. Rigby, John 
Ivers, J. Ritton, E. P. Evans and E. V. 
Cassilly. The mayors of the city since the 
administration of Mason have been as fol- 
lows: G. W. Juden, 1844 to 1845; E. Alason 



1845 to 1846 ; Thomas Johnson, 1846 to 1849 ; 
P. H. Davis, 1849 to 1851; Alfred T. Lacy, 
1851 to 1852 ; Thomas Baldwin, 1852 to 1853 ; 
John C. Watson, 1853 to 1854 ; Amasa Alton, 
1854 to 1855 ; C. T. Gale, 1855 to 1857 ; John 
Ivers, Jr., 1857 to 1860. 

The first brick house in Cape Girardeau 
was built by Ezekiel Abel, who was the con- 
tractor for the building of the court house 
and jail; he completed the jail, but became 
insolvent and could not finish the work on 
the court house. After his financial troubles, 
however, he became successful in business and 
left a considerable fortune. He left four 
sons, William, John, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, 
and two daughters, Mary, who became the 
wife of General W. H. Ashley, and Elizabeth, 
who married W. J. Stepheson. This brick 
house built by Abel was at the corner of Lori- 
mier and Bellevue and was known for many 
years as Eagle's Nest, owing to the fact that 
it was the residence of the editor of the 
Western Eagle. This house was damaged by 
the earthquake in 1811, and cracks in the 
walls caused by the shocks were still visible 
when the house was torn down about 1896. 

The oldest house now standing in Cape 
Girardeau is at the corner of Themis and 
Middle streets and is owned by Mrs, Ellen 
Wright. The lot on which it stands was 
bought in 1807 by Judge George Henderson, 
the father of Mrs. Wright's first husband, and 
the present house, a frame structure, was 
erected in 1811. The large brick chimney 
which still stands was damaged by the earth- 
quake on the night of December 25, 1811, 
the top of the chimney beink .shaken off. At 
the same time the large stones in the cellar of 
tlie house were cracked entirely through by 
the shocks. This house was used for a time 
as the meeting place for the courts. They 
assembled on the large open porch, a part of 



258 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



which has since been boarded np. j\Irs. 
Wright, who is now ationt 85 years old, has 
resided in this liouse since 1855. She has a 
fund of recollections concerning the early his- 
tory of the town. 

Abel's failure to build the court house for 
which he had contracted resulted in the re- 
moval of the seat of justice, and as we have 
seen, checked the growtli of Cape Girardeau 
very greatly. In 1867 there were in the 
town 27 dry goods stores, 'i hardware stores, 



and around the town, an account of which 
appears in the chapter on the Civil war. 

Prosperity After the War 

For a time after the war closed the town 
enjoyed a great degree of prosperity. It had 
a number of enterprising men who pushed 
its advantages in every possible way. Those 
advantages were numerous and very powerful 
in the upbuilding of the town. In the first 
place, it enjoyed the immense advantage of 




Olde.st House in Cape Girardeau 



12 grocery stores, 5 drug stores, 5 furniture 
stores, 12 shoe shops, 7 wagon shops, 11 black- 
smith shops, 3 tlouring mills, 5 breweries, a 
distillery, 2 tanneries, 2 cigar shops and one 
bank, the Sturdivant, organized by Mr. Rob- 
ert Sturdivant in 1857. 

During the war Cape Girardeau w.is head- 
quarters for a considerable Union force. A 
military prison was established here tu which 
numbers of southern prisoners were brought. 
Several important skirmishes were fought in 



river transportation, which at that time was 
of the highest importance. Steamboats car- 
ried the greater part of the commerce of the 
country, iluch of it for tliis section centered 
here. It was before the day of railroads. 
Towns and comnumities away from the river 
received their supplies from abroad by boat, 
hauling them in wagons from the nearest and 
most accessible point. The second great ad- 
vantage possessed by Cape Girardeau was its 
relation to much of the other country in 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



259 



Southeast Missouri. To the west there is a 
great section of the country that did its trad- 
ing here because tliis was the nearest river 
point. The merchants in Wayne, Bollinger, 
and counties further west were naturally sup- 
plied from the markets of this city. To the 
southeast the counties of Stoddard and 
Dunklin, while at a great distance from town, 
found it almost impossible to reach the river 
points in counties to the east of them. The 
great swamp of Little river shut them off 
from the Mississippi. Their only chance to 
get river transportation was by coming to the 
Cape. Now these counties were rapidly set- 
tling up and their growing inhabitants de- 
manded large supplies of goods. All this 
trade contributed to the wealth and prosper- 
ity of Cape Girardeau. It was no unusual 
sight to the people of Cape Girardeau of that 
day to see upon their streets long trains of 
wagons loaded with cotton or other products 
of the lower counties. The only flouring mills 
were in this section of the state. This led to 
the purchase of flour made in Cape Girardeau 
or Jackson mills. So important was the trade 
of some of these counties considered tliat some 
of the larger stores and mills sent men into 
these counties to become acquainted with con- 
ditions and bring trade here. 

State Normal School Located 

In 1873, through the liberality and energy 
of some of its citizens, the Cape secured the 
establishment of the State Normal school. The 
state expended considerable sums of money in 
the erection of buildings and the support of 
the school and the students of this institution 
and St. Vincent's College brought other large 
sums to the town. 

By this time, however, a falling off in the 
town's business was already to be seen. The 
day of the railroad had come. The construc- 



tion of the St. Louis & Iron Mountain, with its 
branches, cut off the trade of the west and 
southeast. Towns sprung up at various points 
and cut off some of the trade that i'ormerly 
came this way. Dexter, in Stoddard county,, 
secured the trade of Stoddard and Dunklin 
counties and became a flourishing town. At- 
tempts were made to reconstruct the Blanton 
plank road between New jMadrid and Clark- 
ton in Dunklin county. It had been destroyed 
during the war. The attempt did not suc- 
ceed, but resulted in construction of a rail- 
road between New Madrid and ilalden. This 
was the beginning of the Southwestern sys- 
tem and still further tended to make the lower 
counties independent of Cape Girardeau. 

The people of the town did not tamely sit 
by and see the great empire of trade which 
had been theirs slip from their grasp. Efforts 
were made to hold it. Railroads were pro- 
jected. Finally, through the tireless en- 
deavors of Louis Ilouck, a line was built run- 
ning to the southwest. It did much for the 
town, but it could not stay the tide which 
was turning more and more away from it. 
The Iron jMountain had made the territory 
tributary to St. Louis and the possibility 
once seen of making Cape Girardeau the trade 
center of all Southeast Missoui-i was gone, if 
not for all time, at least for many years. 

Stage op Stagnation 

Deprived of this great and lucrative for- 
eign trade, the town entered upon a stage of 
stagnation. It was always a good town, but 
it ceased for many years to grow. It was at 
a standstill. The schools, the splendid farm- 
ing country about it, and its manufacturing 
interests were a guarantee that it would al- 
ways be a good town. Satisfied with this as- 
surance, the most of the population contented 
themselves with conditions as they were. The 



260 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



town dropped behind some of its rivals, so 
far as public improvements were concerned. 

A few of the more enterprising men were 
never satisfied with this condition. They still 
worked and planned for the control of the 
rich trade regions once tributary to the town. 
Foremost of these men was Mr. Houek. In 
1902 he projected and built the Gulf System 
of railroads through Scott, New Madrid, 
Dunklin and Pemiscot counties. This was a 
long step in the right direction. A little later 
these roads were sold to the St. Louis & San 
Francisco, which immediately began Ihe con- 
struction of a through line from St. Louis to 
Memphis. These enterprises awoke again the 
energies of the people of the town. Public 
improvements were planned, sidewalks, sew- 
ers, paved streets became possibilities and then 
realities; new factories were erected, ihe state 
•spent great sums in the construction of a 
new Normal School plant, the same man who 
had already done so much for the town pro- 
jected and built the Cape Girardeau and 
Chester and the Thebes Terminal roads. A 
federal court was established and a federal 
building erected. The destruction of the mo- 
nopoly of roads by toll companies did much 
for the to\\Ti which had formerly been hemmed 
in by toU-gates. 

All these things contributed much to the 
growth and prosperity of the town, the pop- 
ulation increased rapidly and real estate 
values doubled. 

Not all things were fortunate for the town, 
however, even during this period. A failure 
to secure the entrance of the St. Loui-i South- 
western Railway was destined to cost the town 
very dear, for it was one of the factors which 
determined the building of the great railroad 
bridge at Thebes rather than at Cape Girar- 
deau. The Frisco, in spite of a contract to 
the contrary, removed its shops and division 



point to Chaffee in Scott county and thus 
took many families from the town. 

Remarkable Progress 

Notwithstanding these things, the town 
made really remarkable progress. Its popula- 
tion was nearly doubled from 1900 to 1910, 
now being 8,545. Its business interests were 
more than doubled. At the present time the 
town has more than 150 business institutions 
of one sort or another. There are a number 
of large general and department stores, and 
every form of mercantile establishment is rep- 
resented. It has a number of woodworking 
establishments, manufacturing lumber^ staves, 
boxes, sash and doors. There are factories 
for making shoes, lime, brick, cement, flour, 
cigars, ice cream and candy. There is a large 
rock-crushing plant, stone quarries, cigar and 
tobacco plants, foundries, machine shops, and 
other smaller manufacturing establishments. 

It is famous for its educational institutions, 
which include a good system of public schools, 
parochial schools of two or three churches, 
St. Vincent's Academy for Young Ladies, St. 
Vincent's College, Moothhardt's Business Col- 
lege, and the State Normal school. About 
three thousand students are enrolled in its 
schools every year. 

There are church organizations of the fol- 
lowing denominations: Baptist, Catholic, 
Christian, Christian Science, Evangelical, 
Lutheran, IMethodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, 
besides negro churches. Nearly all of these 
possess a house of worship and the Catholics 
have two and the Methodists three. 

There are four banks in the town. The 
Sturdivant, which is the oldest bank in South- 
east Missouri, was organized in 1866 and now 
has a capital .stock of $100,000. The First 
National was organized in 1892 and has a cap- 
ital of $100,000. The Farmers and Merchants 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



261 



Bank was organized in 1904 and has a capital 
stock of $15,000. The Southeast Missouri 
Trust Company was organized in 1906, and its 
capital is $500,000. All these banks are 
housed in commodious and beautiful struc- 
tures erected for them. 

Another institution which contributes much 
to the to's\Ti is the St. Francis Hospital eon- 
ducted by the Catholic Sisters of St. Francis. 

In 1905 was begun the construction of the 
Cape Girardeau and Jackson Inteiairban 
Railway. At present it operates electric 
street cars in Cape Girardeau alone, though 
it will ultimately be extended to connect other 
towng in this section. 

At present there are three miles of paved 
streets and others are projected. 

Some notable buildings beside those men- 
tioned are the Elks Club, the Himmelberger- 
Harrison office building, the Federal building, 
the courthouse of the court of common pleas. 
This latter, which occupies a commanding site 
on the bluff above the river, has been a land- 
mark of Cape Girardeau for many years. 

The town is on the main line of the Frisco 
from St. Louis to Memphis, and is the terminal 
point for the Hoxie branch of the Frisco, the 
St. Louis & Gulf, also owned by the Frisco, 
the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, the Cape 
Girardeau-Chester, and the Thebes Terminal. 
Good roads radiate in every direction from 
the town and add much to its trade. 

There are two papers published in the 
town, The Cape County Herald, a weekly, 
and The Republican, both daily and weekly. 
The Herald is published in a well-equipped 
and The Bepublican owns one of the most 
complete printing plants in the state. Another 
business institution is the Cape Girardeau 
Bell Telephone Co.. operating exchanges at 
Cape Girardeau and Jackson, and toll lines 
through a considerable part of this section. 



The toAvn has a good system of waterworks, 
electric lights and gas, all operated by the 
same company. 

Founding op Jackson 

Jackson was founded, as we have said, in 
1815. It was put upon an improved farm 
which was purchased from William H. Ash- 
ley. Surrounding the town there were a num- 
ber of settlements. On the west was the farm 
of Col. William Neely, on the north that of 
Joseph Seawell and on the south that of 
William Daugherty. The town grew rapidly 
after the sale of lots and in 1818 its popula- 
tion was three himdred or more. Some one 
described it as a "considerable village on the 
hill with the Kentucky outline of dead trees 
and huge logs lying on all sides of the fields." 
The population of the town consisted largely 
of yoimg people who had been gathered from 
every quarter. There were only a few stores, 
three or four in number, some blacksmith 
shops, several taverns and boarding houses, a 
tan yard, a printing office, a court house and 
jail, and there was also erected in the early 
times a little building constructed of logs 
which was used as a school house. Rev. Tim- 
othy Flint, who came to the town in 1819, 
was very unfavorably impressed and spoke in 
a very derogatory manner of the town and its 
inhabitants. He said of them that they were 
entirely without interest; that they were ex- 
tremely rough, most of them ignorant and 
bigoted, and inclined to think that sectarian- 
ism should atone for the want of morals and 
decency. Flint, however, seems to have had 
some prejudice in the matter. 

Long, who visited the town in 1819, 
says (Long's Expedition, p. 85): "On oui 
April expedition we came to Jackson, the 
seat of justice for the county of Cape Gir- 
ardeau, and after St. Louis and St. Charles 



262 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



one of the best towns of Missouri. It lies 
about eleven or twelve miles northwest of the 
old town of Cape Girardeau on the Missis- 
sippi, and is surroiuided by hilly and fertile 
tracts of country, at this time rapidly increas- 
ing in wealth and population. Jackson is 
what is called a thriving village and contains 
at present more than fifty houses which, 
though built of logs, seem to a.spire to a de- 
gree of importance unknown to the humble 
dwellings of the scattered and solitary settlers 
assumed an appearance of superiority similar 
to that we immediately distinguished in the 
appearance and manners of the people." 

First Institutions and Persons 

The ^rst store was that of Eckhardt, who 
came to Jackson from Virginia. He sold his 
store later to Clifton and Mothershead. An- 
other of the earl,y merchants was Samuel 
Cupples. a son-in-law of Judge Thomas. Jos- 
eph Frizzell was another of these merchants. 
He was a son-in-law of Col. George F. Bol- 
linger and opened his store about 1817. David 
Armour and John Juden were partners in a 
business conducted on the opposite corner 
from Frizzell. It is related of them that they 
sent Robert Jlorrison with a wagon and team 
to Baltimore and that he returned with a load 
of goods in abovit three months. Other mer- 
chants were George H. Scripps, Nathan Van- 
horn, and Doctor Thomas Neal. Neal's store 
was at the corner of Main street and the pub- 
lic square. Col. William McGuire, who was 
one of the prominent citizens in the town, and 
afterward a member of the state legislature, 
came to Jackson in 1818. He operated a tan 
yard. A still house was conducted by Caleb 
B. Fullenwider; he was also a prominent citi- 
zen, being elected judge of the county court 
and afterward clerk of the court. A mechanic 
«hop was conducted by John Delap. Taverns 



and houses of entertainment were kept by 
James Edwards, Thomas Stewart, "William 
Sheppard, and John Armstrong. Some other 
residents of the town at this early date were 
Louis Painter, who was a saddler, two black- 
smiths named John Glascock and Samuel 
Jlitchell ; Edward Criddle, "William Surrell, 
"William Hand, C. G. Houts and E. D'Lash- 
nutt ; the last named were merchants. Peter 
R. Garrett was clerk of the court and after- 
ward clerk of the county court. "We have 
already mentioned some of the prominent 
lawyers, and T. E. Strange who published 
the first paper, the Missouri Herald. 

The first physicians in the town were Dr. 
Zenas Priest and Dr. Thomas Neale. The 
former came from New York and was for 
years one of the leading pliysieians of the 
county. Dr. Neale was from Virginia, but 
had formerly lived in New Madrid. Dr. Can- 
non was another early physician. He was a 
native of North Carolina and nuxrried a 
daughter of Governor Dunklin. He took great 
interest in politics and was elected lieutenant 
governor of the .state in 1836. 

During this period (1820-1860), Jackson, 
which had been made the county seat of Cape 
Girardeau coimty, continued to grow quite 
rapidly. Among the merchants prominent in 
the town during this period were : "William 
F. Graham, who began business about 1822 
and sold his stock to Ralph Gill about 1826; 
Charles "Welling, H. L. Sloan, John W. Gayle, 
A. H. Brevard, Jacob Kneibert, George M. 
Beattie, John Albert and brother, J. J. Turn- 
baugh and J. S. McGuire. 

Charles "Welling began business in Jackson 
in 18.31, and for a period of fifty-seven years 
carried it on at practicality the same site on 
Main street. 

The first bank in Jackson was opened in 
1841. It was a branch of the state bank. Its 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



263 



president was A. H. Brevard, and Thomas P. 
English was cashier. The bank was very 
prosperous and did a very large business imtil 
its removal to Cape Girardeau in 1853. In 
1852 it was examined by a committee from 
the legislature which reported that its assets 
then amoiuited to $340,850 and its circulation 
was $199,050. During the fifteen years of its 
existence its net profits were $79,628. This 
branch was disposed of in 1 857 when its assets 
were purchased by Robert Sturdivant, who 
removed it to Cape Girardeau. 

As we have said in another place, the first 
newspaper in Southeast IMissouri was pub- 
lished at Jackson, and during this period there 
was published, almost constantly, a newspaper 
under some name or other. A list of these is 
given in the chapter on newspapers. 

The town suffered very greatly from chol- 
era. The first epidemic was in 1833. Among 
those who died were Col. Alexander Buclcner 
and wife. The total deaths at this time were 
128, and the cholera reappeared in 1849, but 
there was only one death at that time. It was 
again in town in 1852, and this time it swept 
away a large number of the inhabitants. 

During this period before the war. the 
schools were private schools. They were 
taught either by some person who acted en- 
tirely on his own account, or else were con- 
ducted by chartered associations, as was true 
in the ease of the Jackson Academy. This 
association was incorporated in 1820 and 
erected its first building, a two-story brick, in 
1838. 

Civil Government 

Jackson was incorporated in 1819, but there 
seems to have been no organization of the 
government of the town until 1828. In that 
year Nathaniel Vanhorn, Franklin Cannon, 
G. W. Davis and Edward Criddle seem to 



have been the trustees or members of the 
council. They were chosen at an election 
held by William G. Kennett and Joel Blunt, 
commissioners appointed by the county court. 
They passed ordinances and rules for the gov- 
ernment of the board. In 1831 George W. 
Juden was clerk, and Welton O'Bannon was 
town constable. The organization seems then 
to have lapsed and there is no record of any 
business transacted by it until 1847. At that 
time incorporation was revived, and an elec- 
tion held which resulted in the choice of N. 
;M. Watkins, Charles Welling, A. J. Brevard, 
Jason Watson and Cyrus Walker as trustees. 
In 1859, the town secured a special charter 
from the legislature and the first trustees 
under the new organization were: Thomas 
B. English, John W. McGuire, Jacob Neidert 
and Chas. Litterer. 

Present County Seat 

Just as was the fate of all other towns of 
this section, Jackson suffered greatly during 
the war, though not to the extent of some 
others. It began to improve, however. The 
coming of the railroad, a branch of the Iron 
Mountain which was built from Allenville in 
1884. added greatly to the town's prosperity. 
Its population is now 2,105, and is rapidly 
increasing. There are about fifty business 
establishments of various kinds, most of which 
are doing a fiourishing Imsiness. There are a 
luimher of good general stores carrying large 
;ind varied stocks of goods. There are two 
large flouring mills, a creamery, packing 
house, heading factory, brick kiln, and other 
smaller factories. There are two banks in the 
town. The Cape County Savings Bank was 
organized in the 80 's. It has a capital of 
$50,000. The Jackson Exchange Bank was 
organized in 1894. Its capital is $20,000. 

The possession of the county seat adds much 



264 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUKI 



to the importance of the town. The court 
bouse occupies a commanding site in the center 
of the public square. It was erected in 1908, 
and is a well-constructed and commodious 
building. The usual church organizations are 
foimd, most of which have good buildings. 
The largest and most costly church edifice is 
that of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, 
recently erected at a cost of $40,000. 

Jackson has a good system of public schools 
with a well-organized high school. There are 
two weekly newspapers. The Missouri Cash- 
book and The Volkesfreund, which is a Ger- 
man paper. Besides the branch of the Iron 
Moimtain the town is situated on the Cape 
Girardeau and Chester Railroad, which was 
constructed in 1904, from Cape Girardeau to 
Chester. There is a "fine rock road from Jack- 
son to Cape Girardeau. 

BuRFOBDVILLE 

Burfordville, in Cape Girardeau coimty, 
was known for a good many years as Bol- 
linger's Mill. It is situated on Whitewater 
river at the place where Major George Fred- 
erick Bollinger made a settlement about the 
year 1800 and where he for many years oper- 
ated a mill. Other families besides the Bol- 
linger family, who lived in the vicinity in 



the early times, were the Daughertys and 
Frisselles. It was incorporated as a town in ' 
the year 1900 and the first mayor was F. B. 
Meyer. The town now has four general 
stores and a furniture making establishment 
and a large flour mill. Its population is 114. 

Appleton 

Appleton, a village on Apple Creek, in 
Cape Girardeau county was founded in 1824. 
The first residents seem to have been Jolm 
McClain and John Schlotz. Among the early 
merchants were Kimmel and Taylor, George 
Clodfelter and W. H. McClain. The first mill 
was built by Alfred McClain. 

Pocahontas and Oak Ridge 

Pocahontas was first settled in ISoG and 
organized as a village in 1861. 

Oak Ridge, in Apple Creek township, ten 
miles northwest of Jackson, was settled about 
1852. It is now a flourishing town with a 
population of 256. It is surrounded by a 
good farming community, and has a large 
flouring mill. It supports a good public 
school and there are several stores and other 
business establishments. The Bank of Oak 
Ridge was organized in 1904, and has a cap- 
ital stock of $10,000. 



CHAPTER XIX 



NEW MADRID AND MADISON COUNTIES 



Blows to New Madrid- 



-Incorporated as a City — Long the County Seat — Point Pleasant 
— Portageville — Predericktown. 



We have set out that New ]\Iadrid was in- 
corporated in 1808. It grew slowly, however, 
and in 1811 contained only two stores and a 
few houses. Many of the inhabitants of the 
town moved away after the earthquake, and 
for several years affairs were at a standstill. 
The town was greatly benefited, however, by 
being selected as the seat of justice for the 
county. This was in 1822. In 1834 the town 
was reincorporated by the county court, and 
again in 1868. The trustees in 1834 were : 
William Pierrepont, Geo. G. Alford, Dr. Rob- 
ert D. Dawson, Ashael Smith and Alphonse 
Delaroderie. 

The early merchants were : Robert G. 
Watson, Robert McCoy, Matteo Bogliolo and 
Geo. G. Alford. In the decade from 1840 to 
1850 business was transacted by H. T. 
;\Iaulsby, Napoleon LeSieur, B. Powell, Rich- 
ard J. Waters, Samuel Allen, W. B. Harper 
and Thomas Dowd. In 1856 the merchants 
were: Allen, Waters, R. A. Hatcher & Co., 
Hunter & Watson, F. V. LeSieur, T. J. 0. 
Morrison, and Warrington & Pennell. 

Blows to New Madrid 

The town suffered greatly during the war, 
as did most southeast towns. It was the scene 
of several skirmishes and battles. During 
1862 General Pope laid regular siege to it. 



The Confederate forces defending the town 
were numerous and well-armed and several 
Confederate gunboats were in the river. Pope 
landed near the town with a large force, but 
doubted his ability to carry it by assault o? 
to hold it in face of the fire from the gun- 
boats. He accordingly contented himself at 
first with surrounding it as far as possible and 
ordered heavy guns from Cairo for a siege. 
The attack on New ]\Iadrid was a part of the 
movement for opening the river, and had for 
its immediate object the capture of the strong- 
ly fortified post of Island Ten. Finally, not 
being able to dislodge the Confederates from 
New Madrid, he took possession of Point 
Pleasant and New Madrid was evacuated. It 
had been repeatedly fired upon and suffered 
from this and other attacks. Many houses 
were burned and much property destroyed. 
One thing which dealt a blow to the pros- 
perity of New Madrid during and after the 
war was the destruction of the Blanton plank 
road. This road led across the Little River 
swamp to West Prairie, near Clarkton. It 
offered the people of Dunklin and Stoddard 
counties access to river transportation at New 
Madrid and drew a considerable trade to 
that town. Its destruction cut off this trade 
and caused it to seek other oiitlets. 

In spite of these various misfortunes, the 



265 



266 



TTISTORY OP SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI 



citizens did not lose faith in the iinal prosper- 
ity of their town and they did not abiuidon it. 
It grew slowly during the years, its prosperity 
keeping pace with the opening and improving 
of the land about it. 

Incorporated as a City 

In 1878 the town was incorporated as a city 
of the second class. John W. Brownell was 
mayor and the aldermen were H. C. Latham, 
T. II. Digges, John E. Powell, and F. Kopp. 
Since that time the city government has been 
maintained and the town has had a prosper- 
ous history. 

Some of the merchants, following the in- 
corporation, have been ]\Iann Bros., G. V. 
LeSieur. II. C. Latham, Hunter & Mathew- 
son, Lilburn Lewis, Henry Jasper, T. H. 
Digges, and Parks & Akin. At the present 
time there are some forty business establish- 
ments, including general stores, special mer- 
cantile establishments of various kinds, and 
some manufacturing plants. The latter in- 
clude some woodworking plants, cotton gins, 
electric light and water works plant, and 
grist mills. 

The town is situated on a branch of the St. 
Louis Southwestern, which runs from Lil- 
bourii to New Madrid. There has just been 
constructed a new railroad from ilarston on 
the Frisco to New Madrid. This was built 
by home capital, having been promoted by 
E. S. AlcCarty, who has built a number of 
lines in this part of the state and northeast 
Arkansas. This is an unusually well-con- 
structed and equipped line and will probably 
be extended to connect with other systems. 

Long the County Seat 

New Jladrid has been the county seat for 
many years, but has been unfortunate in 
having the court house destroyed by fire. 



Other towns have desired the removal of the 
county seat, and while they have not so far 
been able to secure its removal, they have 
been able to prevent the rebuilding of the 
court house at New Madrid. 

There has recently been erected a new and 
commodious Catholic church, which is an or- 
nament to the town. There are two other 
churches, the Methodists having recently built 
a well-arranged brick building for tlieir use. 
Tlie town maintains a good public school, hav- 
ing a large brick school building. There are 
two weekly papers, the Weekly Record and 
the Southeast Missouriaii. They are both 
well-edited and influential papers. 

The present population is 1,882. New Mad- 
rid is well situated. It is at the lower end of 
the great sand ridge known as the Sikeston 
ridge. Its soil is fertile, there are some fine 
shade trees, and the town presents v. pleas- 
ing appearance. Just south of the town is a 
great Indian mound, which local tradition 
says is the site of De Soto's camp. The site 
is not that of the original town, as that has 
long since been swept away by the river. 

Point Pleasant 

Point Pleasant, in New Madrid county, was 
settled in 1815 by Francois LeSieur. He 
conducted a store until his death in 1826. 
John Woodward operated a combined hotel 
and store at the same place. Steamboats, 
however, were prevented from landing at the 
town because of the formation of a sand bar 
in the river, and for this reason the business 
of the town was transferred to a new site 
about one mile further south. On this new 
site there had been a wood-yard in operation 
since 1817. It was conducted by Alphonse 
Delaroderie. It was in 1846 that the new 
town was laid off and building begun. The 
first houses erected for business were ware- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



267 



houses. They were built by Johu Woodward 
and Pleasant Bishop. The first merchant of 
the town was John J. Cox. 

For years the town was an important and 
flourishing one. Large stores were erected. 
The population grew. An academy was char- 
tered in the early days and all indications 
pointed to the place as designed for the site 
of a thriving city. Unfortunately for its in- 
habitants, the river began to encroach upon 
the town. At first the caving was just south 
of the main part of the town. Gradually it 
extended up the river, until many of the 
houses had to be moved back. So rapidly did 
the bank cave in at times that it was almost 
impossible to remove the houses fast enough 
to save them. After several successive re- 
movals, the site was abandoned by many of 
the residents, who were attracted by the 
growth of Portageville, which began to ac- 
quire importance through the construction of 
the Frisco Railroad through it. These causes 
greatly reduce the population of Point Pleas- 
ant and the historic name is preserved by 
only a handful of houses. 

Portageville . 

Portageville, in the south part of New Mad- 
rid county, now a flourishing town, had its 
beginning in 1848, when Edward Meatte aud 
Charles Davis established a store there. In 
1851 Robert G. Franklin succeeded them. 

Later Edward DeLisle became interested 
in the place and carried on a mercantile es- 
tablishment for many years. Others came 
and the town grew slowly. Two causes at 
last made it an important and flourishing 
town: the ruin of Point Pleasant and sub- 
sequent re.moval of many of its inhabitants 
further from the river, and the building of 
tlie Frisco Railroad. The land about Portage- 
ville is fertile and when it was cleared up 



and drained, the farming interests thus made 
possible gave an impetus to the town. Its 
present population is 987 and is rapidly in- 
creasing. It has wood-working plants aud 
cotton gins, besides general and other stores. 
The Farmers Bank wa.s organized in 1905 
and has a capital of $20,000. The Portage- 
ville Bank was chartered in 190,3. Its capital 
is $20,000. There is a good system of public 
schools and the usual church organizations. 

Fredericktown 

This town, which was the successor of St. 
Michaels, was laid off in 1819. The land was 
owned by Nathaniel Cook and the commis- 
sioners appointed to set out the limils of the 
town were Theodore F. Toug, John Burdette, 
Joseph Bennett and Henry Whitener. The 
first stores in the town were owned by S. A. 
Guignou, S. B. Pratte and Moses and Caleb 
Cox. 

Not much growth was made by Frederick- 
town luitil after the building of the Belmont 
branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad. There 
was always some business transacted, and the 
list of merchants includes six or eight names 
at any particular time, but the growth was, on 
the whole, slow for many .years. The first 
paper published in Fredericktown was a Free 
Soil paper, called The Espial. It was estab- 
lished in 1847 by James Lindsay. An ac- 
count of the other newspaper enterprises of 
the town is given in the chapter on news- 
papers. The first lodge was organized No- 
vember 25, 1848. This was Marcus Lodge, 
A. F. «& A. M. The meetings were held in 
the court house for a time, and F. L. Sullivan 
was the first temporary master. 

The town was incorporated for the first 
time in May, 1868, and on November 28, 1903, 
it was incorporated as a city of the third class, 
The first mayor was R. Albert. There are now 



268 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ionr general stores iu the tovm and about fifty 
other business institutions, but no factories of 
any considerable importance. There are three 
banks and the town is supplied with electric 
lights. The Union American Lead Company 
owns and has operated mines in the vicinity 
of the town, but the company has suspended 
operations for some time. Among the impor- 
tant interests of Frederickto\vn are Marvin 
college, and its good system of public schools. 
In another place we gave an account of the 
founding and some of the history of the col- 
lege, which attracts to the town a number of 
students and families who come for tlie pur- 
pose of educating their children. 

Di\ring the last four or five years Frederick- 
town has suffered in an unusual way from 



calamities, a number of destructive fires have 
swept away some of the best and most impor- 
tant buildings and, too, the town has been 
damaged by serious floods ; it is situated on the 
Little St. Francois river and some of the town 
is on ground subject to inundation. Its situa- 
tion is a delightful one and few places offer 
a more pleasant site for residence than Fred- 
ericktown. Its population is 2,632. It is 
situated on the Belmont branch of the Iron 
Mountain Railroad and is now and has been 
for many years the county seat of Madison 
county. 

There are two weekly newspapers published 
in the town. The Democrat-News is Demo- 
cratic in polities and The Tribune is Repub- 
lican. 



CHAPTER XX 



WASHINGTON AND PERRY COUNTIES 



PoTosi Laid Out and Incoepokated- 



-Old Mines — Caledonia — Perryville — Longtown 
Altenburg. 



Potosi, the county seat of Washington 
county situated in Breton township at the 
end of the branch line of the Iron Moimtain 
Railroad, is one of the oldest towns in this 
part of the state, the first settlement having 
been made in that town in 1763. At first it 
was called Mine a Breton, but the name was 
changed to Potosi when the town was incor- 
porated in 1826. It is impossible to tell who 
erected the first house in Potosi, though it is 
supposed that it was a member of the Valle 
family of Ste. Genevieve. The first settlers 
at the place came because of the lead mine 
which was discovered by Francois Breton ; the 
permanent settlement of the place dates from 
about 1790 and its principal growth began 
with the coming of Moses Austin, who secured 
a large grant of land from the Spanish gov- 
ernment. Austin made his home at Potosi or 
Mine a Breton, as it was then called, and 
built for himself a stone house known as 
Durham Hall. It was the finest residence 
west of the Mississippi river for a great many 
years and was burned in 1872. Austin also 
erected a large smelting plant, being the first 
reverberatory furnace in Missouri. He was also 
interested in other enterprises and did much 
for the building up of the town. When Louis- 
iana was transferred to the United States in 
1808 there were twenty families at Mine a 



Breton and the town contained two grist 
mills, a saw mill, Austin's smelter and shot 
tower and a sheet lead factory operated by 
Elias Bates. 

Potosi L.ud Out and Incorporated 

When Washington county was organized in 
1813, Austin donated forty acres and John 
Rice Jones ten acres for a county seat; the 
town was laid out and called Potosi. For a 
time there were two villages adjoining, one 
known as Potosi, the other Mine a Breton ; 
they were consolidated and incorporated in 
1826 under the name of Potosi. At the time 
of the incorporation the town had a population 
of about 400. Among the buildings were a 
court house, a jail, a school, two churches. 
Catholic and Methodist Episcopal, besides a 
number of business buildings of various kinds. 
At the present time there are six churches, 
good public school building, the Bank of Po- 
tosi, with a capital of $15,000, Washmgtou 
County Bank, with a capital of $10,000, a 
flouring mill and a number of business estab- 
lishments of various kinds. The streets are 
graded and lighted. The present population 
is 772. There are two weekly papers. The In- 
dependent, a Democratic paper, and The 
Journal, which is Republican. 



269 



270 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Old jMines west of the ilississippi river on the Cape Gir- 

Old Mines was founded in 1802 by French ^rdeau & Chester Railway. The town was 

settlers from Ste. Genevieve, though there l^id out m 1S22 by Robert T. Brown, Joseph 

had been people living in the vit-inity at var- /Tucker and Thomas Rmey, commissioners ap- 

ious times fri)m the discovery of the mines by 



Renault about 1726. There were thirty-one 
families of the old French settlers and the 
greater part of the population was engaged 
in mining. The first Catholic church in Wash- 
ington county was erected by the people at this 
village. At the present time there are two 
churches, Catholic and Baptist, a public 
school, a Catholic school, a hotel, several 
stores, a lead smelter, and a niiU. It has a 
population of about 250 and is situated in 
Washington county six miles north of Potosi. 

Caledonia 

Caledonia, a village in Washington coimty 
about 12 miles south of Potosi, was founded 
in 1819 and is in the center of the famous 
Bellevue valley, the coimtry around it being 
remarkable for its fertility. In 1899 it had 
three general stores, a wagon factory, a saw 
mill, a grist mill, a Methodist church and a 
Presbyterian church and a public school. At 
that time its population was 250, its present 
population is 128. The Presbyterian church 
is one of the oldest in Missouri, having been 
organized in 1825. The town was formerly 
the seat of Bellevue Collegiate Institute be- 
fore its removal to Fredericktown. There is 
one bank, the Bank of Caledonia, with a cap- 
ital of .$10,000. It is the terminus of the 
Caledonia branch of the Iron Mountain Rail- 
way which runs from Mineral Point. 

Perrtville 

Perryville is the county .seat of Perry 
county ; it is in Center township fourteen miles 



pointed to select the seat of justice of Perry 
county. The land was owned by Bernard 
Layton, who donated fifty-one acres to the 
county as a site for the county seat. This 
land was surveyed and the to^^^l platted by 
William McLane. The lots were sold at pub- 
lic auction, fifty-three lots bringing a total of 
$1,468.25. The first merchant in the town 
was Ferdinand Rozier, of Ste. Genevieve, who 
opened a store on the north side of the public 
square in a wooden building ; after a time he 
built a large brick building, which is still 
standing. The second merchant was Levi 
Block, and about 18-10 Gissel and Company 
and T. & L. Landry began business. Among 
the early settlers were John Logan, who con- 
ducted a tan yard, Leonard Fath, a black- 
smith. Dr. Richard Dorsey, Dr. Reuben Shel- 
by, Luther Taylor and Frederick Hase, who 
was clerk of the court. The first incorpora- 
tion of the town was made in 1831, the 
trustees being Clayton D. Abernathy, George 
Killian. Luther Taylor, Dr. Richard Dorsey 
and William A. Keyte. This organization 
was allowed to lapse after a short time and 
the to«Ti was not reincorporated imtil 1856; 
at that time the trustees were Leon DeLassus, 
John Bridgeman, George W. Enler, Bernard 
Cissell and Leonard Fath. At the breaking 
out of the Civil war the population was about 
300; the town suffered some during the war, 
but not so greatly as many other towns in 
this part of the state. At this time there were 
about 60 business houses, including bank, 
flouring mill, brick and ice plants, hotels, 
general stores, etc. There are four churches 
and a good system of public schools. St. 
Marj's Seminary, which was established in 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



271 



1S18. is a large and flourishing Catholic 
sfhool, situated just outside of the city limits ; 
the school owns valuable land and has several 
large buildings. The population of the town 
is 1.708. There are two banks in the town 
with a combined capital of $35,000. The 
I'crry County Sun is a Democratic weekly, 
and The Republican is Republican in politics. 

LONGTOWN 

Longtown, a village in Perry county, was 
settled in 1860. The first residents were John 
Long, Emil Urban, Herman Punke, Valentine 
Bergmann, Frederick Schade and Oliver 
Abernathy. The place was incorporated in 
April, 1874, the first time and Valentine 
Bergmann was the first mayor. Emil Urban 
and Oliver Abernathy were the first merchants 
in the town. At the present time there are 
three general stores and one flouring mill. 
The to\\Ti is situated on the Cape Girardeau & 
Chester Railroad and has a population of 158. 



Altenburg 

The town of Altenburg in Perry county, 
was founded in 1847, one of the first settlers 
being C. F. Walther. Shortly after the foiuid- 
ing of the town stores were opened by Zaeh- 
ariah Mueller, George Mueller and John 
Kuennell. The town was settled by Germans 
who were Lutherans, and shortly after the 
settlement was made they founded the college, 
whose history we have given in another place. 
A building was erected and this building is 
still in existence and steps have been taken 
to preserve it on account of its historic 
interest. The town was incorporated July 
5, 1870, and Dr. E. E. Buenger was its 
first mayor. At the present time there 
are three general stores, a swing factory 
and a creamery. The financial interests 
are cared for by the Bank of Altenburg 
with a capital of .$10,000. The more im- 
portant buildings of the town are the high 
school and Lutheran church building. The 
present population is 279. 



CHAPTER XXI 



WAYNE AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES 



Greenville, Early and Late — Piedmont — P atterson — DeSoto — Crystal City — Her- 

CULANEUM HiLLSBORO — KiMMSWICK — H EMATITE. 



In 1819 Greenville was platted on the St. 
Francois river by the commissioners for 
establishing the seat of justice in Wayne 
county. The early merchants were Van Horn 
& Wheeler, William Creath, Lysander Flinn 
and Zenas Smith. The hotels of the early 
times were kept by Moses Timmons and Jo- 
seph Bennett. The first physicians were: 
E. W. Bennett, Drs. Paj'ne, Capp and Dickey. 
The town grew very slowly. It was at a dis- 
tance from any great number of people, and 
all the goods that were bought and sold there 
must be hauled from the Mississippi river, 
usually from Cape Girardeau. In 1826 it 
was damaged by an overflow of the St. Fran- 
cois river, which covered the town to a depth 
of several feet. The town was built on level 
ground, and it is difficult to protect it from 
a rise in the river. 

For a great many years Greenville was 
without any railroad facilities, being situated 
at a distance of twenty miles from the nearest 
point on the Iron Mountain Railroad. About 
1894 the Holliday Land & Lumber Company, 
a corporation interested in timber lands, saw 
mills and mining, began the construction of 
a railroad from Williamsville to Greenville, 
and at Gi-eenville erected the shops for the 
railroad and also a very large mill for the man- 
ufacture of lumber. This railroad was after- 
wards extended to the northwest a distance 
of twenty miles from Greenville. The build- 



ing of the railroad, together with the estab- 
lishment of the mill, brought about .i consid- 
erable growth in the town. It became a pros- 
perous mercantile community. The mills, 
however, are now no longer in operation and 
the town depends for its support almost en- 
tirely upon the farming community nbout it 
and upon its importance as the county seat. 
There are now two general stores in the to\vn, 
but no factories. Greenville has two banks: 
the Citizens, with a capital of $10,000, and 
the Wayne County, with a capital of $25,000. 
Among the more important buildings are the 
court house, a two-story brick structure and 
a good public school building, which gives 
accommodation to about 600 pupils. 

In 1899 it contained about 125 business 
houses, including two banks, opera house, two 
tiouring mills, five carriage and wagon shops, 
machine shop, electric light and ice plants, 
three hotels, a number of general stores, and 
miscellaneous establishments. 

The town is situated on the St. Francois 
river and a part of it is subject to overflow 
at the time of unusually high water. It has 
had one or two disastrous experiences with 
floods. It is laid out in a very irregular 
manner, it being a coiumon tradition in the 
town that the streets were originally deter- 
mined bj' corn rows. Its present population 
is 914. The papers in the town are the 
Wayne County Jovrnal, which is Democratic 



272 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



273 



in politics, and the Greenville Siui, Republi- 
can. 

Piedmont 

Piedmont is a city of the fourth class sit- 
uated in Benton township, Wayne county, on 
the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern 
Railway. It was laid out at the completion of 
the Iron Mountain road to that point about 
1860. It was made the division point of the 
railroad, the repair shops were erected and 
the town prospered very greatly. In 1888 



Patterson 

Patterson, a town in Logan township, 
Wayne county, dates its beginning back to 
the year 1854. It was then known as Isbell's 
store, owing to the fact that Isbell was the 
first, and for a number of years the only 
merchant in the town. 

DeSoto 

DeSoto, the largest town in Jefferson 
county, is situated on the St. Louis, Iron 




High School, DeSoto 



about one-half of the business part of the 
town was destroyed by fire, and it has had 
other destructive fires since that time. It has 
revived from these damages, however, and is 
now a prosperous and growing community. 
It has good streets and sidewalks, electric 
lights, four churches, a good publii; school, 
which is housed in a modern school building, 
two banks, a flouring mill and about twenty 
other business enterprises of various kinds. 
The Piedmont Banner is a weekly paper pub- 
lished by Bristol French. 

There are three banks in the town with a 
combined capital of .$55,000. The present 
population is 1,154. 

Vol. 1—18 



Mountain & Southern Railway forty-seven 
miles south of St. Louis. It is built partly 
in the valley of Joachim creek and partly on 
the hills overlooking the valley. The first 
resident on the site of the town was Van 
Home, who opened a farm here in 1808. 
In 1855 Colonel John W. Fletcher built a 
residence and saw mill on the site ; the town 
was not laid out until 1857, when Thomas C. 
Fletcher, afterward governor of Missouri, and 
Lewis J. Rankin had the site surveyed and 
liegan the sale of lots. A postoffice was estab- 
lished with C. E. Fletcher as the first post- 
master; E. M. Boli in the same year opened 
the first store, and the first brick house in the 



274 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



town was built by D. Cohen. The population 
grew slowly at first and did not exceed 200 
by 1861, but at the close of the war it began 
to increase rapidly and the town was incorpo- 
rated in 1869. The ear works and machine 
shops of the Iron Mountain Railway Company 
were located in DeSoto in 1872 on condition 
that necessary grounds .should be donated by 
the citizens and that the property of the com- 
pany should be forever exempt from taxation. 
Owing to certain irregularities the city was 
incorporated two or three times before 1883. 
Soon after the establishment of the town an 
educational institution known as DeSoto 
Academy was organized by Professor Trum- 
ble for which a large building was erected. He 
gave up the work in 1868 and the school was 
closed for a time and the building used for 
private school purposes until 1886 when it 
was burned. In 1882 a stone and brick public 
school building was erected on the hill above 
the town at a cost of $15,000, and in 1905 a 
high school building adjoining the older build- 
ing was erected ; the public school at present 
employs about twenty-five teachers and is well 
and thoroughly organized; there are also two 
other ward school buildings and a school for 
negroes. There are many churches in the 
town — the Baptist, Methodist, Southern Meth- 
odist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Episco- 
pal, Roman Catholic, German Methodist and 
Evangelical — each having church buildings 
and organizations. There is also a fine build- 
ing for the Toung Men's Christian Associa- 
tion, the funds for which were provided in 
large part by Miss Helen Gould. The lead- 
ing industry of the town is the car works of 
the railroad ; other industries are flouring 
mills, ice plant, planing mill, machine factory, 
wagon factory and marble and bottling works. 
The Jefferson Coimty bank and the Peoples' 
Bank ox Desoto were organized in 1885 and 
the German-American bank was organized in 
1898; they are all prosperous and enterprising 



institutions with ample capital. The news- 
liapers of the town are The Press and The 
licpuMicait. The town has a good system of 
electric lights and water works, being sup- 
l)lied from artesian wells. There are many 
beautiful residences and the population of the 
town is 4,721. 

Cry.st.\l City 

Crystal Citj' is situated in Jefferson comity 
on Plattin creek, thirty miles south of St. 
Louis. The land on which the town now 
stands was entered in 1834 by an eastern com- 
jiany with the expectation of fuiding mineral 
on it ; the site, however, was not occupied nor 
were minerals found at that time. In 1868 
the place was visited by three English expert 
glass makers, who shipped two barrels of sand 
to England, which when tested proved to be 
of a very superior quality. The first success- 
ful attempt to make use of this sand was made 
in 1871. At that time the American Plate 
Glass Company of Detroit, Michigan, with a 
capital of $150,000 was organized by Captain 
E. D. Ward. Theodore Luce was appointed 
as superintendent and a plant for the manu- 
facture of glass was constructed and put in 
operation in 1872. Because of the fact that 
the owners were JMichigan people the village 
which grew up around the plant was called 
New Detroit, but the workmen persisted in 
giving it the name of Crystal City, which was 
afterwards adopted. The financial panic of 
1873 and the death of Captain Ward caused 
the plant to be sold ; it was purchased by a 
St. Louis corporation — the Crystal Plate 
Glass Company, of which Ethan Allen 
Hitchcock was president — for $25,000. 
This company increased the capital stock 
to $1,500,000 and appointed George F. Neal 
superintendent, and purchased additional 
land. It is said that the company owns 
about 250 acres of almost pure sand besides 
other property. This company built the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



275 



Crystal City Railroad, extending from the 
works to Silica on the Iron Mountain, a 
distance of three and a half miles. The 
railroad was operated until the building of 
the Frisco south from St. Louis to ^Memphis. 
The plant later came imder the control of the 
Pittsburg Plate Glass Company, who now own 
and operate it. About 2,000 people are em- 
ployed hy the company and the product of 
the plant amounts to a large sum each year. 
The present town is supported almoist exclu- 
sively by the Company. There is a good 
public school and several business establish- 
ments, and one church building. This church 
building was erected by the Company and 
stands in the midst of about three acres of 
very lieai^tiful. well kept grounds. It was first 
turned over to the Episcopalians but is now 
free for the services of all denominations. The 
population of Crystal City is about 1,200. 

Herculaneum 

A town in Jefferson county tliirty miles 
south of St. Louis. It was at one time one of 
the most important settlements in the west. 
The land on which the town stands was pur- 
chased in 1808 by Samuel Hammond and 
Moses Lawson, who laid it out in town lots and 
began the sale of the lots. The advantage of 
the situation of the town was twofold. In the 
first place it was near the lead region and in 
the second place it was situated on bluffs over- 
looking the Jlississippi river, on which it was 
possible to erect shot towers for the manu- 
facture of shot at a very little cost; in fact, 
no tower was really necessary, as the melted 
lead could be dropped from the top of the 
bluff into the water below. The first estab- 
lishment for making shot was erected at the 
mouth of Joachim creek by John INI. ^Macklot 
of St. Louis. Other shot towers were erected 
within a short time and considerable quanti- 
ties of lead and shot were manufactured. 

Long says (p. 104) that there were three 



shot factories at Herculaneum in 1819, all of 
them built on the summits of perpendicular 
precipices, by which means the erecting of 
high towers has been avoided. 

Flagg ("Far West," p. 93) gives this bit 
of description : " In a few moments the forest 
opened unexpectedly before me and at my 
feet rolled on the turbid floods of the Missis- 
sippi, beyond which went up the towering 
cliff's of limestone to the height of more than 
a hundred feet fi'om the water's edge, were 
the cliff's of Herculaneum ivitli their shot 
towers." 

When Jeff'erson covmty was organized in 
1818 Herculaneum was made the countj^ seat 
and continued to grow and prosper imtil the 
lead \\hich had Ijeeu transported to Hercula- 
neum for shipments on the river began to be 
sent from two other shipping points known as 
Sehna and Rush Tojwer. They aff'orded some- 
what better facilities for shipping than Her- 
culaneum and the town began to decline. The 
county scat was taken away in 1836 and re- 
moved to ^louticello, afterward called Hills- 
boro. The town lo.st a great deal of its im- 
portance until the establishment of plants 
for the smelting of lead. When the Missis- 
sippi River & Bonne Terre Railway was con- 
structed a large smelting plant was built on 
the river at Herculaneum and great quanti- 
ties of lead ore were brought from the mines 
to be smelted in this plant. It is still one of 
the important lead manufacturing towns in 
the state. The town is supported almost en- 
tirely by the lead company. It has a bank 
called the Bank of Herculaneum, with a capi- 
tal of ^10,000; a small public school, two 
churches, and half a dozen business estab- 
lishments, and its population is about 800. 
The Eerculatieinit Hustler is a weekly news- 
paper and is Republican in politics. 

There is still standing the chimn*e} -of the 
old house where Governor Thomas C. Fletcher 
was born, and also the remains of one of the 
fir.st shot towers f about 1808). 



276 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



HlLLSBORO 

The first settler on the site of Hillsboro 
was a man named Hanson, who moved there 
in 1832 and laid out the town. The place was 
first called Monticello, bvit on the removal of 
the seat of justice from Herculaneum to this 
place the name was changed to Hillsboro. It 
is a typical country town, being without rail- 
road facilities, the nearest shipping points be- 



of the ore from Pilot Knob was brought here 
for smelting; this was in 1873, and the plant 
was operated imtil 1883. At the present time 
the town is supported by the agricultural 
country about it. There are Presbyterian 
and Catholic churches and a public school. 
The town is on the St. Louis, Iron 
^Mountain & Southern Railway and also on the 
St. Louis & San Francisco. Just north of the 
town is Montesano Springs, a summer resort. 




Main Street, Hillsboro 



ing Desoto and Victoria on the Iron Moiuitain 
Railway. It has a church, a public school, a 
hotel, two weekly newspapers — the Jefferson 
Democrat and the Jefferson County Record — 
a bank with a capital stock of $10,000, and its 
population is 261. 

KiMHSWICK 

Kimmswick is situated on the Mississippi 
river, twenty-one miles south of St. Louis. It 
was laid out as a town by Theodore Kimm in 
1859. At one time the town bid fair to be- 
come one of considerable importance ; this was 
during the operation of iron mines at Pilot 
Kiiob and Iron Mountain. A large smelting 
plant was erected in Kimmswick and much 



The Bank of Kimmswick has a capital stock 
of $10,000. The population of Kimmswick is 
235. 

Hematite 

A town in Jeffer.son county on the St. Louis, 
Iron ilountain & Southern Railway, thirty- 
five miles southwest of St. Louis, was laid out 
in 1861 by Stephen Osborn of St. Louis. It 
contains Christian, Congregational and Meth- 
odist churches, a public school, a flour mill 
and some other business establishments. It 
i.« the shipping point for a large amoimt of 
building stone quarried in the vicinity of the 
town. Its pop^llation is about 200. 



CHAPTER XXII 

ST. FRANCOIS, BOLLINGER AND PEMISCOT COUNTIES 

Present-Day Bismarck — Libertyville — Farmington — Marble Hill — Lutesville Gay- 

oso — Caruthersville. 



Birmarek, in St. Francois coimty, was set- 
tled iu 1860 and incorporated twenty years 
later. Among its early settlers ■\vere S. C. 
Mantler, W. H. Evans, L. Sherrill, the Dent 
family, the Cooleys and the Matkins. The 
first merchants in the town were Columbus 
Grider, Sims and Boss. The early importance 
of the town was due almost entirely to the 
construction of the Iron Mountain Railroad 
and its growth has depended principally upon 
the farming community in which it is situated 
and its railroad interests. 

Present-Day Bismarck 
Bismarck has now five general stores, but 
the only manufacturing establishment is a 
flouring mill. The more important buildings 
in the town are the hotel nud the I. 0. 0. F. 
hall ; it is the division point of the Ii"on Moim- 
tain Railroad and the western terminus of the 
Illinois Southern, and is also the connection 
point of the Belmont branch with the main 
line of the Iron Mountain. The town has a 
good public school and the usual church or- 
ganizations. Its financial interests are cared 
for by the Bank of Bismarck, which has a 
capital stock of $25,000. The population of 
Bismarck is 848. The Bismarck Gazette is a 
weekly newspaper and is independent in poli- 
tics. It is published by George Bisplinghoff. 



Libertyville 

This village in St. Fi-ancois coimty is situ- 
ated in the Cook settlement, one of the oldest 
communities in Southeast Missouri. It is six 
miles from Knoblick on the railroad and has 
a large flouring mill, a brick school building 
and a church. 

Farmington 

The county seat of St. Francois county was 
located and surveyed as a town in February, 
1822. It was located on land belonging to 
David Murphy, the site of the old Murphy 
settlement which was made about the year 
1800. Murphy donated to St. Francois county 
fifty-two acres of land and the county ap- 
pointed Henry Postom, John Andrews, Wil- 
liam Shaw, Mark Dent and William Alexan- 
der as commissioners to locate the seat of 
justice. The survey' of the town was made by 
Henry Poston. The first store was opened 
in 1823 in a small log building on the west 
side of the public square, by John D. Peers; 
later he removed to the east side of the square 
and in 1833 formed a partnership with M. P. 
Cayce. Among the other merchants at that 
time were Henry W. Crowell and J. J. Brady; 
a saddlery shop was owned and managed by 
a Mr. Day. and the hotel was conducted by 



278 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



John Boaz. The town was incorporated as a 
village by order of the county court in 1856, 
with John Cobb and George "W. Williams as 
trustees; William R. Taylor was city clerk. 
It was incorporated as a city of the fourth 
class in 1878, the first mayor being Alvin 
Rucker. The town grew slowly and depended 
upon the farming commimity about it and 
also upon its possession of the county seat. 
At the breaking out of the war it had a popu- 
lation of about 500. At this time the princi- 
pal merchants were M. P. Cayce, S. A. Dout- 
hitt & Son, Peers & Company, and Ai-nold & 
Rucker. The first grist mill was built in 
1856 by M. P. Cayce and S. A. Doi;thitt ; this 
mill, afterward enlarged and remodeled, was 
kno^\^a as the Parmington roller mills. The 
town suffered considerable injury by the fact 
that the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad 
Mas built at a distance of two and a half miles 
to the west, owing to the fact that the town 
refused to subscribe to the stock of the rail- 
road. However, the injury to the toMTi was 
neither serious nor permanent, and contrary 
to general expectation the business was not 
moved to the new town of DeLassus. The 
jjrincipal merchants in the period from 1880 
to 1890 were Dalton & Marks. J. Krieger, S. S. 
Smith, Cole & Hackada,^% M. Rosenthal, Simon 
J. Copson, Thomas Williams; general mer- 
chants, Orten & Davis, F. E. Klein & Com- 
pany, S. C. Gosson and J. H. Waide ; grocers, 
J. R. ]\IcCormick, Brad Robinson, A. Rucker 
and A. Parkhurst ; druggist, Robert Tetlay ; 
jeweler, C. E. Barrel! ; stationer, Lang & 
Brother; lumber dealers, Giessing Brothers, 
proprietors of the Farmington Roller mills. 
In 1887 the Bank of Farmington was or- 
ganized, with A. Parkhurst as president 
and L. P. Cayce as cashier, with a capi- 
tal stock of $15,000; it now has a capital 
of $50,000. The Farmers' Bank of Farming- 
ton was organized in April. 1904, and has a 



capital stock of $35,000. The St. Francois 
County bank was organized in April, 1907, 
and has a capital of $30,000. At the present 
time there are twelve general stores, two drug 
stores, two confectionery stores, three restau- 
rants, one five- and ten-cent store, two express 
oflices, one jewelry store, four barber shops, 
one book store and three newspapers. 

The present manufacturing establishments 
are three wagon and buggy shops, three black- 
smith shops, foi;r lumber yards and one con- 
struction company. The town has a good sys- 
tem of electric lights and water works. The 
principal buildings are the court house, St. 
Francois hotel, the Realty building, the opera 
house and a high school building. The tOMTi 
now covers two and a half square miles and 
has a population of 2,800. Its assessed valu- 
ation is more than a million dollars. It is 
divided into four wards ; there are eight alder- 
men. Hon. George M. Wilson is mayor of 
the town. 

There are eight churches in Parmington — 
]\Iethodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal 
South, negro Methodist, Christian, Baptist, 
Presbyterian, Lutheran and Catholic. The 
fii-st newspaper published was the Southern 
M'issouri Argus, which was established by 
Nichol. Crowell & Shuck in 1880. In 1889 its 
name was changed to The Herald, and in 1892 
it was removed to Desoto. The Xeiv Era, a 
paper which began a publication at Libertj'- 
ville. was removed to Parmington in 1871 
and to Marble Hill in 1876. In 1872 The 
Times was started by C. E. Ware and J. H. 
Rodehaver; it is now published by Theodore 
D. Fisher. The Neivs was established in 1884 
by P. T. Pigg and The Herald in 1886 by 
Isaac Rodehaver. 

Farmington has been famous for many 
years as a center of educational interest. Its 
.system of public schools is not surpassed in 
Southeast Missouri. It has three good school 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



279 




Missouri State Hospital prom Superintendent's Residence 




High School, Parmington 



280 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



buildings, one of them — the high school build- 
ing — having been recently completed at a cost 
of $50,000. Besides its system of public 
schools the town is the seat of Carleton Col- 
lege and of Elmwood Seminary, accounts of 
both of which appear in the chapter on edu- 
cation. The town is also the seat of the state 
hospital No. 4 for the insane. This institution 
is one of the best equipped in the state. It is 
situated on beautiful and commodious grounds 
and the buildings are costly and convenient. 

The town is not on any line of railroad but 
is connected with the St. Louis & Iron Moiui- 
tain, and also with the Mississippi River & 
Bonne Terre Railroad by the St. Francois 
County Interurban line, which was con- 
.striicted in 1905. The present population is 
2,613. 

Marble Hill 

Marble Hill, which was selected as tho 
county seat of Bollinger county, was first 
named New California. It was laid off as a 
town in 1851 by Thomas Hamilton. The 
commissioners to choose the site of the county 
seat, who were David Ramsay, Isaac Shep- 
herd and J. J. Daugherty, selected this place 
and laid off a to\\ii, including New California, 
which they named ' ' Dallas. ' ' They proceeded 
to mark out a place for the public square, and 
title to the town site was obtained from the 
owners of the land, who were Joseph Baker, 
Jacob Lutes, Daniel Grader and Thomas Ham- 
ilton. The first store in the town was eon- 
ducted by John C. Whybark. Some of the 
other early merchants were William Grimsey, 
Edward Wilson and George Clippard The 
first hotel was opened by Calvin Cook. The 
town was not incorporated imtil during the 
Civil war. Its name was then changed to 
]\Iarble Hill and Levy E. Whybark, F. J. 
Williams, J. J. Conrad, Lindsay Murdoch and 
J. J. Duffy were appointed as trustees for the 
town. 



The town has not grown very rapidly in 
recent years, but still has experienced a steady 
increase. Its present population is 313 ; it is 
supported by the farming community about 
it. The principal importance of the town 
lies in the fact that it is the county seat 
of the county and that it is the seat of the 
Will Mayfield College. The Bank of Marble 
Hill was chartered in 1905 and has a capital 
stock of $5,000. The town is situated on the 
top of a hill and is separated from Lutesville 
by Crooked creek. It is a pleasant place of 
residence and has a public schools system and 
churches of the Baptist, Methodist and Catho- 
lic denominations. The Marble Hill Press is 
a weekly newspaper published by Hill & 
Chandler. 

Lutesville 

The town of Lutesville is situated on the 
west side of Crooked creek, about a half mile 
from Marble Hill. It was laid out as a town 
in 1860 by Eli Lutes, in whose honor the 
town was named. In order to secure a station 
on the Belmont branch of the St. Louis, Iron 
Mountain & Southern Railroad, JMr. Lutes 
gave to the railroad company ten acres of 
ground for station purposes, the right-of-way 
through the town, and one-third of the lots. 
The first merchant in town was C. E. Rowe, 
who began business in a small box house and 
continued until the time of his death. Eli 
Lutes was also one of the early merchants. 
The first mayor of the town was F. S. Traut- 
wein. There are now five general stores and 
the usual number of smaller business estab- 
lishments. There is one stave factory, which 
has been in operation for a number of years, 
and also a mill. The Bollinger County bank, 
with a capital of $25,000, was incorporated in 
1891, and the Peoples' Bank of Lutesville, 
with a capital of $12,000 was iucoqiorated 
in 1903. Among the principal buildings are 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



281 



r 



M 

r 

c 

O 

o 
r 
r 

K 






r 
r 




282 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the Odd Fellows' hall and the business blocks 
of W. W. Sample and Robert Drum. The pop- 
ulation of Lutesville is 551. The Lutesville 
Baniur is a weekly paper and is Republican 
in politics. 

Gayoso 

This town received its name in honor of the 
Spanish governor of Louisiana, Don Manuel 
Gayoso. When the site was selected for the 
county seat of Pemiscot county in April, 1851, 
there was not a house standing on the fifty 
acres of land purchased by the commissioners. 
This land was bought from James A. McFar- 
land and the town was surveyed by William 
Bigham. No house was erected until 1854, 
when Sanford Jackson built a small residence. 
The next house was built by Charles A. Kim- 
ball. W^arriugton & Pennell of New Madrid 
were the first merchants. They began busi- 
ness in 1854 and were succeeded by Benjamin 
Sellers. John H. Kelly was another early 
merchant. The first hotel was built in 1856 
by Wade H. Spencer. Francois Baxter, who 
was an Englishman, taught the first school in 
the school house, which was erected in 1859. 
Other schools had been taught prior to this 
time, but they were conducted in the court 
house. This court house was erected in 1854 
and was a small frame building on the public 
square. This building was used until 1873, 
when it was moved away and used as a stable 
by George W. Carleton. 

James A. McFarland, who owTied the land 
on which the town was laid out, was one of 
the first physicians in Gayoso, as was Robert 
E. Clowd. In 1858 Dr. John H. Alexander 
came from Point Pleasant to Gayoso. He 
seems to have been the first graduate of a 
regular medical college in the county. The 
principal resident of the town during many 
years of its history was Major George W. 



Carleton. whose life is recorded in another 
chapter. To his enterprise and business abil- 
ity was due in large measure the prosperity 
which the place enjoyed. Gayoso met the fate 
of many other river towns. The Mississippi 
gradually encroached upon it until little was 
left. The county seat was removed to 
Caruther.sville and the place ceased to exist. 

C.VRUTHEESVILLE 

Caruthersville, the present comity seat of 
Pemiscot comity, is situated not far from the 
old village of Little Prairie. It was named in 
honor of Hon. Sam Caruthers of Madison 
count.v, and was laid out in 1857. G. W^. 
Bushlej- and Col. J. H. Walker were the men 
instrumental in locating the new town. It 
grew very slowly and attained no real impor- 
tance until after - the war. Among the first 
merchants were Harbison & Christie, and 
Davidson & Edwards. 

At present Caruthersville has a population 
of 3,655. The three banks in the town have a 
capital stock of $175,000, with large deposits. 
Among the business interests are an ice plant, 
four cotton gins, a cottonseed oil mill, a large 
egg case factory, heading factory, a handle 
mill, bottling works and about thirty general 
stores. Besides these there are a number of 
other business interests of minor importance. 
The town is lighted with electric lights and 
has a modern system of water works. The 
public schools of Caruthersville are in a good 
condition, there being one large brick building 
for the grades, and a new high school building. 
Seventeen teachers are employed. Besides the 
public schools there is a Catholic parochial 
school, which has a large attendance. There 
are church organizations of most of the denom- 
inations and several of them have church 
buildings. 

There are published in the town the follow- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 283 

ing papers: The Democrat, edited by W. R. rich farming coimtry about malces the future 

Lacey ; The Argus, edited by H. B. Averill. of the place secure. It enjoys the advantage 

and The Bcpublican, edited by Frank Aber- of river traffic and is the southern terminus 

nathy. of the St. Louis & Gulf, a branch of the 

Large lumber interests center here and the Frisco. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
DUNKLIN AND MISSISSIPPI 



Old-Time Kennett — Modern Town Dates from Railroad — Clarkton — Horneesville — 
Mississippi County Seat — Charleston op the Present — Belmont. 



Kennett, the coimty seat of Dunklin county, 
was laid out as a town in 1840. It was first 
called CHilletecaux, after the Indian village 
which was near. In 1849 the legislature of 
the state changed its name to Butler. A few 
years after that time it received its present 
name, in honor of Luther M. Kennett. 

Old-Time Kennett 

The first merchant in the town of Kennett 
was Elbert C. Spiller. Some of the other 
early merchants were James Cude, A. M. 
Davis, J. R. McCuUough, John S. Houston, 
John li. Marsh and Campbell Wright. The 
town grew slowly for a good many years and 
was supported in part by the business of the 
county seat. It is surrounded by very fertile 
land, but this land for many years was unde- 
veloped and the population of the county was 
small. In 1847 a small log building was 
erected as a court hou.se. It was placed in 
the center of the public square, about where 
the present court house stands. It was used 
until during the war, when it was destroyed. 
The first jail was built at the same time of 
the court house building. It, too, was of logs. 
and was used until after the war. 

The town suffered greatly during the war, 

•as it was in territory traversed by botli armies 

and was sometimes in the hands of lawless 



men. After the war there was not much left 
except a small village. Progress was very 
slow for many years. The town was so far 
from river and rail transportation that it 
seemed practically impossible for it to develop. 
The population of the county grew but the 
great bulk of its trade went to Cape Girar- 
deau. That was the nearest accessible point 
on the river. The cotton and other products 
of Dunklin coimty soil were hauled to that 
place, and the diy goods and supplies used 
by the people brought back in return. With 
the building of the Cairo & Texas Raih-oad 
from Cairo to Poplar Bluff, Dexter became 
the great trading point for Dimklin county. 
A little later I\Ialden, the western terminus 
of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway 
(later the St. Louis Southwestern) was the 
most important trading center. 

There were alwaj's a few stores at Kennett 
during this period, but they carried small 
stocks of goods and made little effort to pro- 
vide a market for the county's products. This 
failure to provide for handling the crops was 
due to a number of things. The distance from 
adequate means of transportation, the lack of 
sufficient capital, and the method then in 
vogue of handling cotton, which was the most 
important staple crop. At that time cotton 
was ginned before being sold by the farmer. 



284 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



285 



and was then usually consigned by him to 
some commission merchant in St. Louis to be 
sold on accoimt. Furs were for many years 
an important item in the county's wealth and 
these were often bought by traveling agents 
for fur houses in the cities. All these condi- 
tions prevented the town from acquiring any 
considerable importance. 

A few men, however, saw the possibilities 
of the development of trade and the building 
wp of a town, and kept working and planning 
for their own and the town's prosperity. The 
foremost of these men was W. F. Shelton. 
whose early struggles and final success form 
a most interesting chapter in the town's his- 
tory. Other men who held on and kept faith 
in the town's eventual success were Tatum 
Bros., T. E. Baldwin, W. G. Bragg, R. H. 
Jones, D. Y. Pankey, Dr. A. B. Mobley and 
J. B. Blakemore. 

Modern Town Dates prom Railroad 

Many plans were made for ending the 
town's isolation by the building of a railroad, 
but nothing was actually done imtil 1891. In 
that year E. S. McCarthy and associates built 
a line from Campbell on the St. Louis South- 
westei'n, to Keimett. The first train reached 
the town January 1, 1892. The road soon 
came into possession of Louis Houck. It was 
eventually extended to Caruthersville, giving 
an oiatlet to the river ; later it was built to the 
south. Coupled with the coming of the rail- 
roads were other changes which added to the 
prosperity of the town. Population of the 
county grew rapidly, the products of the 
farms became more varied, new business 
methods were introduced, capital for opening 
up new enterprises became abundant. The 
timber, which was very abundant, became 
valuable, and its development brought large 
sums of money. The countv became one of 



the most prosperous in this part of the state, 
and Kennett shared in this prosperity. Frame 
buildings were supplanted by brick, sidewalks 
were built, and other public improvements 
made, so that in the short time since the rail- 
road reached the town it has been transformed 
from a country village with a population of 
500 or 600 to a thriving and prosperous town 
with modern improvements, good schools, 
churches, handsome residences, good bu-siness 
establishments, and a population of more than 
3,000. 

It is now one of the fastest growing towns 
in Southeast Missouri, is situated in the midst 
of a most fertile farming country, and it has 
also the advantage of nearness to large bodies 
of timber. Its railroad facilities are good. 
It is on the St. Louis and Gulf line of the 
Frisco, which gives it connection with th3 
Cotton Belt at Campbell, with the main line 
of the Frisco at Cape Girardeau and Hayti, 
and also connects it with the Paragould & 
Southeastern Railroad to the south. Besides 
the Frisco, the town is the terminus of the 
St. Louis, Kennett & Southeastern, which ex- 
tends from Piggott, Arkansas, to Kennett. 
This line is owned by home capital and is 
important to the town because it opens up 
great bodies of timber and much valuable 
farming land. There are about fifty business 
establishments of various kinds, including 
some large general stores, office buildings, 
drug stores and furniture and hardware estab- 
lishments. Besides these there are some large 
wood working plants engaged in the manu- 
facture of staves,' heading and lumber, and 
the town has one of the few cotton oil mills in 
Missouri. It possesses the usual church or- 
ganizations, all of which have good buildings, 
and there are two banks in the town — the 
Bank of Kennett, which was organized in 1891 
and has a capital stock of $25,000. and the 



286 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Cotton Exchange Bank, organized in 1900, 
which has a capital stock of $30,000. The 
town is the county seat of Dunklin county and 
one of the principal buildings is the court 
house, which occupies a commanding site in 
the center of the square. The business con- 
nected with the courts is one of the features 
of life in the town. The Dunklin Democrat, 
a Democratic newspaper edited by E. P. 
Caruthers, is one of the best county papers in 
the section. It has a large circulation and 



in New Madrid county to Dunklin countj% its 
terminus being Clarkton. The first settler in 
the town was Dr. Skaggs. Other early settlers 
were John Timberman and his partner, Wil- 
liam Muse; they operated the first store in 
the town. Dr. Van H. Harrison was one of 
the first physicians and R. W. and T. C. 
Stokes were merchants. The town grew rap- 
idly for a time as it was surrounded by a fine 
farming coimtry and its population soon grew 
tc three hundred. It built the first good school 




Court House, Kennett 



considerable influence. The town has a good 
system of public schools, there being at pres- 
ent two buildings — the Central school and the 
Shelton school. There is a fully accredited 
high school and this institiition is one of the 
most popular in the town. 

Clarkton 

Clarkton, in Dunklin county, was founded 
in 1860 and was named in honor of Henry E. 
Clark, who was one of the contractors of the 
building of the Plank road from Weaverville 



building in the county. Its prosperity was 
very greatly checked, however, by the build- 
ing of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas rail- 
road from New Madrid to JIalden. Most of 
the business of Clarkton was moved either to 
Maiden or Kennett, and for many years the 
town was at a standstill. Only one or two 
stores were conducted during this period, the 
principal one being that owned by Michael 
Hubbard. About 1895 a railroad was built 
from Gibson to Cape Girardeau; this was a 
branch of the Frisco system and it passed 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



287 



through tlie old village of Clarkton. It, im- 
mediately revived and took on new life, and 
is now a prosperous and tlourishing town, 
having several good general stores, two banks, 
and boasts a population of 682. 

The people of Clarkton have recently con- 
structed a new school building, which is justly 
the pride of the citizens of the town. At one 
time Clarkton was the largest town in Dunk- 
lin county and constructed the first building 
for school purposes of any pretentions what- 
ever. This frame building was used for many 
years, but has recently been superseded by a 
new and better building. A well was bored 
near the town in 1910 in an effort to find oil 
or gas. This effort was unsuccessful, but at 
a depth of about 1,000 feet a strong flow of 
artesian water was found. 

IIORNERSVILLE 

Hornersville, in the south part of Dunklin 
county, was established in 1840 by William 
H. Horner, llr. Horner was the first mer- 
chant of the town and its most prominent 
citizen. The town received its name from 
him. It had a very limited growth prior to 
the war, there being only a few stores up to 
this time. 

It is now on the line of the Paragould 
Southeastern Railroad and is a flourishing 
business community. It has a number of good 
stores, several cotton gins and its financial 
interests are cared for by the Bank of Hor- 
nersville, chartered in 1909 ; it has a capital 
stock of $10,000. Its present population is 390. 

There are cotton gins and sawmills which 
contribute to the town's prosperity. Its s.ys- 
tem of schools is well organized. It is in the 
finest farming country in Southeast Missouri 
and will always be a prosperoixs community. 
There are two churches — Methodist and Bap- 
tist. 



Mississippi County Seat ' 

Charleston, the coimty seat of Mississippi 
county, was laid off as a town in 1837, sixteen 
acres being surveyed in twelve blocks. The 
land on which it was laid off belonged to 
Thankful Randol, Joseph Moore and W. P. 
Barnard. The first person to reside on the 
town site seems to have been Humphrey War- 
ren, who built a small log house there about 
1830. His house and land was bought by 
Thankful Randol, who resided at the place 
until her death. After the town of Charleston 
was established she kept a hotel. The first 
store in the town was opened by John West 
and his partner, whose name was Neil. Other 
merchants were Arthur R. Newman, Henry 
G. Cuiumings, and Kuran Gorman. Gorman 
was one of the largest and most successful 
merchants in Charleston prior to the war, 
and is said to have become wealthy tlirough 
his trading operations. One of the men who 
did much to build the town up and make it 
prosperous was George Whitcomb. He moved 
to Charleston shortly after the town was 
founded and built a large, double log house 
on the lot where Hon. J. J. Russell now lives. 
He was a public spirited man and accom- 
plished a great deal for the town. It was 
largely due to his work and influence that the 
Cairo & Fulton Railroad was secured for 
Charleston. He was clerk of the courts for 
al)out twenty years and during most of that 
time was also a dealer in real estate. 

The first newspaper in Charleston was estab- 
lished in 1857. It was known as The Courier, 
and its editor was George Whitcomb. T]ic 
Courier was one of the few papers in South- 
oast Missouri that was published during the 
war. From 1858 to 1S72 the manager, and 
for a part of the time the editor, was W. F. 



288 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Martin ; though the paper continued to be tlie 
property of Mr. Whitcomb. 

It is said that there was a school conducted 
in a log cabin near the site of Charleston prior 
to the laj'ing off of the town. It was Imown 
as the Indian Grove school. Some of the first 
teachers were Hartford Hayes, James L. 
Moore and John C. Thomas. 

There were fifteen business establishments 
in the town in 1859, including general and 
special stores. Among the merchants were K. 
Gorman, L. Kosenberg, Hayes & Bartlett, 
Frank Myrick, J. H. Bridges, W. G. Cooley, 
W. A. Lynn and F. J. Jecko. At this time the 
town's physicians were B. J. Moore, S. D. 
Golder, T. C. Poor, J. L. Haw and A. E. Simp- 
son. There was a strong bar, and a number 
of attorneys made their homes here. Among 
them were Robert Waide, A. M. Bedford. 
N. E. Quinby, Sam C. Moore, Joseph C. Moore 
and M. Ward. 

The first bank in tlie town was a branch of 
the old Union Bank organized in 1860. John 
Bird was made president and J. C. Moore 
cashier. The directors were among the mo.st 
influential citizens of the town at that time. 
They were G. W. Whitcomb, C. C. Kalfus, 
Thompson Bird, J. S. Bledsoe, Noah Handy, 
James Smith, J. L. Moore and K. Gorman. 
The bank was taken possession of by Con- 
federate soldiers under General Jeff. Thomp- 
son in 1862 and $58,000 in gold and .silver was 
carried away and afterward turned over to 
the depositors. This action was taken to pre- 
vent the funds falling into the hands of the 
Federal forces. The next bank was the Bank 
of Charleston, chartered in October, 1887, 
with a capital stock of $15,000. A. H. Dan- 
forth was its first president and Scott Alex- 
ander cashier. This bank now has a capital 
of $100,000 and J. J. Russell is president: 



Scott Alexander is still cashier. The Missis- 
sippi County Bank was chartered in 1891 and 
has a capital of $40,000. In 1902 the Peoples' 
Bank was organized and its capital is $35,000. 

Ch.vrleston op the Present 

The town is one of the most pleasantly situ- 
ated in Southeast ilissouri ; it is on a sandy 
ridge and in the midst of the most fertile and 
easily worked soil in the entire section. It 
is distinetl.y a city of homes and has developed 
the characteristic life of the older settled 
communities of this part of the state. It is 
at the crossing of the Belmont branch of the 
Iron Mountain and of the Cairo & Texas be- 
tween Poplar Bluff and Cairo ; it has ample 
railroad facilities and is not a great distance 
from the river. The general business interests 
are well represented and there is a large flour- 
ing mill and other smaller manufacturing 
plants. The town is distinguished on account 
of its interest in churches and school system ; 
all the usual church organizations exist and 
the ^lethodists and Baptists have recently 
completed the erection of two unusually well 
constructed church buildings. The public 
school system is of the highest grade, there 
being two buildings, both of them new and 
well adapted to the work of the schools; a 
four years' high school course is fully ac- 
credited and takes high rank among the 
schools of the section. The population is 
3,141. The town is the county seat of ]\Iis- 
sissippi countj-. The newspapers are The 
Eiiterprisc, a Democratic weekly, and The 
It'cpiiblican. which is Republican in politics. 

Charleston is the headquarters of the South- 
east IMissouri Telephone Company, which op- 
crates exchanges in many of the principal 
towns of the southeast. 



. HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 289 

Belmont surveyed a year before Charleston was, in 

Belmont, which is the terminus of the Bel- 1836. It was established by James Ramsay 

mout branch of the Iron Mountain Railroad, and William Lester, and is situated on the 

is a little town in Mississippi county ; it was Mississippi river about six miles below Bird 's 

laid out in 1853. The oldest town in Missis- Point. It is famous as the scene of a fiercely 

sippi county, however, is Norfolk, which was fought battle during the Civil war. 



Vol. I— 1 9 



/ 



CHAPTER XXIV 

TOWNS OF SIX COUNTIES 

Commerce Incorporated — Benton, Scott County Seat — Sikeston — Doniphan, County 
Seat of Ripley — Poplar Bluff, Butler County's Seat of Justice — Bloomfield, Stod- 
dard County — Ironton, County Seat of Ironton — Arcadia — Lesterville — Smaller 
Settlements. 



The town of Commerce, in Scott county, 
was laid out in 1823. The conimissionei's were 
Wilson Abel, James Purtels, Thomas Roberts, 
Joseph Smith and James WeUborn. It had 
been a trading post for about twenty years 
before it was regularly laid off as a town. The 
land on which it was built was the property 
of the heirs of Thomas W. Waters. The early 
merchants were Archibald Price, Weaver & 
Echols, Shaw & Pettit, and Ignatius Wathen. 
John Brown was hotel keeper, Lyon & Apple- 
gate were carpenters, and William and Sam- 
uel Graysey operated a pottery making estab- 
lishment. In 184:4 Benjamin B. Gaither be- 
gan the operation of a tan yard. In 1856 a 
large mill was built by Ignatius R. Wathen, 
who was at that time a resident of Cape 
Girardeau. Other men who bought and sold 
goods during this period were Thomas M. 
Shaw, John Hoskins, Moses Baker, and IMo- 
rean & Burgess. 

Commerce Incorporated 

The town was incorporated in July, 1834, 
with William Grasey, Jacob Stear, J. S. 
Smith, John Brown and Joseph W. Echols as 
trustees. The legislature of the state granted 
a charter to the town in 1857 and the govern- 
ment was organized in accordance with the 



provisions of this charter. It, however, fell 
into disuse during the war period. 

This town is at that point on the ridge 
known as the Scott county hills and is also on 
the Mississippi river. It has river transpor- 
tation and is also on the Gulf division of the 
Frisco railroad. It has several business estab- 
lishments, the principal one being a flouring 
mill and a plant for the manufacture of tile. 
There are the usual church organizations in 
the to^vn and a public school. The Farmers' 
Bank was chartered in 1892 and has a capital 
stock of $50,000. The population of Com- 
merce is 544. 

Benton, Scott County Seat 

Benton, the county seat of Scott county, 
was laid out in 1822 on land owned by Colonel 
William Meyers. Among the early residents 
were Colonel Meyers, Edmond Rogers, John 
Houts, Michael McLaughlin and John B. Rut- 
ter. Rogers was a tavern owner, Houts ran 
!i tan yard, McLaughlin was a merchant, and 
Rutter was a clerk of the court. The early 
houses were, most of them, log houses. The 
first frame house in the town was a store build- 
ing erected about 1830 by Joseph Hunter. 
Some of the other merchants in the early his- 
tory of the town were Dr. E. P. LaValle, John 



290 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



291 



Harbison, George Netherton, Abraham Win- 
chester, Crow, McCrary, George and Thomas 
Williams. The first physicians were John 
(rolden, Samuel Chapman and Dr. A. S. Hen- 
derson, who came to the town in 1842. The 
town was incorporated in 1860 by the county 
court, with James Parrott, A. S. Henderson, 
D. H. Leedy, Daniel Abbey and Edward 
Burke as trustees. 

The principal thing about Benton is that it 
is the county seat of the county, and the court 
house is situated in the midst of the public 
square. It is a two-story brick building and 
was erected in 1883. There are about a half 
dozen business establishments, including a 
large flouring mill. On the court house square 
there is a large well, from which the town is 
supplied with water, and there is a good sys- 
tem of electric lights. There are three 
churches in the town and a public school 
building. The Benton Bank was organized 
in 1903 and has a capital stock of $15,000. 
The population is about 320. 

SiKESTON 

The first town in the neighborhood of Sikes- 
ton was called Winchester, and was named in 
honor of Colonel Henderson Winchester, who 
lived in the vicinity. This town was laid out 
in 1814 about a half mile south of the present 
site of Sikeston. The first store in Winchester 
was opened by Thomas Bartlett, and Hartwell 
Baldwin kept the tavern at that time. Other 
stores were opened by David Hunter, Mark H. 
Stallcup, and Christopher Houts. The town 
grew rather rapidly for a time and was the 
seat of justice for New Madrid county. When 
tlie county seat was removed to New Madrid. 
however, the town practically ceased to exist. 
This was in 1822. Its successor as a town was 
laid out in Sikeston in 1860 by John Sikes. 
The site selected was the place where the 



Cairo & Fulton Railroad crosses the road 
called the King's Highway from Cape Girar- 
deau to New Madrid. In the year that Sikes- 
ton was founded the Cairo & Pulton Railroad 
was completed to that place. 

Sikeston has experienced the most rapid 
growth of any town in Southeast Missouri in 
the last ten years. In 1899 its population was 
about 500; its present population is 3,327. 
This rapid growth is due in part to its situa- 
tion with regard to railroad transportation, 
it being on the main line of the Frisco and also 
on the Cairo & Texas branch of the Iron 
Moimtain. It has prospei-ed also because of 
the fact that the farming country about it has 
developed wonderfully in the last few years. 
There is no better soil than that on the Sikes- 
ton ridge ; it produces large quantities of 
wheat, corn and melons. Sikeston has also 
been fortunate in having an unusual and ex- 
ceptional group of business men, who have 
pushed the interests of the town very rapidly. 
At the present time there are about fifty busi- 
ness establishments, including several large 
general stores; there are two flouring mills, 
one of them being the largest in Southeast 
IMissouri. The usual church organizations are 
to be foimd here and tlie Methodist church 
South has recently completed a very large, 
handsome building, perhaps the most costly 
in this part of the state. The Bank of Sikes- 
ton was organized in 1800 and has a capital 
stock of .$250,000. The Citizens' Bank was 
organized in 1895 and has a capital stock of 
$150,000, and the People's Bank was organ- 
ized in 1909 and has a capital of $50,000. 
The public school system of Sikeston is a good 
one and there are two new and commodious 
buildings and a four years' high school course 
fully accredited is maintained. The Herald is 
a Democratic paper and The Standard is an 
independent paper. Just south of the town 



292 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



is a very beautiful plot of ground laid out as 
a cemetery, and here are buried some of the 
pioneers of Southeast Missouri. The most 
prominent of these is Ben P. Hunter, a man 
well known in the early history of the state, 
and whose descendants are prominent in this 
section still. 

Doniphan, County Seat op Ripley 

The county seat of Ripley county was set- 
tled about the year 1847 aud was named for 
General Alexander William Doniphan, the 
hero of the Mexican war. Among the families 
who lived in Doniphan in its early days were 
Ponders, Dudleys, Daltons, Pulliams, O'Neals, 
Stringers, Kents, Lawsons, Wheelers and 
MulhoUauds ; most of these early families were 
from Tennessee. The census of 1850 shows 
that there were more native Tennesseeans in 
Ripley county than natives of all other states 
combined. In 1856-57 a number of Irish fam- 
ilies were located in a colony in this county by 
Father Hogan, a pastor from St. Louis. The 
earliest merchants in the town were Kitrell & 
Thaunish and W. P. Kreps. The town grew 
slowly at first and was not incorporated until 
after the close of the war. It was made the 
coimty seat of Ripley county when Carter 
county was organized in 1859. Previous to 
this time Van Buren had been the county seat 
and was then made the eoimty seat of Carter 
county. For many years the town was with- 
out railroad connections and it was so until 
1883, when the Doniphan branch of the Iron 
Mountain was built from Naylor to Doniphan. 
This gave the town an impetus and it has had 
a steady growth since that time. There are 
now ten general stores, with other business 
interests of minor importance, an ice factory 
and a canning factory. The financial inter- 
ests of the town are cared for by the Ripley 
County Bank with a capital of $15,000, and 



the Doniphan State Bank whose capital is 
$15,000. The more important buildings in 
the town are the two bank buildings and ten 
brick business blocks. There are the usual 
church organizations, most of them having 
houses of worship, and a good system of 
public schools. The town has a modern system 
of water works and boasts that it has more 
concrete sidewalks than any other town of its 
size in the state. 

Doniphan is beautifully situated on the hills 
overlooking Current river, perhaps the most 
beautiful stream in the state. It is connected 
with the territory on the other side of Current 
river by a modern steel bridge, which was 
recently erected. Its population is now about 
1,800 and it is one of the most pleasant resi- 
dence to^vns in this part of the state. It has 
two good weekly papers — The Prospect-Neirs, 
published by J. P. Campbell, and The Demo- 
crat, published by D. G. Cunningham. Both 
are Democratic in polities. 

PoPLAE Bluff, Butler County's Seat of 
Justice 

The following order appears on the record 
of the county court of Butler county, of the 
date August 13, 1850: "It is ordered that 
hereafter the courts of Butler county be held 
at a place known and designated as Poplar 
Bluff, and the sheriff give notice by putting 
up three hand bills." This record gives the 
selection of Poplar Bluff as the comity seat 
of Butler county. Prior to this time the courts 
had met at different places ; sometimes in Cane 
Creek to-i\Tiship. at the house of Solomon Kit- 
trell, and sometimes in Epps township, at the 
house of Daniel Epps. The county judges at 
this time were Jonathan Sandlin and S^olomon 
Kittrell. Jacob C. Bloimt was the clerk and 
Newton Wallace was the sheriff. 

On the 11th day of November, 1850, the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



293 



court assembled for its first meeting in Poplar 
Bluff. This meeting was held in a rail pen, 
or shed, on the bank of Black river, near the 
foot of what is now Vine street. The judges 
at this time were Abraham Romine, John N. 
Yarber and William Yandover. The place 
selected was in the woods, and is named be- 
cause of the presence of large poplar trees. 

A postoffice was established February 27, 
1850, and the first postmaster was Jesse A. 
Gilley, who was succeeded in September of 
the same year by Jacob C. Blount. The post- 
office was kept at the east end of the old county 
bridge, in a small one-room cabin. The mail 
was brought to this place on horseback but 
was so uncertain that the postoffice was dis- 
continued in December, 1851. The only mer- 
cantile establishment in Poplar Bluff was a 
small cabin built of hickory logs at the corner 
of Second and Vine streets. Charles S. Hen- 
derson was the proprietor, and he sold whisky 
and tobacco and dealt in furs. Other mer- 
chants who conducted stores in Poplar Bluff 
during the early j'ears wei'e C. P. Phelps, who 
operated a general store, Kelley & Taylor, and 
Henderson & Lawson. The town grew slowly 
of course during the period before the war, 
and was almost depopulated during the war. 

The first circuit courts in Poplar Blull 
were presided over by the Hon. Henderson 
Huff. The sittings of the court were held in 
the house opposite the present court house 
square. General "Watkins, Thomas B. English 
and a ]\Ir. Hill were the lawyers who con- 
ducted most of the cases before the court. They 
were all from Cape Girardeau coiuity. In 
1859 a contract was let to S. G. Kitchen and 
D. B. ]Miller to build a brick court house. The 
work was supervised by William Ringer of 
Stoddard county. The building, which cost 
$6,000, was paid partly in cash and partly in 
lands. 



The first frame house was built in 1859 by 
James S. Ferguson. By the year 1860 there 
were twelve houses and ten families in the 
town. 

Among the early settlers one of the most 
prominent was John N. Yarber. He was a 
native of North Carolina and came to the 
vicinity of Poplar Bluff in 1844. He took 
part in all the activities of his time and held 
numerous offices in the county. He lived for 
many years after the war and was held in 
great esteem by those who knew him. An- 
other man prominent in the early times was 
James S. Ferguson, who built the first frame 
house in the town. He also held a number of 
offices, being clerk of the courts and county 
judge. Other citizens were James M. Spence, 
Dr. J. R. Franklin, Dr. James T. Adams, 
John Snoddy and Jesse A. Gilley. They were 
all prominent in the life of the town in its 
early years. 

We may well suppose that life in a com- 
munity like this was hampered in many ways 
and that the growth of the count.y, and neces- 
sarily the towns, was slow. Possibly one of 
the most remarkable records ever entered by 
a court was made by one of the courts in 
Poplar Bluff, as follows: "It is ordered by 
the court that the slieriff borrow $20 from 
anybody who would loan it to him for the 
purpose of buying two seals, one for the cir- 
cuit clerk and one for the county clerk. ' ' We 
are left in doubt as to whether anyone was 
good enough to lend this money, but as seals 
were used by the courts within a short time 
after this we ma.y reasonably conclude that 
the loan was made. 

At the present time there are in Poplar 
Bhiff about seventy-five mercantile establish- 
ments of every kind; this large number indi- 
cates the amount of mercantile business trans- 
acted in the town. In addition to these there 



294 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 




Poplar Bluff High School 




Scene on Black River near Poplar Bluff 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



295 



are about thirty factories of one sort or an- 
other. Many of these are wood working estab- 
lishments, consisting of stave mills, spoke fac- 
tories, handle factories, furniture making 
establishments, wagon factories, machine 
shops, planing mills, bottle and ice plant, 
brick and tile factory and a factory for the 
manufacture of adding machines. There are 
four banks in the towu, indicating the finan- 
cial situation and needs. The town is lighted 
with electric lights and has a good system of 
waterworks. Up to the present time the 
streets have never been paved, but there is 
now a movement on foot which will probably 
lead to the beginning of this work in the 
summer of 1912. Among the important build- 
ings are the city hall, court house, high school 
building and the Dalton Adding Machine 
Company's fireproof factory building. 

One fact of interest which connects Poplar 
Bluff of today with the old town is the exist- 
ence of a farm in the suburbs which was trans- 
ferred from the government of the United 
States directly to Judge Tarber in the early 
days of the town and which has never been re- 
transferred. The original patent from the 
government was signed by President Bu- 
chanan and is still in existence. 

The town was incorporated in 1861 and its 
first mayor was Daniel Kitchen. Its popula- 
tion is now 6,916, and it is growing rapidly. 
Its two papers. The Republican and The Citi- 
zen — Democrat — are published both daily and 
weekly and are both enterprising papers. 

Bloomfield, Stoddard County 

John McCombs, Michael Rodney and Henry 
Shaner, three citizens of Stoddard county 
were appointed as commissioners to locate 
the site for the county seat. A number of 
offers of land were made to them, and many 
persons were interested in securing the selec- 



tion of their property for this purpose. After 
a considerable consultation, the commissioners 
decided to select fifty acres of land donated 
to the county by Absolom Barley. This they 
did, and proceeded to lay out a town, which 
they named Bloomfield, it is said, because of 
the fact that the field was then covered with 
flowers. After the selection of the site, the 
county court appointed William C. Ranney as 
special commissioner for the sale of lots. It is 
probable that Absolom Barley, who had pre- 
viously owned the land, was the first resident 
of the town. He lived in a small log house on 
the southwest corner of the place, but after- 
ward built a brick house on another site. Or- 
son Bartlett was, perhaps, the first merchant, 
and Rev. John N. Mitchell, a Methodist 
preacher, and Thomas Neale, who operated a 
tan yard, were very early residents. The hotel 
was kept by Harmon Reed, and the early 
physicians \^ere M. B. Koons, Daniel Sanford, 
and Samuel Chapman. Edmund White open- 
ed a store on the south side of the public 
square in 1844 and Daniel Miller about the 
same time, together with his brother Henry, 
also began the sale of goods. In 1854, John 
M. Johnson, R. P. Owen and N. G. H. Jones, 
began to operate stores. The other merchants 
prior to the war were : Elijah jMiller, John L. 
Buck, Paramore & McDaniel, Louis Ringer, 
John Leach and Harper & Christy. 

The Herald, the first newspaper in Bloom- 
field, was established in 1858 by A. M. Bed- 
ford, of Charleston. The purpose of the publi- 
cation of this paper was to advocate the build- 
ing of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad. The 
Methodist church was used for several years 
for the conduct of the schools. These were 
elementary in character, and the terms were 
short. In 1853 a number of gentlemen or- 
ganized the Bloomfield Educational Society 
for the purpose of conducting a seminary for 



296 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



\^ 



learning. Its trustees were S. G. Kitchen, 
Orson Bartlett, Henry Miller, D. B. Miller 
and Michael A. Wilson. The societ}' built a 
two-story frame structure and carried on the 
school in it until the breaking out of the war. 

The town was one of the most prosperous 
in the district. Perhaps no other town away 
from the river grew quite as rapidly and sub- 
stantially during these years as did Bloom- 
field. It was surpassed in size, perhaps, only 
by Cape Girardeau. The war, however, put an 
end to the prosperity of the town, and in 
fact, resulted in its almost complete destruc- 
tion. Practically every building was either 
torn down or burned. 

The site was taken possession of by Fed- 
eral forces who erected a fort soon after the 
fire. On the close of the war the town had 
practically ceased to exist but was reincov- 
porated in 1869 and in 1870 a new court house 
was built at a cost of $25,000. The first news- 
paper published in the town was the Herald, 
established in 1858 by A. M. Bedford and J. 
0. Hall, it w-as discontinued in 1861 ; in 1866 
the Argus was started by James Hamilton 
and published until 1873 ; in 1878 the Cosmos 
began to be published but was later discon- 
tinued ; the Bloomfield Vindicator, the present 
paper, has been published since 1878. In 
1899 the town had a population of 2.200, and 
there were about 40 bvisiness establishments 
at that time, there were also churches, IMetho- 
dist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South and 
the Catholic. 

Up to 1896 the tovm was without railroad 
facilities of any kind. In that year a line 
was built from Bloomfield to Zeta on the St. 
Louis Southwestern. In 1898 Mr. Houck 
built a line from Broomwood to Bloomfield 
and rebuilt the line to Zeta. The improved 
methods of transportation and the erection of 
large woodworking plants, chiefiy stave mills, 



increased the town's prosperity very greatly 
and it grew rapidly for a number of years. 
It was well-built with substantial brick build- 
ings, many public improvements were made, 
and it became one of the most rapidly advanc- 
ing towns of the section. The practical ex- 
haustion of the timber, however, led to the 
logs of the mills and this dealt the prosperity 
of the place a heavy blow. For a time its 
population began to decline. In 1910 there 
were only 1,147 people there. This condition 
is changing now and population is once more 
increasing. 

There are about forty business establish- 
ments of various kinds. One of these is a 
pottery factory and kiln. There is a good 
system of public schools, and several church 
organizations. The farming country about 
the town will always support it and it has 
too the interests which gather about the 
county seat and add to its prosperity 

One of the old papers of the southeast is 
the Bloomfield Vindicator an ably edited 
weekly. Democratic in politics. Bloomfield 
Bank was chartered in 1895 and has a capital 
stock of $50,000. The City Bank was organ- 
ized in 1900. Its capital is $15,000. 

Ironton, County Seat of Iron 

The present county seat of Iron county, 
Ironton, was laid off as a town immediately 
after the organization of Iron county. At 
that time there were in the county only three 
villages: Arcadia, Middle Brook and Pilot 
Knob. Pilot Knob was a settlement of miners 
at the base of the mountain of the same name. 
Two men who were interested in the site of 
Ironton determined to lay off the town there, 
and if possible to secure the county seat. The 
election was held September 7th, 1857. and 
there were three places asking for the county 
seat : Arcadia, Middle Brook and the pro- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



297 



posed town of Ironton. Ironton was selected, 
and Tong and Carson, who owned the site, 
and whose influence had caused its selection, 
laid off the town and donated alternate lots 
to the county. These lots were sold at auction 
and brought the sum of $10,600.00. The new 
town, tliough handicapped by its nearness to 
Arcadia and Pilot Knob, experienced a fair 
growth owing in part to the mining industry, 
and in part to the presence of the county seat. 
In 1859 the population was about three hun- 
dred. The first paper in the town was the 
Furnace, a Free Soil paper, established in 
1858 by James Lindsay. 

Ironton has not experienced anything in 
the nature of a boom, it has grown slowly and 
steadily being supported by the fact of its 
being the county seat and by the further fact 
that it is a delightful summer resort. The 
valley in which the town is situated is one 
of the most pleasant places in the state and 
it is perhaps the only town in Southeast Mis- 
souri that is used as a place of summer resi- 
dence by a large number of people. It is on 
the main line of the St. Louis Iron ]\Iountain 
and Southern railway and is sufSciently near 
St. Louis to render it easy of access. It has 
a system of public schools and three churches. 
The Bank of Ironton was chartered in 1905 
and has a capital stock of $15,000, the Iron 
County Bank was chartered in 1896 and has 
a capital stock of $10,000. The Iron County 
Register, one of the oldest newspapers in 
Southeast Missouri, is published here by Eli 
D. Ake. It is Democratic in polities and J\Ir. 
Ake is the dean of newspaper profession in 
this part of the state. The population of the 
town is 721. 

Arcadia 

1 

Arcadia was surveyed as a town in 1849 
The first merchants were: Ezekiel Matthews, 



Smith & Love, John F. T. Edwards, William 
N. Gregory, G. B. Nail, Pease & Hill and 
Harris and Chinn. The first mill was erected 
in 1847 by Josiah and J. C. Berryman. It 
was a steam mill for grinding grain and saw- 
ing timber. The first newspaper in the town 
was the Arcadia Prospect established in 1859 
by A. Coulter and W. L. Faber. The town 
was not incorporated until after this period. 
It is quite probable that Arcadia owes its 
existence as a town to tlie Arcadia high school. 
It was an institution founded by Eev. J. C. 
Berryman, and conducted under the auspices 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. 
The town grew up in part around this school. 
This school was transferred to the Ursuline 
Sisters and since operated by them. Ironton 
was laid off just a short distance north of 
Arcadia, became the county seat, and out- 
stripped the older town. It soon took on its 
distinguishing character as a residence town. 
No more beautiful situation exists in ^Missouri 
than Arcadia valley. IMany people came at- 
tracted l)y the many desirable residence fea- 
tures. 

The town suffered some during the war, 
but not greatly. On the lawn of Judge John 
W. Emerson, then the Union headquarters, 
Ulj'sses S. Grant received the commission pro- 
moting him from the rank of colonel to that 
of brigadier-general and putting him into 
command of Southeast Missouri. It was occu- 
pied at times by forces from both sides. 

After the war it resumed its normal course 
of development. Families of wealth from 
other parts of the state established summer 
homes for themselves amid the quiet and pleas- 
ant surroundings here. Finally the town at- 
tracted the attention of church people and 
there was established quarters for summer 
meetings and encampments of church people 
especially of the young peoples organizations 



298 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



in the church. The Epworth League of the 
Methodist church o\\ns fine grounds and has 
a yearly encampment as does also the Bap- 
tist Young Peoples' Union. Doubtless this 




Highest Point on Pilot Knob, Arcadia 
Heights 

special feature of life will continue to develop 
until the town is a famous resort for conven- 
tions and societies holding their meetings in 
the summer time. The course so far taken 



has been to avoid the development of the usual 
forms of resort life with large and expensive 
hotels, but to encourage simpler living. Tents 
and small cottages are in most demand for 
these gatherings. 

The present population is 289. The Ar- 
cadia Valley Enterprise is an influential week- 
ly paper edited by Fuller Swaift and is Re- 
publican in politics. The town is situated on 
the main line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain 
and Southern Railway. 

Lesteeville 

The town of Lesterville in Reynolds county 
was settled about 1860, but has never been 
incorporated as a town and it is now im- 
possible to give the names of the first settlers. 
The first merchant in the town was William 
Bowen, there are now four general stores and 
a hub factory. The financial interests of the 
town are eared for by the Bank of Lesterville. 
The more important buildings are the school 
house and Masonic hall. The town is not 
situated on a railroad and is rather difficult 
of access. Its population is about 300. 

Sm^uller Settlements 

Des Arc, an incorporated village in Union 
township in Iron county, is twenty -nine miles 
south of Ironton on the Iron Mountain Rail- 
road; it has a hotel, floui'ing mill and two 
general stores. Its population is about 200. 

The little town of Middle Brook, a short 
distance north of Ironton and on the line 
between Iron county and St. Francois county, 
was laid out as a town in 1856. 



CHAPTER XXV 



POLITICAL, CIVIL AND MILITARY 



The First State Election — Contest fob the Senatorship — The Eight Counties — Courts 
IN Each County — Organization op New Counties — Southeast Missouri in the Mex- 
ican War. 



The people of Missoui-i, after the adoption 
of the first of the two compromises, supposing 
that they would be admitted to the Union, 
proceeded to the formation of a government. 
The constitution was framed in July, 1820, 
and it called for a meeting of the general 
assembly in September of that year. The 
election was ordered to be held August 28th. 
The people were tlien to elect a governor, lieu- 
tenant governor, a representative in Congress 
for the sixteenth Congress, one for the seven- 
teenth, members of the general assembly, and 
sheriffs and coroners in the' various counties. 
The constitution fixed the number of senators 
in the state at fourteen and representatives 
at forty-three. 

First State Election 

The election was lield on the date announced 
and the entire state government selected. This 
was nearly a year before the admission of the 
state into the Union, .so that Missouri pre- 
sented the unusual spectacle of a sovereign 
state with a duly authorized government under 
a constitution, but outside of the Union and 
still not independent. 

The election resulted in the choice of Alex- 
ander McNair for governor, William H. Ash- 
ley for lieutenant governor, and John Scott 



as representative in Congress for both its ses- 
sions. Scott lived in Ste. Genevieve. 

Contest for the Senatorship 

The general assembly met in St. Louis in 
September, 1820. James Caldwell of Ste. 
Genevieve was the speaker of the house. 
Among the duties of the legislature were the 
election of two United States senators and the 
appointment of three supreme and four cir- 
cuit judges. One of the judges of the supreme 
court was John D. Cook of Cape Girardeau. 
The contest for United States senator was a 
very interesting one. There were two senators 
to be selected. David Barton of St. Louis 
was elected on the first ballot by an unanimous 
vote, but a fierce contest was waged for the 
remaining place. The candidates were 
Thomas H. Benton, John B. C. Lucas, Henry 
Elliott, John Rice Jones and Nathaniel Cook. 
Of these candidates. Judges Lucas and Benton 
were the most prominent. After a long at- 
tempt to select a senator Benton was finally 
chosen. 

The Eight Counties 

When Missouri was admitted to the Union 
in 1821 there were only eight counties organ- 
ized in Southeast Missouri. These were: 



299 



300 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Washington, Perry, Ste. Genevieve, Cape 
Girardeau, "Wayne, New Madrid, Jefferson 
and Madison counties. All the other territory 
of this section of the state was embraced in 
one or more of these counties. It is plainly 
evident that some of them were vastly larger 
in area than they are at present. This was 
true especially of "Wayne county ; out of it 
there were afterward created several large 
counties. 

Courts in Each County 

In each one of these counties, as in other 
counties of the state, there was a county court 
composed of justices of the peace, and having 
very limited jurisdiction. These county courts 
were not thoroughly organized, and the prin- 
cipal business of the court was conducted not 
by the county courts but by the circuit courts. 

The counties of Ste. Genevieve, Madison, 
"Wayne, New Madrid, Cape Girardeau and 
Perry were organized into the southern judi- 
cial circuit. One judge presided over the 
sittings of the court in each of these coimties. 
Terms of the court were held at specified 
times, and these terms were so arranged as 
not to conflict with one another, and thus 
make it possible for one judge to hold court 
in all the counties of the circuit. "Washington 
and Jefferson counties belonged to the north- 
ern circuit, which included besides these 
southeastern coimties St. Louis, St. Charles 
and Franklin coimties. The circuit courts, 
as organized in each one of these counties, 
was a body having wide jurisdiction and great 
power. In addition to the jurisdiction now 
exercised by circuit courts the early courts 
had a large part of the jurisdiction which now 
belongs to either the county court or the pro- 
bate court. We have seen that the first judge 
of the southern circuit was Hon. Richard S. 



Thomas, wiio during his term of office was a 
resident of Jackson. 

At the time of the organization of the state 
government each countj* was represented by 
one or more members in the legislative council. 
Upon the organization of the state govern- 
ment each coimty was then represented by 
one member of the house of representatives, 
and there were organized senatorial districts 
for the election of members of the upper 
house. There was at the time of admission 
only one member of the national house of 
representatives. The population of Missouri 
was not sufficient to entitle the state to more 
than one representative, and this condition 
lasted until about 1840. 

Southeast Missouri in the Mexican Wak 

From the close of the Indian troubles, which 
were connected with the war of 1812, until 
the breaking out of the Civil war, the people 
of Southeast Missouri had little opportunity 
to make military history. The only time in 
which they were called upon to become sol- 
diers was during the I\Iexican war and not 
many from this section of the state took part 
in that struggle. Onlj- a few companies were 
organized and not a very large number of the 
individuals joined commands in other parts 
of Missouri and in other states. In the sum- 
mer of 1846 Captain Thomas M. Horine or- 
ganized a company at Ste. Genevieve and 
marched with it to Fort Leavenwo'rth. At 
Fort Leavenworth the company became part 
of the Second Missouri Regiment which was 
commanded by Colonel, afterward General 
Sterling Price. It took part in the remark- 
able expedition known as Doniphan's expedi- 
tion. In company with the other regiment 
forming Doniphan's command these troops 
marched west from Fort Leavenworth and 
finally reached Santa Fe. It took part in the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST BIISSOURI 



301 



engagement in New Mexico and when General 
Price was left by Doniphan in command of 
the territory of i\lexico the Missouri soldiers 
remained with him. They fought a number 
of skirmishes with the Mexicans and Indians. 
One of them was the Battle of Taos, lasting 
all day and resulting in the surrender of the 
entire force of the enemy. 

On August 23, 184:6, Captain Firmiu A. 
Rozier organized a company of one hundred 
and fifteen men in Ste. Genevieve and Perry 
coimties. The organization was known as 
the South Missouri Guards. They were re- 
cruited for service in California under Gen- 
eral Kearney and made their way to Port 
Leavenworth on the Kansas border. They 
there became part of a regiment which, by the 
time the organization was completed, was too 
late in the season, and no effort was made to 
cross the plains and the company remained at 
Fort Leavenworth. In 1847 Captain Robert 
H. Lane recruited a company at Prederick- 
to\\Ti, and the company was mustered into 
service at Jefferson barracks as Company I 
of the Third Missouri Mounted Volimteers. 
John Ralls was colonel of this company and 



Captain Lane was elected lieutenant colonel. 
This left his position as captain of Company 1 
vacant, and John Head was chosen to suc- 
ceed him as captain. Prom Jefferson barracks 
the regiment was sent to Port Leavenworth 
and from Port Leavenworth was ordered to 
Mexico to reinforce the command of Colonel 
Doniphan. They went by way of Santa Pe 
and El Paso and joined Colonel Doniphan at 
the city of Chihuahua, which was then his 
headquarters. On March 16, 1848, this Third 
]\Iissouri Regiment, with three other com- 
panies, fought a battle with the Mexicans at 
Santa Cruz. It was a hard fight and lasted 
all da}', for the Mexicans were entrenched 
within the town and their possession was de- 
fended by artillery. In spite of this they 
were defeated with the loss of three hundred 
and thirty killed, and the rest of the Mexican 
force surrendered. The greater part of this 
regiment, including Company I, was then 
stationed at Santa Cruz until July, 1848, 
when they were ordered to return to Inde- 
pendence, Missouri, and were then mustered 
out in the following October. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

CREATION OF NEW COUNTIES 

St. Francois County — Scott County — Organization and Settlement of Stoddard 
County — Ripley County — Pioneers op Dunklin County — Reynolds, Butler and Bol- 
linger Counties — Pemiscot County — St. Francois Levee District — Courts of the 
County and Prominent Citizens — Iron and Carter Counties — Founders of the Eight 
Old Counties. 



The state had hardly been admitted into the 
Union until new counties were formed. On 
December 19, 1821, a bill became law for the 
creation of part of the counties of Ste. Gene- 
vieve, Washington and Jefferson into a new 
county, to be known as St. Francois county. 

St. Francois County 

The new county was named from the St. 
Francois river, which runs almost entirely 
through it. The governor of the state ap- 
pointed James Austin, George McGehan and 
James W. Smith as the county court. They 
held the first meeting of the court February 
25, 1822, at the house of Jesse Murphy, in 
the neighborhood of Farmington, and ap- 
pointed John D. Peers as county clerk. 

St. Francois county was attached to the 
northern circuit and the circuit coui't was 
organized April 1, 1822, by Judge Nathaniel 
B. Tucker of St. Charles county. There was 
no particular business before the court at this 
first meeting, nor at any early subsequent 
meetings. The commissioners for the selec- 
tion of the seat of justice were Henry Poston, 
John Andrews, William Alexander and James 
Holbert. On September 22, 1822, fifty-three 



acres of land were donated by D. Murphy for 
the purpose of laying out a county seat. They 
thereupon laid out the present town of Farm- 
ington, which has continued to be the seat of 
justice since that time. 

The county was divided into four town- 
ships: Perry, Pendleton, Liberty and St. 
Francois. The officers in these townships 
were : Perrj' — William Hale, constable ; John 
Andrews Jr., assessor; Thomas Hale, Archi- 
bald McHenry and John Baker, judges of 
election. Pendleton — Wesley Garret, con- 
stable and assessor; James Milburn, Absalom 
Dent and John Sherrill, judges of election. 
Liberty — Robert Haj's, constable ; James Dun- 
lap, assessor; Reuben McFarland, James Dun- 
lap and Samuel Kincaid, judges of election. 
St. Francois — Benjamin Burnham, constable ; 
Laken Walker, assessor; Richard Murphy, 
John IMurphy and D. F. Marks, judges of 
election. 

Until 1824 the courts were held in the Meth- 
odist church, which at that time stood on the 
hill south of town where the cemetery now is. 
In that year a brick court house wa,s built on 
the public square and at the same time a log 
jail was erected on the site of the present jail. 



302 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



303 



This jail building was two stories in height 
and had a dungeon below, which was entered 
through a trap door. The jail was burned 
about 1850 by a prisoner. In 1856 it was re- 
placed by a new structure at a cost of $4,400 ; 
the present jail was erected in 1870 under the 
supervision of William Carter and L. D. 
Walker. The first court house was used until 
1850, when it was replaced by another build- 
ing at a cost of $8,000, and was erected by 
H. H. Wright. In July, 1885, the contract 
was let for the construction of the present 
court house. James P. Killiek was the con- 
tractor and he turned over the completed 
building on October 7, 1886, the total cost 
being $15,560. 

The court created a new township in St. 
Francois coimty in August, 1836. This was 
called Marion township and was cut off from 
the north part of Perry township. In 1840 a 
township called Black River was created in 
that part of the county out of which Iron 
county was later formed. Of the other town- 
ships in the county Iron was formed in 1850, 
Randolph in 1858, and Big River in 1863. 

Scott County 

Scott county was created by an act of the 
legislature, December 28, 1821. It was or- 
ganized from a part of New Madrid county 
and was named in honor of Hon. John Scott, 
the first congressman from Missouri. At that 
time it included the present county of Mis- 
sissippi. The governor of the state appointed 
Richard Mathews, Andrew M. Ramsay, and 
James Houts as the county court, and John 
P. Rutter as clerk of the circuit court ; Joseph 
A. Hopkins as sheriff; and the count.y court 
appointed John P. Rutter as its clerk, also. 

Enoch Evans, Abraham Hunter, Thomas 
Roberts, Joseph Smith and Newman Beck- 
with were the commissioners to locate the 



county seat. They selected the site of the 
town of Benton, and here in a little log house 
were held the first meetings of the courts. 
At the time of the organization of the county 
there were but two townships: Tywappity, 
which included ^Mississippi county, and 
Moreland. The county court, however, soon 
created four new townships : Richland, Kelso, 
Mississippi and Wolf Island. In 1836 Ty- 
wappity township was divided and the south- 
ern part was called St. James township, and 
in 1839 a township known as St. Jame.s Bayou 
was created. 

Scott county was made part of the southern 
judicial circuit and the circuit court was 
ganized February 11, 1822, by Judge 
Thomas; Joseph A. Hopkins was the first 
sheriff. He gave bond in the sum of five 
thousand dollars, and his sureties were John 
Hall and William Meyers. At the next term 
of the court, which was held in June, 1822, 
a grand jury was impaneled, and it returned 
indictments against Samuel Glove and James 
Ramsay for assault and battery, against 
Newman Beckwith for selling liquor to the 
Indians and against Anthony Wills for va- 
grancy. 

The first court house in Scott county was a 
small log building erected on the public square 
at Benton. Shortly after the town was laid 
out a jail costing $500 was erected in 1837. 
Before that time prisoners had been kept in 
the jail at Jackson. The first court house 
was torn down in 1844 and a brick building 
erected. It .was so poorly constructed, how- 
ever, that it soon became unsafe and was re- 
placed by a frame building. The legislature 
moved the county seat away from Benton in 
1864, to Commerce. The old court house was 
then sold and a brick court building erected 
at Commerce. In 1866 a jail was coUvStructed, 
costing nearly $4,000. However, the people 



304 



PIISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of Scott county were not satisfied with Com- 
merce as the county seat, since it was on one 
side of the county, in fact, almost in the 
northeast corner, and in 1878 the seat of jus- 
tice was returned to Beuton, where the pres- 
ent court house, costing $11,000, was erected 
in 1883. The present townships are Sandy- 
land, Kelso, Sylvania, Tywappity, Commerce, 
ilorley, IMoreland and Richland. 

Organization and Settlement of Stoddard 
County 

The general assembly passed an act in the 
year 1829 which defined the boundaries of a 
new county to be erected out of a part of 
Wayne county. It was to be named Stoddard, 
in honor of Captain Amos Stoddard, the agent 
of the United States government who received 
the transfer of the Louisiana territor}^ At 
this time, however, the county was attached 
to Cape Girardeau county and the court of 
that county divided the territory into two 
townships. That part of Stoddard county 
east of Castor river was called Pipe township 
and the part to the north and west Castor 
township. The first justices of the peace were 
Joseph Chapman and Thomas Wylie in Pike 
township, and Thomas Neale and John Eaker 
in Castor. Joel Ramsay and William Hardin 
were appointed constables in Pike and Castor 
townships, respectively. 

Stoddard countj- remained under the juris- 
diction of Cape Girardeau officials until Jan- 
uary 2nd, 1835. At that time the legislature 
passed an act to organize a county govern- 
ment. The territory of the new county lay 
between St. Francois and Little rivers and to 
the south of ilingo, the Big Swamp. 

The commissioners for fixing the seat of 
government selected the site of the present 
town of Bloomfield and the first meeting of 
the countv court was held at the house of 



A. B. Bailey in the southwest part of the 
town. This was February 9, 1835. The 
court was composed of Jacob Taylor, Field 
Bradshaw and John Eaker, and Jonas Eaker 
was the clerk of the court. Within a short 
time the court arranged for the erection of a 
small brick building to be used as a court 
house. This was placed on the public square 
and a log jail was built southeast of the 
square ; both of these buildings were used un- 
til 1856. At that time $10,000.00 was set 
aside for the erection of a new court house. 
It was constructed under the .supervision of 
Solomon G. Kitchen. 

The county court, at one of its earliest 
meetings, divided the county into four town- 
ships: Castor, Pike, St. Francois and Lib- 
erty. In 1850 Duck Creek township was cre- 
ated, and shortly afterward four more town- 
ships were laid out. The.y were named Prai- 
rie, Clay, Benton and Filmore. In 1853 the 
county was re-divided, owing to the fact that 
it had been considerabh' reduced in size. Only 
five townships were made, under these names : 
Liberty, Richland, Duck Creek, Castor and 
Pike. A little later New Lisbon was created. 

The circuit court in Stoddard county was 
organized at the house of A. B. Bailey by 
John D. Cook, on March 21st, 1836. At this 
sitting of the court a grand jury was im- 
paneled and consisted of the following men: 
Samuel Lesley, Andrew Neale, Benjamin Tay- 
lor, Frederick Varner, Ephraim Snider, Jacob 
Crites, "William V. Carlock, George Slinkard, 
Frederick Slinkard, Peter Proffer, Levy 
Baker, Henry Miller, Henry Asherbranner, 
W. AV. Hicks, Daniel Bollinger, Samuel Jloore, 
Thomas Neale and Horatio Laurence. 

This court house was burned during Price 'a 
raid in 1864. It was one of a number of 
court houses destroyed about the time of the 
Civil war, but unlike most of the other cases. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



305 



the records of the county were not destroyed. 
They had been removed by Major 11. H. Bed- 
ford, who took them to Arkansas and con- 
cealed them; they were returned after the 
war was over without the loss of a single 
liook. The rebuilding of the court house was 
undertaken in 1867, when the court appointed 
William G. Phelan as superintendent. The 
contractors, George F. Miller and Samuel D. 
Henson, completed the building in 1870. In 
that same year the contract was let for the 
building of the jail at a cost of $8,000. 

There has long been a strong rivalry be- 
tween Dexter and Bloomfield and for a num- 
ber of years an effort was made to move the 
county seat from Bloomfield to Dexter. Fail- 
ing in this, the people of Dexter secured in 
1895 the enactment of a law declaring that 
four terms of the circuit court should be held 
in Stoddard county, two of them at Bloom- 
field and two in Dexter, making Dexter prac- 
tically one of two different county seats. The 
citizens of Dexter erected a handsome two- 
story brick building to be used as a court 
house. The arrangement, however, was found 
to be unsatisfactory and within a few years 
the law was repealed and Bloomfield became 
once more the sole county seat. This left 
the people of Dexter with a court house on 
their hands for which they had no particular 
use. It was finally transferred to the Chris- 
tian church to be used for college purposes. 
For a short time an academy was conducted 
in the building, but in 1911 the building be- 
came the property of the school district of 
Dexter and is now in use as a high school 
building. The present townships are Pike, 
Elk, Liberty, New Lisbon, Richland, Castor 
and Duck Creek. 

Henry Hale Bedford, who was for a num- 
ber of years the leading lawyer in Stoddard 
county, was a native of Tennessee, where 



he was born November 27, 1821. He received 
a common school education in Tennessee and 
was employed for three years as a teacher. 
With the money which he saved from teach- 
ing he purchased a farm in Scott county, Mis- 
souri, at the foot of Wolf Island. While en- 
gaged in farming, he began the study of law 
under Judge Hough. The great flood of 1844 
compelled him to leave his farm and he re- 
moved to Bloomfield in Stoddard county. 
Bloomfield then had a population of about 
150 and Mr. Bedford combined the practice 
of his profession with school teaching for 
several years. Later he devoted himself ex- 
clusively to the law and soon built up a very 
extensive practice, as he was an able lawyer 
and one of the very first in that part of the 
state. At the beginning of the Civil war he 
enlisted in the Confederate army in the brig- 
ade commanded by General Jeff Thompson. 
He was promoted to be a major at the battle 
of Belmont and served until the close of the 
war. Major Bedford had considerable polit- 
ical experience, also. He was a member of 
the legislature for two terms before the war 
and served for twelve years as prosecuting 
attorney. He was a Democrat in politics and 
was for many years one of the most influen- 
tial citizens of his count.y, taking a great in- 
terest in all matters looking to the upbuilding 
of the community and to public improve- 
ments. 

Ripley County 

As we have seen, the first permanent settler 
in Ripley county was probably Lemuel Kit- 
trell, who settled near Current river about 
1819. Shortly after he made this settlement, 
a road was laid out from Potosi in Washing- 
ton county to Little Rock, Arkansas, and the 
first settlements in Ripley county were made 
along this road. Other earlv settlers besides 



306 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Kittrell were William Little and Thomas Pul- 
liam, who located on a small creek which 
flows into Current river. Near the present 
town of Doniphan the early settlers were 
George Lee, Joseph Hall, William Dudley, 
William Merrill and Abner Ponder ; the de- 
scendants of these families are still living in 
the count}'. The general assembly of the 
state organized Ripley county by an act 
passed January 5, 1833. It was named in 
honor of General Eleazer W. Ripley; pre- 
vious to its organization the territory had 
been part of Wayne county. As first organ- 
ized, the county was vastly larger than it is 
at the preseut time. It was reduced to its 
present size, finally, by the organization of 
Carter county in 1859. For many years the 
county seat of Ripley county was Van Buren 
in what is now Carter county and the princi- 
pal population of that section was in Carter 
county. The whole country was slowly set- 
tled. In 1840 there were in all Ripley county, 
then much larger than it is now, only 2,856 
people ; and Van Buren, the county seat, had 
one store in 1837 and a log building for the 
courts. 

When Carter county was created in 1859 
Doniphan was selected as the seat of justice 
for Ripley county and has remained the 
county seat until this time. A court house 
was erected shortly after the selection of the 
county seat, but it was burned during the 
war, as was practically all of the town of 
Doniphan. The new court house was erected 
shortly after the close of the war and is still 
in use. There are now thirteen town.ships in 
the county, as follows : Current River, Doni- 
phan, Gatewood, Harris, Johnson, Jordan, 
Kelley, Pine, Sherley, Thomas, LTnion, Varner 
and Washington. 



Pioneers of Dunklin County 

The first settlers in Dunklin county were 
Howard Moore and family, who were natives 
of Virginia. They came to the county in 
1829, settling aboiit four miles south of Mai- 
den. They lived here for a short time and 
later bought the cabin which had been erected 
by the Indian chief, Chilletecaux, near Ken- 
nett. Here Mr. Moore made his home until 
the time of his death. He left a large family 
and many of his descendants still live in the 
county. His son, David H. Moore, ivho was 
born July 10, 1832, was the second child bom 
in the county. 

Another of the pioneer citizens of the 
county was Pascal Rice, who moved to the 
county in 1830. He was at the time about 
12 years of age and spent the rest of his life 
in the community to which he first moved, 
near Hornersville. At the time he came to 
the county it was the home of many Indians 
and he became well acquainted with these 
Indian chiefs and attended many of their war 
dances. 

The first child born of white parents within 
the limits of Dunklin county was Thomas 
Neel, Jr., who was born in I\Iay, 1832, his 
father, Thomas Neel, having moved to the 
county in February preceding and settled in 
the south part of the county near the little 
town of Lulu. He grew up under the pioneer 
conditions of life and became acquainted with 
the Indians and knew all the customs which 
distinguished them. 

One of the earliest settlers was Michael 
Branum, who moved to Dunklin county from 
New Madrid, having been in New Madrid 
during the time of the great earthquake. His 
family, including Tecumseh, named for the 
great Indian chief, and daughters, Lizzie and 
Victorine, who became Mrs. Horner, lived in 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



307 



Dunklin county for many years. Mrs. Horner 
was for a number of years preceding her 
deatli the oldest citizen in the county. 

Besides these whom we have mentioned, 
there came to the county in the early times 
Jacob Taylor and his family. He located close 
to the stream which is known is Taylor slough, 
named for Jacob Taylor. Branum, Taylor 
and Rice came in the same year and were 
assisted over the country and in the selection 
of places of settlement bj^ the Indian chief, 
Chilletecaux. In 1831 Moses Norman settled 
on West Prairie and in 1832 Thomas Neel, 
Sr., and his father-in-law, Ray, came to the 
county and located near Hornersville. While 
moving to their destination, Mr. Ray was 
killed by being thrown from his cart and was 
buried at the old Hornersville burying ground 
near Hornersville and is said to have been 
the first white person buried in the county. 

In 1833 James Baker and Riley Clarkson 
settled on Buffalo island and in the same year 
Russell and William H. Horner made a set- 
tlement at the place afterwards called Hor- 
nersville. 

The home of Evan Evans was just in front 
of a row of cottonwood trees on the public 
road four miles south of Kennett. MeCul- 
lough and Lafayette Sexton came to the 
county in early times, also. Adam Bamhart 
settled on the old Baker place. Among his 
neighbors were Hugh Shipley, the families 
of Suter, Shultz and Jackson. Frank Lee 
lived three miles north of Hornersville. 

In the north end of the county Dr. Given 
Owen located a claim on Rush creek in 1841 ; 
in 1844 A. D. Bridges settled on a creek near 
Four Mile; Jordan Lacey. John Holtzhouser, 
James Faughn and William Greer were other 
early settlers in the north part of the county. 
Somewhat later, Dr. Allen and Thomas Hat- 
ley located near Maiden. In the vicinity of 



Clarkton, about the same time, were John 
Gunnells, Jesse Long, Mrs. Floyd Montgom- 
ery, John Mcilasters and Dick Skaggs. 

Among the settlers on West Prairie were 
Ephraim Thornberry and James Harris. 
Some settlers also came to Holcomb Island 
about the same time, among them families 
named Barnes, HoUoways, Lewis Holcomb, 
Millers, Dr. Bozark, John Lowery, H. D. 
Flowers, Hiram Langdon, John Scott and 
Price. Johnson's Island, south of Kennett, 
was named for William Johnson, who was 
one of the early settlers there. In the neigh- 
borhood of Caruth the families were those of 
A. Thompson, Mrs. Welch, C. B. Bancroft, 
H. Spencer, Whitney, Joseph Pelts and Rob- 
ert L. Glascock. Besides these, Riley Clark- 
son, James McGrew, Joseph Langdon and 
David Harkey had begun to open farms in 
the neighborhood of Cotton Plant. 

Just west of Hornersville the settlers were 
James P. Neal, J. McDaniel, John B. Walker 
and James Williamson. All these that we 
have mentioned came to the county before 
1850. 

Within the next decade a large number of 
families, later prominent in the history of the 
county, moved within its bounds. It is not 
possible to give a complete list of these fam- 
ilies, but the names of some of them as its 
pioneer settlers will be of interest. On the 
hills west of Maiden, Dr. Jacob Snider set- 
tled in 1850 ; with him were Charles Vincent, 
William Cross and Mrs. Skaggs. 

About the same time in Clay township 
there were the families of A. T. Douglass, 
E. J. Langdon, Edward Spencer, Lewis Chan- 
dler, Isaiah Jones, John Marsh, James Brad- 
ley, John Dougherty, Richard Cook, James 
Herrman, Absolom Farris, A. B. Williams 
and David Finley. In the north end of the 
county there were such well known families 



308 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



as that of John P. Taylor, Judge Hodges, 
Henry James, J. M. Waltrip, A. B. Douglass, 
James Oxley, H. A. Applegate, William H. 
Shelton, R. W. Stokes, John Wright, I. A. 
Waltrip, G. M. White and E. C. White. 

Among the early settlers were also Daniel 
Harkey, Brannon Marshall, Enoch Shelton, 
Humphrey Donaldson, A. C. Austin, W. M. 
Satterfield, Moses Farrar, C. N. Lasley, David 
Rice and James A. Smyth. 

All these men who came to the coimty in its 
early years have passed through the usual ex- 
periences of the pioneer days. The country 
was very different then from what it now is. 
]\Ian}^ of the pioneers made their living largely 
from hunting. Two of these men were Nathan- 
iel Baker and Joseph Pelts. Baker was the 
son of James Baker, who settled on Buffalo 
Island in 1833 and later removed to Cotton 
Plant. Pelts came to the county about 1,840 
and there made his home the rest of his life. 
Both of these men were typical pioneers ; they 
farmed but were also fond of hunting. 

Riley Clarkson. who came with his father 
to the covuity in 1834, lived on Horse Island. 
He was a famous himter and helped to kill 
some of the last buffalo in the eoimty. Buf- 
falo Island was named from the fact that it 
was the home of a great many buffalo. Mr. 
Clarkson was also a great bear himter, hav- 
ing killed as many as fifty bear in a single 
season. He and his familj' passed through all 
the experiences of pioneer life, at the time 
of their coming there being not a single physi- 
cian, church or school or postofSce in the en- 
tire county. 

One of the prominent and influential men 
in the early history of the county was Judge 
Donaldson, who came to the county in 1855. 
He was a man of education and became a 
well knowTi and highly respected citizen of 
the county. He was a Tennesseean by birth, 



hut thoroughly identified himself with all the 
interests of his adopted home and was elected 
to public office, being for a time a member of 
the countj' court of Dunklin co\mty. His 
family are still prominent in county offices, 
his son was a well known citizen and one of 
his grandsons is now a practicing lawyer at 
Kennett. 

In 1854 David Finley came with his family 
to Dunklin county, opening a farm not far 
from the present site of Cotton Plant. He 
was a typical pioneer, having interests in 
farming and in himting and in all the affairs 
of the county. 

One of the large and iuHuential families 
in the south pai-t of Dunklin county was the 
Harkey family, who were descendants of Dan- 
iel D. Harkey a native of North Carolina, 
who came to Dimklin county in 1853, settling 
on the land near Nesbit, where the family 
continues to reside. Among the members of 
this family were Judge J. H. Harkey, Wilbur 
D. Harkey and W. M. Harkey. They were 
sons of the founder of the family and their 
descendants are both numerous and influen- 
tial at this time. 

Perhaps the man who made the greatest 
impression on the life of his day in the county 
was Edwin J. Langdon, who was born August 
7, 1819, at Middlebury, Vermont. The family 
was of Scotch descent and this son seems to 
have inherited the great qualities which dis- 
tinguish the Scotch. Before coming to Dunk- 
lin county, E. J. Langdon received a good 
common school education and for a time 
taught school. In 1839 he made his home in 
Dimklin county near Cotton Plant; he soon 
formed a partnership with Isaiah Jones and 
together they conducted a carriage and black- 
smith shop. In 1847 he was married to Sarah 
A. Gla.sscock, the daughter of Robert L. Glass- 
cock, also one of the pioneers of the county. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



309 



From his business as a carriage builder 
young Langdon turned his attention to con- 
tracting and together with his father they 
built the first court house in the county, in 
1846. One year later he secured the contract 
for building the levee across Buffalo creek on 
the main road south of Kennett. With the 
proceeds of this contract he opened a store at 
Cotton Plant and from this time until his 
death he conducted this business. "While he 
was always interested in mercantile pursuits. 
Judge Langdon did not confine his attention 
to this form of business. He tried to develop 
water transportation and built one of the first 
flat boats on Little river at Hornersville. It 
was his intention also to encourage the raising 
of cotton and to do this he erected one of the 
first cotton gins in the county. He also be- 
came convinced of the value of land about 
Cotton Plant and invested largely in these 
lands. The town in which he lived was built 
entirely on his proj^erty. He refused to dis- 
pose of any of it largely because he wished to 
be able to prevent the sale of whiskey in the 
town. For many years he was the postmaster 
at Cotton Plant and at one time was presid- 
ing judge of the county court for a period of 
six j'ears. Judge Langdon was interested in 
all matters looking to the improvement of the 
commimity and the county, building roads, 
establishing the cause of churches and other 
public matters received encouragement from 
him. At the time of his death he was the 
owner of large tracts of valuable land. The 
children of this family were William H. Lang- 
don, who lives in Texas, C. V. Langdon of 
Cotton Plant, and A. J. Langdon of Horners- 
ville, and one daughter, Hettie D. 

In 1838 Judge Given Owen, then twenty 
years of age, came to Bloomfield from Hick- 
man, Kentucky, and began the practice of 
medicine. A few j'ears later he made his 



h.ome on a farm in what was then the south 
part of Stoddard county. He was elected a 
member of the county court in Stoddard 
comity, but in a short time that part of Stod- 
dard county in which he lived was transferred 
to Dunklin county. After becoming a citizen 
of Dunklin county he was elected to various 
offices, being judge of the common pleas court 
at Clarkton and of the county probate court 
and also of the county court. During all his 
life in the county he continued the practice of 
medicine and was regarded as an able physi- 
cian and a most highly respected and intel- 
ligent citizen of the county. He was the son 
of Ruben Owen, a native of Georgia. His 
second wife was Louisiana Bozark, who sur- 
vived her husband a number of years and was 
perhaps as well acquainted with the early his- 
tory of the county as any person living in it. 
In 1859 David Young Pankey, a native of 
Virginia, came to Dunklin county and made 
liis home near Clarkton. He had formerly 
lived for a short time in Tennessee, just across 
from New Madrid. He engaged in farming in 
Diniklin county and was successful and was 
popular with his friends and neighbors. On 
the breaking out of the war he became first 
lieutenant in a company organized by Captain 
Piekard ; this company was made part of a 
regiment of which Mr. Pankey was made lieu- 
tenant colonel, seeing service with a regiment 
which was a part of the IMissouri state guards. 
On the expiration of the term of the state 
guards. Colonel Pankey enlisted in the con- 
federate service and took part in the engage- 
ment at Fort Pillow and was with General 
Price in several skirmishes and battles, win- 
ning credit and distinction for himself in all 
of them. At one time Colonel Pankey was 
collector of Dunklin comity and during all 
his life was a respected and influential citizen. 
His son David Ballard Pankey is cashier of 



310 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the Bank of Kennett and one of the most 
prominent citizens of the county. 

No account of the pioneers of Dunklin 
county would be complete without a mention 
of Hon. David Rice, who was a native of 
Tennessee, and came to the county in 1853. 
At first he lived northwest of Campbell, where 
he married, but within a short time he re- 
moved to a farm east of Senath, where he 
lived until his death. He devoted himself 
principally to farming but was also interested 
and active in all affairs of public concern. 
Just before the war he was assessor of the 
county and from 1872 to 1876 was public ad- 
ministrator and later served a term in the 
general assembly. 

Major W. C. Rayburn, a native of Ala- 
bama, came to Dunklin county in 1865, locat- 
ing near Clarkton. He was immediately rec- 
ognized as a man of ability and character and 
soon came to occupy a prominent place in 
the affairs of the county. He was always in- 
terested in schools and churches and served as 
a county surveyor for a number of years. His 
son, Moore M. Rayburn, served throughout the 
war in a regiment of Arkansas infantry and 
at its close came home to devote himself to 
farming and stock raising. He was for four 
years sheriff and constable of the county and 
carried on the activities which had for many 
years interested his father. One of his sons, 
M. B. Rayburn, is cashier of the Bank of 
Maiden and a highly respected citizen of that 
town. 

Dimklin county was created February 14, 
1845. Stoddard county was divided by a line 
running on the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 
minutes. All that part of Stoddard coimty 
south of this line of division was called Dunk- 
lin county. In 1853 the north line of the new 
county was moved to the north nine miles. 



The territory included within the limits of 
the county, with the exception of this nine 
mile strip, was a part of the territory which 
was originally left in Arkansas, but was added 
to Missouri through the efforts of John Harde- 
man Walker and others. 

The town of Kennett was selected as the 
ccimty seat of the new coxmty. The town was 
named for Hon. Luther M. Kennett, though 
when it was laid out in 1846 it was called 
Chillitecaux. It was later known for a year 
or two as Butler and then received its present 
name, Kennett. The county was named for 
Hon. Daniel Dimklin, who was at one time 
governor of the state. 

The circuit court was probably organized 
in 1845 by John D. Cook, who was the judge 
of the circuit which included this eoimty. 

The first county court in Dunklin coimty 
is said to have been composed of Moses Farrar, 
Edward Spencer and Alexander Campbell; 
Joseph S. Houston was the first clerk and 
Lewis Holcomb the first sheriff; Houston was 
soon succeeded by Jolm H. Marsh, who held 
office until 1861. The fir.st court house in 
the coimty was a log building erected in 1847 
in the middle of the public square where the 
present court house stands. This building 
v.-as destroyed during the war ; it was not until 
1870 that another was erected, which was a 
large frame building, and was burned in 1872. 
For a number of years this county had no 
court house and the courts were held in an 
old frame store building on the corner of the 
square now occupied by the Tatum building. 
In 1895 the present two-story brick court 
house building was erected. About the time 
of the building of the first court house a log 
jail was erected ; it was destroyed by fire and 
another of the same character was built. In 
1882 a frame building was erected on the cor- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



311 



ner now occupied by the Shelion office build- 
ing. It was used as a jail until 1910, when 
the present structure was erected. 

The present townships are Independence, 
Cotton Hill, Union, Freeborn, Holcomb, Sa- 
lem, Buffalo, and Clay. 

The legislature created Mississippi county 
on February 14, 1845 ; the territory being cut 
off from the south part of Scott county. The 
commissioner selected Charleston as the coiuity 
seat, and the coiuity court was organized there 
April 21, 1845. The judges of the court were : 
William Sayres, Absolom McElmurry and 
James M. Overton; George L. Cravens was 
the clerk of the court. The meetings of this 
court were, for a number of years, held in 
the store house of Henry G. Cummings. A 
court house was not erected imtil 1852. At 
the time the present building was erected by 
James T. Russell. 

At the time of the organization, the county 
was divided into five towTiships. These were : 
Tywappity, Mississippi, St. James, St. James 
Bayou, and Wolf Island. In 1847 Mississippi 
township was divided and a new to\\TQship 
created which was named Ohio. In 1858 Long 
Prairie to\^Tiship was formed from parts of 
Tywappity and St. James. 

The circuit court was organized September 
29, 1845, by Jolui D. Cook. The meetings of 
the court were usaaUy held in the Methodist 
church, until the erection of the court house. 

Reynolds County 

Until 1830 the territory now embraced in 
Reynolds county was a part of Ripley county. 
At that time it was attached to Washington 
coimty and later to Shannon. The legislative 
act organizing Reynolds coimty was approved 
February 25, 1845, and the county was named 
in honor of Governor Thomas Reynolds of 



Missouri. It then included a part of what is 
now Iron coimty which was afterwards cut 
off when that coimty was formed. The com- 
missioners appointed to select the county seat 
were Ayers Hudspeth of Washington county, 
John Miller of Madison county, and Moses 
Carty of St. Francois county. It was pro- 
vided also that imtil a county seat was lo- 
cated the court should be held in the house 
of Joseph McNails at Lesterville. The first 
term of the county court was held in this 
hou.se in November, 1845, with H. Allen as 
the presiding judge; Marion Miuiger was 
sheriff and C. C. Campbell clerk. The com- 
missioners selected Lesterville as the county 
seat and a small court house was erected. 
This building was burned during the war and 
the county seat was changed to Centerville, 
where another small building for court pur- 
poses was erected. This, too, was burned in 
1872, and another building, now standing, was 
erected at a cost of $8,000. There are six 
to\^'nships in the county. Black River, Carroll, 
Jackson, Lesterville, Logan and Webb. 

BuTLEB County 

Butler county was created by an act passed 
Pebruarj' 27, 1849. It had previously been a 
part of Wayne county, and at the time of the 
organization the larger part of the land in 
the coimty belonged to the government. The 
first session of the county court was held at 
the house of Thomas Scott, June 18, 1849. 
The judges were: John Stevenson, Solomon 
Kittrell, and Jonathan R. Sandlin ; the clerk 
of the court was Jacob C. Blount. The com- 
missioners selected the site of Poplar Bltoff 
for the coimty seat and the court met there 
in November, 1850. Until 1852 the sessions 
of the court were held in various private 
houses and in that year a small frame court 
hoiLse was erected on the southeast corner of 



312 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the public square. This building served the 
purposes of the courts until 1859, when D. 
B. Miller and Solomon G. Kitchen entered into 
a contract with the county for the erection of 
a new building. 

As at first organized, there were only two 
townships, Black River and Otter Creek. In 
1850 the county court created four townships, 
Beaverdam, Epps. Butler and Mud Creek. 
Later, the name of Mud Creek was changed 
to Black River, and a new township, called 
Polk, was formed in the southeast corner of 
the county. In 1856 the township of Ash 
Hills was established, and in 1860, Thomas 
township. 

In 1866 the townships were relocated and 
established as follows: St. Francois, Black 
River, Cane Creek, Epps, Beaverdam, Thomas, 
Gillis Bluff, Ash Hills and Poplar Bluff. 
Thomas township was divided in 1871 and 
Neeley township formed from part of it ; in 
1886 Beaverdam township was divided, a part 
of it being erected into Harviell township. 

In 1850 the records show that the collector 
had reported the entire amount of county 
revenue as $156.02. In the same year he had 
collected a total state tax of $122.28. 

The first circuit court in Butler county was 
held September 15, 1849, at the house of 
Thomas Scott. Judge Harrison Hough pre- 
sided over the court. The sheriff was New- 
ton Wallace. A grand jury was impaneled 
at the next meeting of the court, which re- 
turned indictments against a number of per- 
sons for selling liquor without license. 

Butler county was named in honor of W. 
A. Butler of Kentucky, and the coimty seat. 
Poplar Bluff, received its name from the fact 
that it was situated on the bluffs above Black 
River, which at that time were covered with a 
dense growth of the famous tulip tree, com- 
monly called the poplar. 



One of the earliest settlements in Butler 
county was made at the head waters of Cane 
creek, where there is fine farming land, by 
John Eudaly, who came to the neighborhood 
about 1841 from Tennessee. The land, at the 
time he came, was government land and he 
took up a homestead. He was accompanied 
by a number of his neighbors and friends and 
others came later. Among them were John 
and Nathan Wisecarver, Nathan Davis, Mr. 
Walton, Mr. Franklin and James Eudaly. 

At the time these settlements were made 
the territory was a part of Wayne county, 
the present Stoddard county not having been 
created. The immediate vicinity near which 
the settlements were made was one of the few 
sections of Southeast Mis.souri which were not 
timbered, making the cultivation of the soil 
easy. The people lived the life of pioneers. 
There were no railroads in the vicinity. All 
their goods were hauled from Cape Girardeau. 
The houses that were constructed were of logs, 
as there was no saw mill within fifty miles. 
The produce of the county was used almost 
entirely by the settlers themselves, as there 
was no opportunity for shipping them away. 

After the organization of Stoddard county 
John Eudaly was made assessor and made the 
first assessment in 1850. At that time the 
fees for making the assessment amounted to 
$34. There was not a village or community 
in the entire county. When Poplar Bluff 
was located and the land selected for a site 
of the county eoui't, a commissioner was ap- 
pointed to make a public sale of the lots and 
John Eudaly was the man that was ap- 
pointed. A number of lots were sold within 
the present town of Poplar Bluff. The high- 
est price obtained for a lot was for one at 
the corner of Vine and Second streets, which 
sold for $30. The two lots on the corner of 
Vine and Main streets were sold at $5 each 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



313 



and were afterwards resold for $2.50 each, 
while some lots located in what is the best 
business part of the town could not be sold 
at all. 

Mr. Eudaly lived until his death in the 
neighborhood in which he settled, and was 
for many years postmaster, having been ap- 
pointed on the establishment of the office in 
1872. 

Bollinger County 

Bollinger county w'as organized in March, 
1851, and was formed from parts of Wayne, 
Cape Girardeau and Stoddard counties. The 
commissioners appointed to select the seat of 
justice decided on Marble Hill, and a county 
court for the county was organized in the 
store of John C. Whybark, March 24, 1851. 
The members of the court were Reuben Smith, 
John Stevens, Drury Massey; Oliver E. Sni- 
der was clerk and William C. Grimsly the 
sherifl:. 

Shortly after the organization of the county 
a brick court house two stories in height was 
erected. It was used only a very short time 
and was burned. Another building similar 
to it in size and appearance was erected in 
the same year, the money having been raised 
by private subscription in part and in part 
an appropriation from the county. It, too, 
was destroyed by fire in ilarch, 1884, though 
at the time it was practically abandoned, 
having been condemned as unsafe. For sev- 
eral mouths the county was without any court 
house building ; an effort was made to re- 
move the county seat from Marble Hill to 
the neighboring town, Lutesville. To prevent 
this, the citizens of Marble Hill raised a sub- 
scription amounting to irl,620, and the town 
itself contributed $1,000 for the rebuilding 
of the court house in that town. The propo- 
sition for removal was defeated and the 



county court appropriated $7,000 in addition 
to that raised, for the construction of the 
present building. It was erected under the 
supervision of J. J. Conrad. At present there 
are eight townships in the county, as follows : 
Crooked Creek, Fillmore, German, Liberty. 
Lorance, Union, Wayne and Whitewater. 

The county was named in honor of Col. 
Geo. Frederick Bollinger, one of the early 
settlers in Cape Girardeau district and a most 
prominent and influential citizen. The 
county seat, which was long called Dallas, 
was named Marble Hill from the belief that 
the hill on which the town was built was 
composed of marble. 

Pemsicot County 

On February 19th, 1851, the governor ap- 
proved an act of the legislature for the estab- 
lishment of Pemsicot county. It was erected 
from territory cut off from the south part of 
New Madrid county. The line between it 
and New Madrid county was to begin in the 
Mississippi river opposite IMajors mill race, 
then through Cushion Lake bayou to Cushion 
lake to the head of Portage bay and through 
the bay to Little river and due west to the 
eastern boundary of Dunklin county. A 
county court was organized at the house of 
James Eastwood, who was its presiding jus- 
tice, with Martin L. Stancil and John Scott 
as associate justices. Robert Stewart was the 
first sheriff and Theodore Case was the clerk 
of the court. When the ciuestion of the 
county levees came up. Judges Scott and 
Stancil resigned in 1855 and were succeeded 
by Ebenezer Oldham and Thomas Bartlett. 

This question of levees was agitated by the 
people of Pemsicot county for a good many 
years. A large pai't of the county was sub- 
ject to overflow from the Mississippi river. 
In fact, the name of the county is said to be 



314 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



an Indian word which signifies ' ' liquid mud. ' ' 
An act of Congress was passed in 1850 which 
donated lands to the state for the purpose of 
reclaiming swamp lauds within their limits. 
Large tracts of these lands were then given 
by the state to the counties for this purpose. 
The question of the reclamation of these 
swamp lands was early agitated in Pemsicot 
county. It was the desire of many of the 
people of the county to build a levee along 
the bank of the Mississippi river to protect 
it from the overflows. It was proposed by 
some that the levee should be built and paid 
for in lands at the price of !)il.25 per acre. 
Stancil, who had been a judge of the county 
court, and who had resigned, opposed this 
plan of levee construction. He advocated the 
sale of the lands at a public auction, at a 
minimum price of .$1.25, and that the money 
realized from this sale should be appropriated 
to tlip work of leveeing and draining thei 
lands. He circulated a petition, which was 
afterward presented to the court, asking that 
this plan of disposing of the lands should be 
adopted. He was opposed by William S. 
Moseley, then a member of the legislature 
from New Madrid and Pemsicot counties, and 
the plan proposed was defeated. The court 
decided to build the levee, and to issue in 
payment for the work county scrip, which 
could be used in locating the land, at $1.25 
per acre. After the plan was determined, 
there arose a contest over the location of the 
levee. Stancil believed that it should be 
placed on the west side of Cypress bayou and 
Big lake, biit it was finally built along the 
bank of the river and extended, with two 
small breaks, along the entire length of the 
county. It was not long after its construc- 
tion until it became evident that it was lo- 
cated too near the river, and it soon was 



washed away. This contest left some bitter 
feeling among the people of the county. 

St. Fr.vncois Levee District 

This state levee was completely destroyed 
by the caving of the banks of the river in 
1893. The legislature created the St. Francis 
levee district of Missouri, embracing all that 
part of the state in the St. Francis valley 
lying in the counties of New Madrid, Pemis- 
cot and Dunklin. A board of directors was 
appointed to manage the affairs of the dis- 
trict and to build a levee, consisting W. G. 
Petty, Reuben Chapman and John Black, of 
Dunklin county; Dr. J. J. Williams, J. T. 
Girvin and Alphouso DeLisle, of New JMa- 
drid coimty; and J. A. Cvmningham, J. 
M. Brasher and G. W. Carleton, of Pemsicot 
county. The first meeting of the board was 
held in New Madrid March 29, 1893. Dr. 
J. J. Williams was made president, W. D. 
Schult, secretary; J. A. Cunningham, treas- 
urer, and Captain N. H. Pharr, chief engi- 
neer. G. W. Carleton, of Pemsicot county, 
died March 30, 1893, and Hina C. Schult was 
appointed as his successor. In August of 
that year the building of the levee was com- 
menced. It was raised to an average height 
of 7 feet in 1896 and 1897. Since that time 
there has been constant work done on the 
levee until it has been raised to an average 
of 11 feet. It extends from just south of the 
town of New Madrid to the state line and 
cost about $650,000. The United States gov- 
ernment paid $120,000 of this, the state of 
Missouri $20,000, and the district, by taxa- 
tion, $510,000. 

Courts op the County 

The circuit court in Pemsicot county was 
organized October 25, 1852, by Judge Har- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



315 



rison Hough. The court met at the house of 
Jonathan Scott. There was no court house 
erected for some years, the first being a small 
frame building which was put up in 1854. 
Sanford Jackson was the second clerk of the 
court, and he built, in the yard near his 
house, a clerk's office. It was a rail pen, 
sealed inside and out with cypress bark, and 
was covered witli elm boards. It was used 
as an office until the court house was erected. 

The first court house, ei-ected in 1854, was 
a small frame building and was vised until 
1873. By that time it became inadequate for 
the purpose and was moved away and plans 
made for the erection of a new court building. 
This was destroyed by fire in 1882 and the 
legislature of the state appropriated the sum 
of $4,000 for the construction of another 
court house in Gayoso. This was used until 
the county seat was removed from Gayoso 
to Caruthersvile. The present building 
was then erected under the supervision 
of Charles B. Paris. Two jails were built 
in Gayoso and the present jail was constructed 
about the same time of the court house at 
Caruthersville. 

Prom 1862 to 1865 there were no meetings 
of the county court, and in April of the for- 
mer year the records of the county were 
removed to Memphis by Major Carleton, who 
was clerk of the court, and held there for 
safe keeping; they were returned to the 
county in August, 1865. 

Owing to the fact that it was not possible 
to hold meetings of the county court in Pem- 
sicot county during the war, a bill was passed 
by the legislature, through the efforts of T. J. 
0. Morrison, extending the jurisdiction of the 
courts of New Madrid county over Pemsicot 
county. This arrangement was continued un- 
til the close of the war. 

The circuit courts were discontinued for an 



even longer period, no meetings of the court 
being held from 1860 to 1868. An attempt 
was made to hold circuit court in 1866 by 
Judge Albert Jackson, but Judge Jackson 
was not at all in sympathy with the people 
in Pemsicot county and very evidently hunted 
for some excuse to adjourn the court. He 
found that the seal used by the county had 
been broken and a new one put in its place. 
He declared that all instruments executed 
and attested by the use of the new seal were 
void and then adjourned court. 

The present townships are Little Prairie, 
Pemsicot, Cooter, Virginia, Hayti, Bragga- 
docio, Little River, Gayoso, Godair, Holland, 
Pascola and Butler. 

Prominent Citizens 

One of the earlier settlers and most promi- 
nent men in Pemiscot county was John Harde- 
man Walker. He came to the county about 
1810 and made his home on Little Prairie. He 
was one of the few men who did not leave the 
section after the New Madrid earthquake. 
Colonel Walker remained and carried on his 
farming enterprises during all this period 
until the time of his death. He was sheriff 
of New Madrid county in 1821 and 1822 and 
was afterward a judge of the county court. 
One of his sistei's married Dr. Robert D. Daw- 
son of New Madrid, and another, John Martin 
of Point Pleasant. 

One of the conspicuous settlers of Pemiscot 
county was Major George W. Carleton. He 
was born in Saratoga county, New York, 
April 19, 1830. He was educated in the public 
schools and high school and fitted himself for 
the position of civil engineer. He came to 
New Madrid October 10, 1852, and was at the 
time almost penniless. In the following 
spring he taught school for a time in New 
Madrid and was shortly afterward married to 



316 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Miss Summerville Tomlin and moved to 
Gayoso, Pemiscot county, in January, 1855. 
Here he rented a farm and began to cultivate 
it. However, in the same year he was aj)- 
pointed clerlv of the eoimty court of Pemiscot 
county and later ia the same year was elected 
county surveyor. Again in 1860 he was made 
clerk of the county court and served for six 
years. He was a Union man at the breaking 
out of the war but was not in favor of aboli- 
tion and when Captain Lyon seized Camp 
Jackson, Mr. Carleton decided to east in his 
lot with the south. When the Federal forces 
took possession of New Madrid and Pemiscot 
counties Mr. Carleton put the records of the 
county in a dug-out and carried them across 
the Mississippi river and turned them over 
to the commander of the Confederate gun- 
boats. The records were afterwai-ds carried 
to Memphis, Tennessee, where they remained 
until the close of the war in 1865. He was 
appointed to a position in the Confed- 
erate States navy and entered upon active 
service. During the war he was at Yazoo, 
ilississippi and Charleston, South Carolina; 
in 1864 he was transferred to the engineering 
department with the rank and pay of major. 
AVhen Macon, Georgia, was surrendered to the 
Federal forces lie was made a prisoner and 
paroled April 26th. He returned home July 
1, 1865, and at once took part in the reorgani- 
zation of the government in Pemiscot county. 
During this time he acquired a knowledge of 
law but could not be admitted to the bar 
owing to his inability to take the test oath. 
In spite of this fact he was allowed to prac- 
tice law before the courts of Pemiscot coimty 
and when the test oath was striken from the 
constitution of the state he was admitted to 
the bar and regularly enrolled as a practi- 
tioner. 

In 1875 he was a member of the constitu- 



tional convention from the 23rd senatorial 
district in connection with General N. W. 
Watkins. He was a representative from Pem- 
iscot coimty in four of the general assemblies 
of tlie state and was the author of several 
important bills, especially one creating drain- 
age districts in the state. He was also in 
charge of the Hunter bill to indemnify 
the counties of Southeast Missouri for dam- 
ages caused by the overflow of the Mississippi 
river, 

In 1870 Major Carleton began the making 
of ab.stract of land titles in Pemiscot county. 
This abstract, which was brought up to date, 
proved to be of very great value owing to the 
destruction of the court house. The general 
assembly passed an act in 1885 making the 
Carleton abstracts legal evidence in all courts 
of record. In addition to his other activities 
Major Carleton at times controlled the publi- 
cation of the Gayoso Democrat, and during all 
his life was interested in farming. 

Iron County 

The organization of Iron county dates from 
an act of the legislature approved February 
17, 1857. It was created from parts of the 
counties of St. Francois, Madison, Washing- 
ton, Dent, Reynolds and W^ayne. It owes its 
peculiar shape to the fact that it was made 
up of parts of so many counties. This was 
necessary in order to avoid reducing any 
county below its constitutional limits. The 
first county court was composed of J. V. 
Logan. Jolm W. IMiller and Moses Edmonds. 
John F. T. Edwards was the clerk, and Jolm 
Cole was sheriff. The first meeting of the 
court was on August 4, 1857. At that time 
the county was divided into seven townships : 
Dent, Kaolin, Iron, Pilot Knob, Arcadia, Lib- 
erty and Union. At this meeting of the court 
Theodore F. Tong was made school commis- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .AIISSOrjRI 



Sli 



sioner, A. C. Farnham county treasurer, and 
A. W. Holliman was county surveyor. 

Arcadia was made the first county seat, but 
in August, 1857, tlie people voted to change 
the county seat to Ironton. 

The first meeting of the circuit court was 
held May 17, 1858, and was presided over by 
Judge John H. Stone. A grand jury was 
summoned which returned indictments against 
two persons for grand larceny. 

Iron county received its name from the fact 
that iron was being mined within its limits 
and was believed to exist in very large quan- 
tities. 

The first county seat, Arcadia, was named 
by a lady who came from New England, and 
being struck by the beauty and simplicity of 
the .surrounding country, and the delightful 
people, suggested that it be called Arcadia. 
The derivation of Ironton, the name of the 
present county seat, is apparent. It i.s sit- 
uated quite near to what were then believed 
to be immense deposits of iron ore. 

The county was made liable at its organiza- 
tion for a part of the stock subscribed for the 
building of the Fredericktown & Pilot Knob 
Gravel Road Company. This obligation was 
met bj' the issuance of bonds to the amount of 
$6,666. In January, 1858, an order of the 
county court was made for the erection of a 
court house. The contract was let to George 
S. Evans and William F. Mitchell in the sum 
of $14,000; John V. Logan was appointed as 
superintendent. The building was completed 
in 1860; six years later the present .jail was 
built at a cost of $10,000. 

The present townships are Iron. Kaolin, 
Liberty, Union, Dent, and Arcadia. 

Carter County 

The first settlement made in Carter county 
was made in 1812 by Zimri A. Carter, who 



settled a few miles south of the present to^^^l 
of Van Buren. The county at this time was 
still a part of Wayne countj' and the country 
was wild and much of it rough. Zimri Carter 
was a man of ability and power and when 
he began to open up the country other settlers 
were attracted, among them the Chilton, Ken- 
nard, Snider and Kelley families. These all 
settled in the neighborhood of Carter and 
opened up considerable land. The population 
of the county grew slowly for a number of 
years, and it was not organized until March 
10, 1859. The territory used in creating the 
comity was cut off from the west part of Rip- 
ley and the eastern part of Shannon county 
and the legislature named the county in honor 
of its fir.st settler. 

On the erection of the county Adam Lane 
of Ripley, John Buford of Reynolds, and D. 
C. Reed of Shannon county, were appointed 
as commissioners to locate the seat of justice. 
They met in April, 1859, at the house of 
James Brown near Van Buren, and located 
the county seat at Van Buren. This had 
formerly been the county seat of Ripley 
county and the old log court house, which had 
been erected in 1853, was the rrieeting place 
for the "courts until 1867. At that time a 
frame court house was built which is still in 
use. 

At first the county was attached to Ripley 
county for the purpose of representation in 
the general assembly and the first member 
sent to the legislature from Carter county was 
William Lawson, who was elected in 1864 and 
served until 1870. He was succeeded at the 
latter date by F. ]\I. Coleman. 

Carter county has an area of about 321,000 
acres, much of which is hilly and broken land 
and much of it is a low grade of fertility. It 
is drained by Current river, which tlows 
thi'ough the central part of the county in a 



318 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



generally southern direction. On the west of 
Current river two creeks, Davis and Rogers, 
drain that part of the county. The northeast 
part of the county is drained by Brushy creek, 
which is a tributary of Current, and the south- 
eastern part is drained by Little Black river 
and Cane creek. These streams or most of 
them are very beautiful. This is true, espe- 
cially of Current river, which is famous for its 
clear sparkling waters. The streams afford 
great water power which is yet largely unde- 
veloped, though some of it is used for run- 
ning mills. 

The chief resource of the coimty is timber, 
of which there are a number of varieties, the 
most abundant being pine and oak. 

The county is divided into five to-wTiships: 
Carter, Jackson, Johnson, Kell.y, and Pike. 

Biographies 

In a former chapter we have given the his- 
tory of the settlement and organization of 
the eight comities organized before the ad- 
mission of Jlissouri to the Union. It is de- 
sired to recall the names of some of the citi- 
zens of these counties who were especially 
active in building up this part of the state 
and whose names are connected with much of 
the progress which has been made. It is not 
possible to recite the lives of all of them ; 
some are mentioned in connection with other 
matters, but some whose lives are of especial 
interest are referred to here. 

Charles Welling was for many years one of 
the leading citizens of Cape Girardeau county. 
He was born in 1812 in New Jersey, was edu- 
cated in the common schools and came to St. 
Louis coimty in 1830. One j'car later he re- 
moved to Jackson and became a clerk in the 
general store of Ralph Guild, and afterwards 
became a partner in this concern. He dis- 
solved this partnership in 1848 and became 



associated with Joseph Russell and still later 
with J. V. Priest. Mr. Welling continued in 
the mercantile business until 1888, when he 
was appointed postmaster by President Cleve- 
land. For a number of years he was cashier 
of the Cape Girardeau Savings Bank and was 
for twelve years treasurer of Cape Girardeau 
county. He was one of the best known citi- 
zens in the county and a man universally held 
in highest respect and esteem. He was of a 
most upright character and was known for 
his strict devotion to whatever duty he imder- 
took. He was one of the first members and 
organizers of the First Presbyterian church 
at Jackson in 1856. He served the church as 
a, leader and as superintendent of the Sunday 
school. Mr. Welling married Elizabeth Bol- 
linger Frissell, a granddaughter of Colonel 
George Frederick Bollinger. Their descend- 
ants are prominent in Cape Girardeau county. 
He died at Jackson, June 20, 1900. 

Few men have exercised a greater or 
better influence over affairs in Southeast 
Missouri than Robert Sturdivant. He was 
born March 31, 1817, in Lunnenberg county, 
Virginia, and died at Tallapoosa, Georgia, Oc- 
tober 12, 1905. He came to Cape Girardeau 
in 1835. He received in his native state a 
good education for the time, having attended 
an academy, as the organized schools of the 
south were known. 

On coming to Cape Girardeau he entered 
into a business partner.ship with Edmund 
White, who was his brother-in-law. Within a 
few years, however, he was forced into bank- 
ruptcy during a great panic which caused 
the financial wreck of hundreds of men. He 
was left penniless and made his way to IMissis- 
sippi, where for a time he taught school and 
then worked with a construction gang on a 
railroad. 

Through the kindness of Andrew Giboney, 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



319 



who was his close friend, his affairs were ar- 
ranged in Cape Girardeau and he returned. 
Pie taught school and for a time was associated 
in the publication of a newspaper. It is said 
that among his students were James M. White- 
law and Samuel il. Green. From 1843 to 
1846 he was engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness with Andrew Giboney, under the firm 
name of Robert Sturdivant & Company. In 
the latter year he dissolved this partnership 
and began in connection with Ben M. Hor- 
rell, the operation of a mill. This was the 
"White mill, as it was called, located on the 
river in the north part of town and was the 
first steam mill in Southeast Missouri. Later, 
Mr. Sturdivant established a commission and 
wholesale grocery house at the corner of 
Water and Themis streets. This business was 
exceedingly prosperous. In connection with it 
Mr. Sturdivant visited all the coimties of 
Southeast Missouri, becoming accjuainted with 
the leading men of every community and gain- 
ing a thorough knowledge of business condi- 
tions in this part of the state. It is an evi- 
dence of the sturdy honesty, which always 
characterized him, that during this period of 
his life he settled in full all the obligations of 
the firm of White & Sturdivant, though he 
was not legally boimd to do so. 

In 1857 he was elected cashier of the branch 
bank of the state of Missouri, which was at 
that time removed from Jackson to Cape Gir- 
ardeau. He continued with the bank until it 
was closed up in 1867. Then he bought the 
assets of the branch bank and continued its 
operation as a private bank until 1882. In 
that year he organized a corporation known 
as the Sturdivant Bank. He was made its 
president and continued in ofSce until some 
five years before his death. 

During the sixty-five years of active busi- 
ness life, Mr. Sturdivant acquired a comfort- 



able fortune, but while devoted to his business 
he never allowed it to interfere with the culti- 
vation of friendshii) and that kindly spirit of 
helpfulness which distinguished him. He was 
always interessted in the public welfare and 
no man did more to pi'omote the enterprises 
of his town and community than he. For 
many years he served as the ti'easui-er of the 
Southeast State Normal School and on many 
occasions advanced out of his own private 
fortune, as a loan, the funds with which to 
pay the teachers and expenses of that institu- 
tion. He was very closely associated with 
Hon. Louis Houek in his railroad enterprises 
and it is quite probable that but for his assist- 
ance the railroads of Southeast Missouri could 
not have been built at that time. 

I\Ir. Sturdivant, in spite of the esteem in 
which he was universally held and the influ- 
ence which came in part from his real char- 
acter and in part from his wealth, was a man 
who avoided all ostentation and display and 
was of a retiring and modest disposition. He 
lived simply and plainly and took a great in- 
terest in the simple pleasures of the time. His 
name is perpetuated in the great banking in- 
stitution whicli he founded. 

Samuel Stanhope Harris was born in Jack- 
son December 26, 1836, and died in St. Louis 
December 6, 1891. His parents. Dr. E. W. 
and Mary Harris, were natives of North Caro- 
lina. He came to Missouri in 1821, first lo- 
cating at Farmingtou and afterwards at Jack- 
son. Samuel S. Harris was educated in the 
private academ^^ at Pleasant Hill and later in 
Lexington college and then studied medicine 
at Bellevue Medical college in New York, being 
graduated at the age of twenty-one. He began 
the practice of medicine at Jackson in 1860 
and was successful from the first. When the 
war broke out, Dr. Harris took the side of the 
south, organizing a company of cavalry fa- 



320 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



nious as the Swamp Rangers, and afterward 
recruited a company of artillery with whom he 
took part in the battle of Fredericktown ; later 
the company was sent to the south and par- 
ticipated in the engagements at Fort Pillow. 
Dr. Hai-ris then became one of the crew of the 
iron clad ram Arkansas and served on board 
this vessel throughout the war. He distin- 
guished himself for gallantry and ability as 
an officer. On the conclusion of the war he 
made his home for a short time at AVaterval- 
le.y. ilississippi, where he practiced medicine 
but later came to Cape Girardeau. Dr. Harris 
was not only a physician of great skill and 
energy, but was interested in all public 
matters. He contributed to medical .jour- 
nals and other publications and was an 
active member of the Democratic party. He 
was for a time postmaster at Cape Girardeau, 
but was never a candidate for any elective 
office. His first wife was Amanda Brown, 
daughter of Lieutenant Governor Brown : his 
second wife was Julia E. Russell of Jackson, 
a member of the old pioneer family of Cape 
Girardeau county ; she was a great grand- 
daughter of George Frederick Bollinger. 

Alexander Gray, a native of Kentucljj', 
served a-s a captain during the war of 1812 
and came to IMissouri at its close, making his 
home for a time at Cape Girardeau. From 
Cape Girardeau he went to St. Louis and was 
appointed by Governor Bates as jiidge of the 
St. Louis circuit court, holding two terms of 
the court under the territorial government 
and after the organization of the state gov- 
ernment was appointed .iudge of the circuit 
court in Northern Missouri. Judge Gray was 
a highly educated man and a fine lawyer, es- 
pecially able in criminal law. 

General Pirmin A. Rozier was born in Ste. 
Genevieve July 31. 1820. He was the son of 
Ferdinand Rozier, whose life we have given in 



another place. General Rozier was educated 
at St. ilary 's College at Perry ville and Bards- 
town. Kentucky. In 1846 he began to .study 
law at the Transylvania Law School at Lex- 
ington. Kentucky. He gave up his studies, 
h.owever, Avhen the Mexican war broke out and 
raised a company of soldiers. He was elected 
captain of the company and stationed at 
Leavenworth. Kansas. After a time he was 
appointed major general of militia in South- 
east Missouri. At the close of the war he 
returned to the law school and was graduated. 
In 1847 he began the practice of the law at 
Ste. Genevieve. General Rozier had some ex- 
periences in politics. In 1850 he was a can- 
didate for Congress, but was defeated by a 
small majority. In 1856 he was a member of 
the state legislature and served two sessions. 
He was a delegate to the national Democratic 
convention at Chicago in 1860 and became a 
member of the state senate of Missouri in 
1872, where he served four years, and was 
chairman of the committee on mines and min- 
ing. Besides this he held other minor offices, 
having been mayor of Ste. Genevieve and 
having held other positions of trust and honor. 
General Rozier was devoted to the public wel- 
fare of his town and community. He had a 
great interest in all matters pertaining to the 
public good. While very young he was a 
delegate to a convention which- met at Mem- 
phis, Tenne.ssee, in 1845, for the formation of 
plans regarding improvement of the ilissis- 
sippi river. At this convention he read a re- 
port on the submerged lands of the Missis- 
sippi valley. Perhaps one of the things of 
which he was most justly proud was his in- 
terest in the establishment of the Ste. Gene- 
vieve Academy. He gave much of his time 
and money to this institution which prospered 
luitil the breaking out of the Civil war. Gen- 
eral Rozier married Miss Mary M. VaUe of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



321 



Ste. Genevieve in 1850, and to them six chil- 
dren were born. Another of the activities of 
General Rozier was the writing and publishing 
of the History of the Mississippi Valley. This 
book is devoted largely to the early times of 
Missouri and Illinois and especially in Ste. 
Genevieve. It is a valuable reference book on 
this early history. 

Cliarles C. Rozier was the sou of Ferdinand 
Rozier and was born September 1, 1830. He 
studied law, after his graduation from St. 
Vincents College in 1849, in the office of his 
brother, General Pirmin A. Rozier. He pur- 
chased TIic Democrat, a weekly newspaper 
published at Ste. Genevieve in 1850, and con- 
tinued its publication for a year. Then he 
went to St. Louis and edited a Feneh paper, 
but discontinued its publication within a short 
time. In 1851 Mr. Rozier established The 
Independent at Ste. Genevieve and published 
it for three or four years. He then entered 
political life, holding the offices of circuit clerk, 
recorder and county clerk. He was appointed 
a member of the first board of regents of the 
State Normal school at Cape Girardeau and 
assisted in the location and establishment of 
that school. He was also administrator of Ste. 
Genevieve county and mayor of the town of 
Ste. Genevieve. 

One of the most famous men ever connected 
with Southeast Missouri was Lewis F. Linn, 
who was born in 1796 near Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, He received a common school educa- 
tion and afterward studied medicine. At the 
breaking out of the war of 1812, he enlisted 
and served until its close. At that time he 
removed to Ste. Genevieve and began the 
practice of medicine. He was very successful 
in his practice, being gifted by nature with 
the power to make friends and acquaintances 
and to draw men to him. After devoting him- 
self to his practice for a number of years and 

Vol. 1—2 1 



accumulating property, he became interested 
in politics and in 1827 was elected to the state 
senate, where he made a distinct impression 
for his ability and his devotion to the work 
given to him to do. In 1833 he was appointed 
by the governor of the state to fill a vacancy 
in the United States senate and was three 
times elected to the same position, holding it 
until his death in 1843. Mr. Linn was an 
unusual man in many respects. He gave the 
impression of honesty of purpose, of ability 
and of devotion to duty unequaled by many 
men. While in the senate he had to do with 
many matters of the latmost importance. Leg- 
islation affecting the west was constantly be- 
fore Congress during this period and to all 
matters of this kind Senator Linn gave the 
closest study and the most careful attention. 
It was his conviction that the government of 
the United States owed it to itself as well as 
to the west to foster western territory and to 
encourage the building up of its population 
and to form and admit states into the Union. 
He was especially interested for a number of 
years in the Oregon territory and he was rec- 
ognized as the champion of Oregon in the 
United States senate and was bitterlj' opposed 
to any suggestion that this territory should 
be abandoned to the English. On account of 
this fact the people of Oregon felt that they 
owed to Senator Linn a great debt of grati- 
tude. Linn City in Oregon was named for 
him and in many other ways they have testi- 
fied the debt which the people of the west 
felt was due to him. It was due to his 
efforts more than to the work of any one else 
that the Platte purchase was made for Mis- 
souri. In all his work he looked to the build- 
ing up of the great west and especially to the 
interests of his own state. He died in 1843 
and was buried at Ste. Genevieve, his home. 
Over his remains was erected the only monu- 



322 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ment provided for by the general assemblj- of 
Missouri out of the public funds. It is in- 
scribed, "Here lies Lewis F. Linn, the model 
senator of Missouri." 

John Rice Jones was born in Virginia in 
1776. From 1781 to 1808 he practiced law in 
Vineennes. He became a resident of Potosi 
in 1808 and entered into the practice of law 
in partnership with Moses Austin. Mr. Jones 
was appointed a member and president of the 
legislative council of the territory and was also 
a member of the first constitutional conven- 
tion. He was appointed bj' Governor McNair 
as one of the three judges of the supreme 
court, the other two being Matthias McGirk 
and John D. Cook. He held this position until 
his death in 1821. Mr. Jones was regarded as 
one of the ablest men in the territory. He was 
a man of upright character and had given a 
great deal of time to the study of the law. 

Daniel Dunklin was born in South Carolina 
near Greenville in 1790, died August 25, 
184-4. in Jefferson county, and was buried 
on the bluff near Pevely. He removed to 
Kentucky when he was seventeen years old 
and at the age of twenty came to Missouri 
and established himself at Potosi. He was 
elected a member of the first constitutional 
convention in 1820 and in 1828 was elected 
lieutenant governor. At the close of his term 
he was elected governor and served until Sep- 
tember, 1836, when he resigned three months 
before the close of the term in order to accept 
the position of surveyor general of ]\Iissouri, 
Illinois and Arkansas, which was offered to 
him by President Jackson. In this position he 
traced the boundary line between Missouri 
and Arkansas. Governor Dunklin is remem- 
bered chiefly on account of his very great in- 
terest in important work for the public 
school system of the state. It was largely due 
to him that the system exists in its present 



form. Dunklin coimty was named in his 
honor. 

James II. Relfe who represented Missouri 
as one of its members of Congress in 1843 and 
1845, was a native of Virginia. He came to 
jMissouri at an eai-ly age and made his home 
at Caledonia in Washington county. His 
education was limited, owing to the character 
of the schools, but after becoming a man he 
studied medicine and engaged in the practice 
in Caledonia. He was a man of ability and 
won a place among his neighbors and ae- 
qiuiintances and received from them two elec- 
tions to Congress. ]Mr. Relfe was a Democrat 
and supported the principles of that party. 

Samuel Caruthers was born in ]Madison 
coimt.y, IMissouri, October 13, 1820. He was 
educated in the common schools of the county 
<ind was graduated from Clinton College, Ten- 
nessee. After his graduation he entered upon 
the study of law and began his practice at 
Frederiektown. After practicing at Freder- 
iektown for several years he moved to Cape 
Girardeau. It was at this place that he began 
his political career, holding several town and 
county offices. He was elected a member of 
Congress from the 7th district in 1853 and 
served in the 33rd and 34th Congresses as a 
Whig. When the campaign was made for 
election to the 35th Congress, Mr. Caruthers 
adopted the platform of the Democratic party 
and was again elected. He closed his political 
career with that session of Congress. He 
died at Cape Girardeau on July 20, 1860. Mr. 
Caruthers was a man of ability and stood well 
with the member.s of Congress with whom he 
served. 

In 1859 John W. Noell was elected as the 
representative of the 7th congressional dis- 
trict to the 36th Congress. He was a native 
of Bradford county, Virginia, having been 
bom in 1816. Mr. Noell received a good 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



323 



education in Virginia and moved to Missouri 
in 1832. making his home at Perry ville. Here 
he entered a law office and after some years 
cf study \\as admitted to the bar and became 
a successful practitioner. He entered poli- 
tics, held several county offices and served as 
a member of the state senate for four years. 
He was elected to Congress as a Democrat and 
re-elected to the 37tli and 38th Congresses. 
He died in Washington March 12th, 1863. 

John G. Scott was born at Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, December 26th, 1819, and was 
educated in the schools of Philadelphia. He 
came to Missouri while a young man and 
settled in Jefferson county. He became in- 
terested in mine business. Mr. Scott accumu- 
lated considerable property and made his first 
venture in political life by becoming a candi- 



date for the 38th Congress against John W. 
Noell. He was defeated by Noell, but was 
elected to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. 
Noell 's death in office. Mr. Scott did not seek 
re-election at the close of his term. 

Thomas E. Noel, who was born at Perry- 
ville, Mississippi, April 3rd, 1839, received a 
common school education and studied law in 
Perryville. He was successful in the practice- 
of law and was made captain of the 19th In- 
fantry of the United States army in 1862. 
He resigned from the army in 1863 and came 
to Missouri. He was elected as a member of 
Congress from the 3rd Missouri district in 
1865 and served in the 39th and 40th Con- 
gresses. He was a radical in politics and sup- 
ported the radical ma.iority. Mr. Noel died at 
St. Louis October 4th, 1867. 



SECTION V 



The Civil War in Southeast Missouri 



CHAPTER XXVn 

GENERAL MOVEMENTS 
Position of the State — Number of Soldiers Furnished — Appointment of a Major-Gen- 

ERAL OF THE StaTE GuARDS — GENERAL S. WaTKINS GENERAL THOMPSON — SKIRMISHES IN 

August, 1861 — General Grant — Fortifications at Cape Girardeau — Martial Law — 
Thompson's Raid into Jefferson County — ^Situation in November, 1861 — Battle of Bel- 
mont — Early Months of 1862 — Capture op New Madrid and Island Ten — Skirmishes 
AND Raids op 1863 — Marmaduke's Invasion — Capture of General Jeff Thompson — 
Price's Raid Conditions After the War. 



The position of Missouri during the Civil 
war was unique. The state is situated on the 
border line between the North and South. 
In fact nearly all the territory of this state 
is north of the Ohio river, which was in gen- 
eral the dividing line between slave and free 
territory. Under ordinary circumstances, 
Missouri would have been a northern state ; 
on the other hand the great bulk of Ameri- 
can ijniuigrants were from the southern states, 
Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee perhaps 
furnishing more settlers for ^Missouri in the 
earl.y period than all other states. These 
were southern in their sentiment. From this 
fact it was reasonable to expect Missouri to 
join with the South in secession. As we have 
pointed out in another chapter the thing which 
made Missouri take the position it did was 
doubtless the presence within the state of 
large numbers of foreign population. The 
American settlers who lived on farms were 
slave owners up to the time of the war. There 
were large numbers of slaves owned in this 
state, but the foreign population of the state, 
most of whom were gathered into towns, did 



not own slaves and their sympathies were 
very strongly in favor of the Union. The 
German population in Cape Girardeau, Cape 
Girardeau county, in Perry county, in Bol- 
linger county and in St. Louis were almost to 
a man, favorable to the North. It was this 
fact that probably decided the course of Mis- 
souri. When the convention was held to de- 
termine what Missouri's action should be, 
there was a strong element in the state favor- 
able to secession who desired that Missouri 
should join the seceded states, but their pro- 
posed action was bitterly opposed by the 
Geruuin element of her population, and as 
a compromise measure it was determined that 
the state should remain in the Union but 
should occupy the rather remarkable position 
of armed neutrality. It was determined that 
neither North nor South should invade the 
territory of the state and that Missouri should 
raise an army of its own for the purpose of 
protecting itself against the government of 
which it was a part and against its neighbor 
states that had seceded from the Union. 
It is quite evident that this position was 



327 



328 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



one that it was impossible for the state long 
to hold. The tide of feeling on both sides 
rose too high to allow the state to remain 
neutral. Armies, both North and South, en- 
tered its borders and thousands of its citizens 
enlisted in the armies, some fighting for the 
Union, some for the South. Missouri con- 
tributed as many soldiers to both armies, ac- 
cording to its population, as almost any other 
state in the Union. 

Not only did the state furnish many sol- 
diers to the armies, it suffered as great 
damage and devastation as did any of the 
other states, except those like Virginia which 
were the scene of the greater militarj- oper- 
ations. In no other part of Missouri was the 
excitement greater or the consequent loss of 
property and life larger than in Southeast 
Missouri. The American population of this 
part of the state M'as very largely Southern 
and they desired to give all assistance pos- 
sible to the South, but there were in two or 
three counties of this section lai'ge numbers of 
German people and they were just as loyal 
to the Union. The feeling between them grew 
very high and many depredations were com- 
mitted on both sides. 

To understand the military operations in 
Southeast Missouri, it is necessary to remem- 
ber that St. Louis was made the headquarters 
of the Federal troops in the state. After the 
capture of Camp Jackson by Captain Lyon, 
the Confederates never had possession of St. 
Louis; it remained in the hands of Federal 
troops during all the war, and it was from 
St. Louis that tliere were sent out expeditions 
towards the South and Southwest to reduce 
those parts of the state which were held by 
the Confederates. Arkansas, the state im- 
mediately south of Missouri, seceded and from 
Arkansas a number of expeditions crossed the 
line into i\Iissouri. 



Southeast ilissouri bordered on the river, 
which was made the highway for the trans- 
portation of troops and supplies and for the 
carrying on of certain operations against the 
South. This brought Southeast ilissouri into 
the very center of the war. 

In May, 1861, the state legislature passed 
an act providing for the organization of the 
Missouri State Guards. The state was divided 
into military districts; Southeast Missouri 
was made the first of these. The Governor ap- 
pointed N. W. Watkins, of Cape Girardeau 
county as Brigadier-General to command this 
military district. It was his duty to organize 
the Missouri State Guards in this part of the 
state. General Watkins found the work un- 
congenial and soon resigned the position. He 
was succeeded by Jeff Thompson, whose head- 
quarters for a time were established at 
Bloomfield. 

The first plans of the Confederates for an 
invasion of JMissouri provided that this inva- 
sion should be made by three separate bodies 
of troops. Colonel McCulloch was to enter 
the state in the southwest. General Hardee in 
the center and General Pillow in the east. 
Hardee brought 5,000 men and advanced as 
far as Greenville, while General Pillow 
reached and took possession of New Madrid. 
Neither of the forces penetrated any fur- 
ther into the state at this time, but General 
Thompson with the State Guards, was active 
and fought a number of skirmishes with the 
Federal troops. The Northern sympathiz- 
ei-s who were not in the regular organized 
army, had been formed into Home Guards. 
Between these Home Guards and the Confed- 
erate State Guards there was constant hos- 
tility and warfare. On August 11, 1S61, some 
of Thompson's men entered the village of 
Hamburg in Scott county. They there made 
an attack on a body of Home Guards of whom 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



329 



they killed one, wounded five and captured 
thirteen. On August 20th, there was a skir- 
mish fought at Charleston between the forces 
under Jason H. Hunter and the 22ud Illi- 
nois Infantry under Colonel Daugherty. 
Hunter was defeated and retreated to the 
main body of Thompson's force where he was 
placed under arrest for having violated or- 
ders. He had been instructed that he was 
not to fight a superior force, but only to dis- 
cover the position of the enemy. 

Other skirmishes were fought during these 
months when each side was straining every 
nerve to make preparation for the great con- 
flict which men were beginning to see was in- 
evitable. On August 2, 1861, B. Gratz Bro-\vn, 
then in command at Ironton, made an ad- 
vance towai-d Centerville in Reynolds county. 
When near Centerville a body of Confeder- 
ates was found with whom a severe skirmish 
was fought. The Union forces then fell back 
toward Ironton. 

On August 11th, a skirmish was fought at 
Potosi between Captain AVhlte of Frederick- 
town and the Potosi Home Guards. 

On August 15th. John ]\IaeDona!d of the 
Eighth Missouri made an expedition to Ste. 
Genevieve, captured the town, seized the 
money of the bank and carried it to St. Louis. 
August 19th, Col. Daugherty with Illinois 
troops fought a skirmish near Charleston 
with Confederates and defeated them. On 
the same date a skirmish was fought at Fish 
Lake near Charleston in which the Union 
forces were victorious. 

It was the plan of the forces of the Fed- 
eral army to make invasion into the southern 
part of the state from their headquarters at 
St. Louis. The first of these was made in 
July, 1861. A regiment under command of 
B. Gratz Brown was sent from St. Louis with 
orders to take possession of the town of 



Pilot Knob, which was then the terminus of 
the St. Louis & Iron IMountain Railroad. This 
was accomplished and Brown remained there 
with his forces until August 8th, when he was 
relieved by the 21st Illinois Regiment under 
command of Colonel U. S. Grant. Grant was 
at this time holding a colonel's commission; 
he had been appointed Brigadier-General, but 
had not received his commission. While he 
was staying at Pilot Knob he made his head- 
quarter at the house of Colonel James Lind- 
say, now the property of Judge J. W. Em- 
erson. It was here that he received his com- 
mission as a general. It was brought to him 
while he was standing under one of the great 
trees in the 3'ard, and this spot is now marked 
by a monument erected by the members of 
this regiment. It was Grant's intention to 
begin a forward movement against General 
Hardee, but about the time he was ready to 
move he wa.s relieved by General B. M. Pren- 
tiss. General Grant was then put in com- 
mand of the district of Southeast IMissom-i 
which also included southern Illinois. 

On being appointed to the connnaud of this 
district. General Grant established tempo- 
rary headquarters at Cape Girardeau where 
he remained for only a few days, then remov- 
ing to Cairo, Illinois. Cape Girardeau had 
been taken possession of by Colonel ]\Iarsh 
with the 20th Illinois Regiment in July. Here 
he built four forts and named them A, B, C 
and D, commanding the approaches to the 
town on all sides. Fort A was on the high 
bluff near the Union Mill, now occupied as a 
residence site by I. B. Miller and James Rey- 
nolds. Fort B was situated on the hill where 
the Normal School now stands. This site is 
marked by a cannon presented to the school 
by the U. S. government. Fort C was at the 
south end of Sprigg street where there were 
small earth works, and Fort D was on the 



330 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



bank of the river south of St. Viueent's Col- 
lege. There was a Hue of ritie pits near the 
place now owned by Dr. Fullerton. 

It was determined by those in command to 
make an effort to drive General Thompson 
out of the Southeast and if possible to cap- 
ture liim and disperse his forces. It was 
planned to send General Prentiss from Iron- 
ton to Cape Girardeau and then south, while 
General Grant was to cross the river at Cairo 
to Belmont and march to the west from that 
point. However, when General Prentiss 
reached Jackson he received orders from Gen- 
eral Grant that he was to halt his troops at 
Jackson. He disregarded the orders and 
marched on to Cape Girardeau. Here he was 
met ))y Grant in person and ordered to return 
to Jackson. General Prentiss believed him- 
self to be the senior officer and was quite in- 
dignant at these orders. He returned with 
his men to Jackson and left the command and 
went to St. Louis. This was the end of the 
pro.jeeted expedition for the capture of Gen- 
eral Thompson. 

It should be said of this attempt to drive 
the Confederates out of Southeast Missouri 
that while the battles and skirmishes were not 
in themselves of very great importance, the 
attempt did have one result that is not usu- 
ally considered. About the time that General 
Fremont took charge of the western depart- 
ment the invasion of Confederates from Ar- 
kansas into ilissouri was threatened. The in- 
vasion was supposed to come by way of 
Springfield as it afterwards did come under 
the command of General Price. There was 
also the invasion that was spoken of in the 
direction of Birds Point and when General 
Fremont assumed command he was con- 
fi'onted with the question whether to defend 
Southeast ilissouri or to defend Southwest 
Missouri. He elected to make his principal 



attempt against the forces invading Southeast 
Missouri and accordingly he sent a fleet of 
eight steamers carrying infantry and artil- 
lery to Birds Point and then returned them 
to St. Louis, finding nothing in particular for 
them to do. It was this expedition that re- 
sulted in part in the defeat of Lyon at Wil- 
son's Creek. 

AVhen the Federal forces were defeated at 
Wilson's Creek it produced throughout the 
state a feeling tliat the Confederates were 
winning and a comparative depression among 
the friends of the Union. There arose a great 
deal of excitement and confusion within the 
borders of the state and on the 30th of Au- 
gust, General Fremont issued a proclamation 
declaring martial law and appointed J. Mc- 
Kinstry, a major in the United States army, 
as Provost Marshal of the state. He declared 
in the proclamation that the Union forces 
held a line extending from Leavenworth, Kan- 
sas, by way of Jefferson City, Rolla and Iron- 
ton, to Cape Girardeau and that all persons 
taken within the limits of this line with arms 
in their hands should be tried in court mar- 
tial and shot, and that the property, real and 
personal, of all persons in Missouri who 
should be proved to have taken sides with the 
enemies of the Federal government should be 
confiscated to the public use and their slaves, 
if they had any, should be declared free men, 
and that persons who by' speech of substance 
should be found guilty of giving aid to the 
Confederates in any way were warned of ill 
consequences to themselves. 

The provost marshal then issued an order 
to carry into effect the proclamation of Gen- 
eral Fremont and after issuing this order it 
became necessary for all persons traveling to 
carry with them a pennit from the provost 
marshal. It would seem that martial law was 
thus extended over more than half of the 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



331 



state and that withiu the limits covered was 
a considerable part of the territory of South- 
east ilissoiiri. The enforcement of martial 
law greatly embarrassed the transaction of 
business and tlie travel of all persons within 
the limits mentioned. It is one of the things 
that caused such demoralization and loss of 
property throughout this part of the state. 

In October, IStil, Thompson with his forces 
made an expedition from Stoddard county 
where he made his headquarters at that time. 
by way of Fredericktown into Jefferson 
county. He had. two purposes in view. One 
was to destroy the Iron Mountain Railroad 
bridge over Big river and thus hamper the 
movement of Federal forces south from St. 
Louis, the other was to seize lead from the 
lead mines and carry it south for Confederate 
use. He separated his forces on the march, 
sending his infantry into Fredericktown 
while his cavalry made the raid into Jeffer- 
son county. They found the bridge which 
was near Blackwell guarded by Union soldiers 
and a fierce skirmish was fought. The bridge 
was destroyed and Thompson retreated to re- 
join his forces at Fredericktown. Here he 
found that strong Union forces were closing 
in on him. 

When news of his raid reached the Federal 
authorities the.y made plans for the capture 
of his force. Col. Plummer was sent from 
Cape Girardeau with about 1,500 men, while 
Col. Carlin advanced from Pilot Knob with 
about 3,000. On receiving news of these 
forces Thompson fell back from Frederick- 
town toward Greenville and fought an en- 
gagement with the Union forces about one 
mile outside of the town on the Greenville 
road, October 21, 1861. After the battle, 
which was fiercely contested on both sides, 
Thompson continued his retreat in good order 
and the Union forces occupied Fredericktown. 



During the disorder attendant upon their tak- 
ing possession the town was fired and several 
houses were destroyed. Thomjjsou made good 
his retreat and carried away about 18,000 
pounds of lead. 

October 14, 1861, a skirmish was fought at 
Underwood's farm near Bird's Point. It re- 
sulted in a Confederate victory. 

On November 1, 1861, the situation in 
Southeast Missouri was as follows: General 
Grant was in command at Cairo with an 
army of about 20,000 soldiers. Colonel J. B. 
Plummer was at Cape Girardeau with about 
1,500 soldiers including the 11th Missouri 
Volunteers and some Illinois troops. Colonel 
Carlin was at Ironton and Pilot Knob with 
3,000 soldiers mostly from Illinois, Colonel 
R. J. Oglesby was in command at Bird 's Point 
under direct supervision of General Grant. 
Besides the Union forces there were the fol- 
lowing Confederate forces in this part of the 
state: General W. J. Hardee was at Green- 
ville with about 3,000 men. General Pillow 
was at New Madrid with a force of about 5,000 
and General Jeff Thompson was at Bloom- 
field with a force of about 1,500. 

Keeping in mind this disposition of forces 
it is easy to understand the operations which 
resulted finally in the battle of Belmont. 
Grant was ordered by General Fremont at St. 
Louis to make a general advance and if possi- 
ble take possession of all fortified posts in 
Southeast Missouri. Carrying out this in- 
struction General Grant ordered Colonel 
Carlin with 3,000 men to march south from 
Ironton to Indian Ford where he was to meet 
and capture a detachment of Thompson's 
troops and then make his way toward 
Bloomfield to assist in the capture of 
Thompson's main forces. At the same 
time Colonel Plummer was ordered to march 
from Cape Girardeau to Bloomfield with his 



332 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



forces, and Colonel R. J. Oglesby with some 
■ijOOO or 5,000 Illinois troops to take boat at 
Bird's Point, disembark at Commerce, and 
proceed to Bloomfield to operate against 
Thompson. These orders were carried out, 
Carlin starting from Ironton on November 
3rd and reaching Indian Ford, twenty-five 
miles south of Greenville on the St. Francois 
river but finding no troops, from Indian Ford 
he was ordered to return to Ironton as it was 
found to be impracticable to cross from In- 
dian Ford to Bloomfield with troops and a 
wagon train. Colonel Plummer marched from 
j/' Cape Girardeau to Bloomfield expecting to 
capture Thompson and his command, but 
found they had retreated. Oglesby started 
from Bird's Point, landed at Commerce, 
marched across ' ' Nigger Wool ' ' swamp where 
he fought a skirmish with a few Confederate 
soldiers, and then to Bloomfield taking posses- 
sion of that town. On the arrival of the Un- 
ion troops, Thompson fell back from Bloom- 
field about ten miles to Camp Jackson and 
later to "West Prairie in the vicinity of Clark- 
ton. It was his intention, if pressed, to re- 
treat across the Blanton plank road from 
Clarkton to New Jladrid. When Plummer 
and Oglesby found tliat Thompson had re- 
treated from Bloomfield they at first deter- 
mined to follow him to New Madrid. They 
were, however, ordered by General Grant to 
return. Plummer then fell back to Cape 
Girardeau, and Oglesby returned to Bird's 
Point. 

The battle of Belmont immediately followed 
these movements. General Grant had been 
ordered to stop the crossing of Confederate 
troops at Columbus and the battle was the 
result of this order. 

The battle of Belmont was a fiereelv fought 



and sanguinary contest. It was the purpose 
of General Grant to seize the Confederate 
post at Belmont and to hold it in order to 
prevent the crossing of troops from Ken- 
tucky. 

On the evening of November 5th he em- 
barked about 4,000 men on transports and ac- 
companied bj' a convoy of gunboats dropped 
down from Cairo toward Belmont, a distance 
of twenty miles. Eleven miles from Belmont 
he made a feint at landing and remained an- 
chored until daylight. Early in the morning 
the boats were dropped down to Hunter's 
farm three miles from Belmont, landed and 
marched against the latter place. The Con- 
federate forces, while inferior in numbers to 
the attacking army, fought with great valor 
and \vere favored by the dense woods and 
marshy character of part of the ground. The 
fighting continued for four hours when the 
Confederates wei'e driven out from their 
camp and took shelter under the river bank. 
They did not surrender, however, and kept up 
a desultory fire from their new position. The 
Union forces were disorganized bj- their cap- 
ture of the camp and gave themselves up to 
pillage. Meantime the Confederates were 
hurrying reinforcements from Columbus on 
the other side of the river and soon began to 
press on the Federals. The camp was fired 
and the Confederate batteries at Columbus 
fired on the Union army. Finding the posi- 
tion untenable the Union forces fell back to- 
ward their transports and were attacked furi- 
ously by the Confederates. The Union forces 
suffered severely on this retreat and General 
Grant himself came near falling into the 
hands of the Confederates. He managed to 
reach the transport just as it pushed off. 

The victory remained with the Confederates 
though they lost in all 642 men wliile tlie Un- 
ion loss was 480. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



333 



While the Confederates were passing along 
the river bank a number of acts of heroism 
were performed ; one of them was the act of a 
little boy who was attached to Tappan's Ar- 
kansas Regiment, one of the Confederate or- 
ganizations, and took part in the retreat of 
the regiment along the river's bank. As he 
went he carried two flags, one in each hand. 
The Arkansas regiment was subjected to a 
terrific tire from the Union troops, many were 
killed and many men who were wounded fell 
into the river ; among those struck was the 
little boy who bore the flags. He was not 
frightened by the terrific volley fired into 
the regiment nor was lie dismayed by the 
wound he received. He waved the flags over 
his head, gave one last shout in honor of the 
flag which he carried and staggered into the 
river and was drowned. His death, which 
was witnessed by a great number on both 
sides, was very greatly deplored by all who 
saw it. 

The remaining events of tlie year 1861 in 
Southeast Jlissouri consisted of skirmishes 
and desultory fighting. December 11th 
there was a .skirmish at Bertrand, and on the 
next day one at Charleston. December 29th 
Thompson with forty men passed rapidly 
through Sikeston from Hunter's Farm to 
Commerce capturing stores and then re- 
treated to New JIadrid. 

The year 1862 saw the war carried on in 
Southeast Missouri about as before. There 
were no great movements but skirmishes were 
fought and much property destroyed and suf- 
fering caused. 

On January 7th. Col. Purcel with a Union 
force started frora-Bird's Point to Charleston. 
Just about daybreak he fell into an ambixsh 
and lost twenty-two men. 

The Union forces more and more adopted 
the plan of sending out expeditions from the 



places in their possession into the lower coun- 
ties of the district to seize suspected men and 
property. Many men who were accused of 
being bushwhackere and guerillas were shot 
on these expeditions, some were brought to 
Cape Girardeau and imprisoned. On Janu- 
ary 15th of this year three of these expedi- 
tions were sent out. F. M. Smith led a force 
to Benton. Capt. Lindsay ilurdoch to Bloom- 
field, and Maj. Rawalt to Dallas as Marble Hill 
was then called. 

On January 23d, two hundred men were 
sent from Greenville then in possession of the 
Union forces to St. Franeisville on the St. 
Francois river. They were beaten in a skir- 
mish that ensued. On March 23d, Maj. Ra- 
walt with a detachment of the 7th Illinois 
made an expedition from Point Pleasant to 
Little River. Here he fought a skirmish and 
then fell back to his headquarters. On April 
3d, Col. Carlin defeated a Confederate force 
at Doniphan. He had led an expedition from 
Pilot Knob. 

On April 13th Lindsay Murdoch conducted 
an expedition from Cape Girardeau to Jack- 
son, Whitewater, and Dallas. No severe fight- 
ing occurred and no organized resistance en- 
countered. 

On March 3d of this year General Pope 
began the movements which resulted in the 
capture of the Confederate stronghold at 
Island No. 10. 

With a strong force he reached New Ma- 
drid after a terrible march, March 3d. He 
found the town strongly defended, and pro- 
tected by the guns of Confederate gunboats 
in the river. The situation was such that he 
was unwilling to risk an assault on the town 
for he feared that even if it could be carried 
the fire of the boats would render it impossi- 
ble to hold it. He determined to lay siege to 



334 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the place in form and accordingly sent for 
heavy siege guns from Cairo. Pending the 
arrival of these he directed Col. Plummer 
with the 11th Missouri to Point Pleasant, ten 
miles soutli of New Madrid. Plumnier found 
Point Pleasant defended and entrenched him- 
self. 

Pope received his heavy guns from Cairo 
and put them into position and opened fire 
on the town March 13th. An artillery duel 
followed with the Confederate gunboats 
taking an active and vigorous part. That 
night the Confederate forces evacuated New 
iladrid and Point Pleasant. The possession 
of these places was of great importance to 
Pope in providing him a base for his attack 
of Island No. 10. 

The purpose of taking this island was to 
open the JMississippi river to the passage of 
Federal transports and gunboats. So long as 
the Confederate forces held Island No. 10 it 
was not considered safe for Federal boats to 
pass that place. The task which General Pope 
had was one of considerable difficulty. It was 
thought that the only successful way of at- 
tacking the island was from below it, but such 
an attack was to be made only by the use of 
the gunboats and the transports and these 
were above the island. The difficulties of 
passing the island with the boats were very 
great. It was determined not to risk this pas- 
sage but to cut a canal in such a way that the 
island could be passed without danger. The 
river makes a sharp bend near the island and 
as it was a high stage of water so that the 
bayous were overflowed, the engineers under- 
took to cut a channel across the narrow neck 
of the bend sufficient for the passage of the 
boats. There was not much digging because 
the water was so high, the trees were cut off 
and obstructions taten from the way, al- 
though in some places it was necessary to dig 



through the solid earth. Colonel J. W. Bis- 
sell, of the 1st ^Missouri Engineers, was in 
charge of the work and it was successfully 
completed on the 4th of April, having been 
begun March 17th. The canal was twelve 
miles long and for six miles it was cut through 
heavy timber. The small gunboats and the 
transports went through this canal while the 
two large gunboats, the Carondolet and the 
Pittsburg, ran the batteries of the island at 
night. As soon as the gunboats passed be- 
low the island the Confederates found their 
position untenable as it was fortified only on 
the upper side. They evacuated the position 
on the 7th of April and retreated to Tipton- 
ville, Tennessee, where they were forced to 
surrender on April 9th. The forces consisted 
of 273 officers and 6.700 privates. 

This was the only military operation of im- 
portance in Southeast Missouri during the 
year 1862, but there was a constant warfare 
going on between the Home Guards and the 
Confederate troops. Colonel W. L. Jeffers, 
who had been an officer in the Mexican war, 
organized a company of soldiers and gave the 
Federal troops a great deal of trouble. On 
April 6th he defeated a company of militia 
under Captain Wm. Flentge near Jackson. 
On August 24th with a hiindred men he de- 
feated four companies of the 12th Cavalry 
under Major B. F. Lazear on Crooked Creek 
in Bollinger county. On May l6th he defeated 
a Wisconsin regiment under Colonel Daniels 
at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas. This Colonel Dan- 
iels led his troops into Dunklin county and 
captured a small steamer on Little river at 
Hornersville. This steamer was called the 
Daniel E. Miller. Daniels had also previously 
defeated a detachment of Confederates under 
Colonel Phelan about twelve miles from 
Bloomfield. On October 29, 1862, near Clark- 
ton in Dunklin county, there was a fight be- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST illSSOURI 



335 



tween some Illinois soldiers, who entered the 
county from Columbus and a company under 
Colonel John M. Clark. The Illinois soldiers 
retreated after the skirmish. 

On December 22, 1862, the Thirty-second 
Iowa Re^ment, then at New jMadrid, made 
an expedition to Clarkton and Kennett seiz- 
ing property and prisoners on the way. 

December 27th New [Madrid was evacuated 
l)y the Union forces owing to a curious mis- 
understanding. This blunder resulted in a 
court-martial because of the destruction of 
property ordered by some of the officers hut 
they were held to have acted in good faith. 

These were the principal incidents of the 
war in Southeast Missouri up to the begin- 
ning of the year 1863. The general tendency 
was to push the Confederate troops further 
and further back toward the Arkansas line 
and for the control of the country to pass into 
the hands of the ITnion forces. Some of the 
skirmishes and battles were victories for the 
Confederates but on the whole the fortunes 
of w'ar in Southeast ilissouri turned against 
them and from the beginning of 1863 to the 
close of the war the forces that fought liattles 
in this part of the state were mostly those 
that came into the state from Arkansas. It is 
not to be understood, however, that these were 
Arkansas troops; they were, a good many of 
them, Missourians because the armies that 
operated in Arkansas as well as many of the 
armies of the east side of the river contained 
many Missourians. 

/ On January 27, 1863, Col. Lindsay with 
the Sixty-eighth Regiment of Missouri Mili- 
tia entered Bloomfield and destroyed much 
property in the town. On February 13tli, 
part of the Twelfth Missouri cavalry went 
from Cape Girardeau to Dallas and Bloom- 
field. They reported no prisoners captured 
but a number killed. 



On March 9th, John McNeil witli the Sec- 
ond Missouri Cavalry made an expedition \^^ 
from Bloomfield to Chalk Bluff where a se- 
vere skirmish was fought. Seven men were 
killed in this fight. He then proceeded to 
Thompson's fort on Gum slough where he de- 
feated some Confederate soldiers. From this 
place he proceeded to Kennett seizing a num- 
ber of the inhabitants a number of whom were 
killed. March 23d part of McNeil's command 
went west from Bloomfield to Poplar Bluff 
and then to I'itman's Ferry. They fought 
several .skirmishes on the way and w-ere suc- 
cessful in them. 

On April 17, 1863, began one of the mem- 
orable movements of the war— JIarmaduke's 
invasion of ilissouri. He entered the state 
with 5,000 men and ten pieces of artillery 
from Arkansas. His forces were organized 
into four brigades. Shelby 's brigade of Mis- 
souri cavalry, Green's Missouri cavalry. Car- 
ter's Texas cavalry, and Burbridge's brigade 
of Missouri and Arkansas cavalry. These 
forces were organized into two columns. One 
of them commanded by Gen. Jo Shelby was 
composed of his own and Burbridge 's brigade. 
The other made up of the brigades of Carter 
and Greene was commanded by Gen. Car- 
ter, ilarmaduke's plans were for Shelby 
to enter the state to the west, pass by Van 
Buren in Carter county and then to Patter- 
son reacliing the latter place April 20, and if 
possible to capture the Federal force at that 
point. At the same time Carter with his col- 
umn was to pass through Doniphan and reach 
Patterson on the 20th also. 

These movements were performed on time 
and at midnight of April 20th. Carter, who 
was then near Patterson, detached a regiment 
under Col. Giddings to surprise Patterson. 
Giddings seized the picket guard of twenty- 



336 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



five meu, but artillery fire was opened on the 
town at a distance of two miles and tlie Union 
force escaped in the direction of Pilot Knob. 

From Patterson Shelby was sent to Fred- 
ericktown which he was to hold pending the 
arrival of Carter's column. Marmaduke him- 
self accompanied Shelby. In the meantime 
Carter attacked Bloomfield, then held by Col. 
John ilcNeil with a considerable force. The 
plan was for Carter to defeat McNeil and if 
V he retreated as it was supposed he would to- 

ward Pilot Knob for Shelby to intercept his 
retreat and capture his command. 

Shelby was at Frederiektown April 22d. 
and while waiting for word from Carter sent 
a detachment to burn the railroad bridge over 
Big river. This was accomplished after a se- 
vere skirmish. Carter reached Bloomfield 
April 21st, and McNeil retreated as was sup- 
posed he would do in the direction of Pilot 
Knob by way of Dallas (Marble Hill). He 
was followed closely by Carter. On the re- 
treat he learned of Shelby's presence at Fred- 
eriektown and turned to Cape Girardeau. 
Carter followed him to within four miles of 
the town and sent word to Shelby at Freder- 
iektown for reinforcements. These messen- 
gers were captured and Marmaduke and 
Shelby were without news from Carter until 
the 25th. Shelby then led his column to Cape 
Girardeau. He approached by the Jackson 
road to make a demonstration while Marma- 
duke drew off Carter's men b,y the Bloomfield 
road. The demonstration liecame an artillery 
duel and ilarmaduke brought Carter's men 
around to the Jackson road to support Shelby. 

The briint of the fighting fell on Fort B. 
the present site of the Normal school. Here 
there were four twentj'-four pounder guns. 
There were four twelve pounder guns on a hill 
to the southwest of Fort B. These were 
brought during the engagement to the hill 



where the FuUerton house stands. Two of 
them were ultimately carried to Fort B. There 
was also a line of rifle pits near the FuUerton 
house. These were charged by the Confed- 
erates. Two of them were killed at this place. 
This house at the time was occupied by a fam- 
ily named Laeey. During the fighting they 
sought safety in the cellar. A shell fired the 
house, but the fiames were extinguished. 

Finding the town well defended and the 
fortifications strong, Marmaduke drew off his 
entire force to Jackson. While here he was 
threatened by a Union force under General 
Vandever in command of Iowa troops. These 
troops attacked Col. Newton's regiment as it 
encamped on the Jackson and Frederiektown 
road. Finding himself between the forces of 
McNeil at Cape Girardeau and Vandever on 
Whitewater, both being constantly reinforced, 
^Marmaduke determined to retreat. He was 
followed until he crossed the St. Francois at 
Chalk Bluffs, fighting being continued during 
the retreat. 

In August, 1863, a force of Fedei-al troops 
comprising the Third cavalry of the Missouri 
state militia under command of Colonel R. 
G. Woodson started from Pilot Knob. They 
made their way to the south and at Pocahon- 
tas, Arkansas, they were able to surround and 
capture General Jeff Thompson and his en- 
tire staff. These prisoners were sent to the 
Gratiot prison in St. Louis. This capture 
came as a complete sui*prise and put an end 
to organized warfare in Southeast Missouri 
until the time of the great raid which Gen- 
eral Price made through the state. 

The last great movement of the Confed- 
erate troops through ]\Iissouri took place in 
1864 and was known as Price's raid. At the 
beginning of this movement Price was in Ar- 
kansas with a considerable force of Confed- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



387 



erate troops inoluding a large imiiibcr of I\Iis- 
sourians. It was his intention to invade the 
state, to seize cities, among them St. Louis, if 
possible, and to arouse the enthusiasm and 
seek assistance for the Confederate cause from 
the people of Missouri. He entered the state, 
after having divided his troops into three 
divisions; the first of these divisions was un- 
der the command of Major General Pagin, 
who had under him Brigadier Generals Ca- 
bell, McRea, Stemmons and Dobbins; the sec- 
ond division was commanded by Major Gen- 
eral John S. Marmaduke and consisted prin- 
cipally of Missourians ; under ]\Iarmaduke 
were Brigadier Generals Clarke, Graham and 
Tyler and Colonels Freeman, Lowe, Bristow, 
Green, Jeffers, Burbridge and Kitchen. The 
third division of the army was commanded by 
Genera] Jo Shelby and among the brigadiers 
who served under him was Jeff Thompson. 

Opposed to Price's army were the Pederal 
forces under General Thomas Ewiug, Jr., who 
was stationed at St. Louis and had command 
over the district of Soi^theast Missouri, there 
being posts at Pilot Knob, Ste. Genevieve, 
Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. 

The three divisions of Price's army com- 
prising in all about 12,000 men and 14 pieces 
of artillery, entered the state at three differ- 
ent points. Shelby was on the left and 
marched by way of Doniphan. The Pederal 
forces at Doniphan on his approach set fire 
to the town and retreated. They were fol- 
lowed by Shelby who defeated them in a skir- 
mish at Ponder 's Mill on the Little Black 
river. General Pagin entered the state to the 
east of Doniphan commanding as he did the 
central one of the three divisions ; accompa- 
nied by General Price he reached Prederick- 
town September 24th. Marmaduke was in 
command of the most easterly of the divisions 
and his route was by Poplar Bluff, Castorville 

Vol. 1—23 



and Dallas. Orders were for all the divisions 
to drive the Federal forces before them, 
unite at Fredericktown and prepare for an 
attack on Pilot Knob where the most strenu- 
ous resistance was expected. 

Shelby exceeded the fifteen miles a day 
which each division was supposed to march, 
reached Fredericktown in advance of the 
others, sent a detachment to Farmington, 
which place was taken after a skii-mish with 
Pederal forces in the courthouse at that place. 
Shelby waited for a time at Fredericktown 
and then took up the march toward the north. 
His command fought a severe skirmish at 
i\Iineral Point, destroyed the bridges at Big 
river, and tore up long stretches of railroad 
track, and reached Potosi. Here a force of 
Union troops holding the fortifications and 
the courthouse were captured. The railroad 
track from Mineral Point to Potosi was then 
torn up and Shelby awaited orders from 
Price. Not receiving them and hearing ru- 
mors of the fighting at Ironton he marched 
with his command in that direction in time to 
take part in the pursuit of Ewing. 

As Marmaduke 's division made its way to 
the north Jeffers was detached for an attack 
on Bloomfield. The Union forces withdrew 
on his approach and he followed them. On 
the 25th of September he fought a skirmish 
at Jackson and captured the town. He 
reached the rendezvous at Fredericktown Sep- 
tember 26th. Price then with the divisions 
of Marmaduke and Fagan proceeded to the 
attack on Pilot Knob. 

At this time General Rosecraus was depart- 
ment commander in Missouri with headquar- 
ters at St. Louis. When he was informed that 
Price contemplated entering the state, he 
called upon the authorities at Washington for 
reinforcements and received six thousand 
troops under command of General A. J. 



338 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Smith, a force that had been destined to Gen- 
eral Sherman in Georgia. This gave General 
Rosecrans a force of about 12,000 soldiers, 
seemingly enough to defeat Price's intention 
and to preserve the state from the Confed- 
erate raid. 

The forces came in conflict at Pilot Knob. 
General Rosecrans had directed General 
Ewing to gather his force, consisting of a 
brigade of the second division of the Sixteenth 
Army Corps then at Jefferson barracks and 
with this force to patrol the Iron Mountain 
railroad in preparation for the movement of 
the troops under General Smith. Carrying 
out these instructions Ewing left a part of 
his force at DeSoto and carried the Four- 
teenth Iowa through the country to Pilot 
Knob where he found Ma.jor James Wilson in 
command of a force of a thousand men ; these 
were companies A, F, B, G, H and I of the 
Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry, Captain 
Lindsay's company of the Fiftieth Missouri, 
six companies of the Third Cavalry ^Missouri 
State Militia, Company L of the Second Cav- 
alry, Company G of the First Cavalry and a 
battalion under command of Captain i\Iont- 
gomery ; having assembled these forces Gen- 
eral Ewing at once began tTie fortification of 
Pilot Knob. 

There was already a fort just south of the 
village — Fort Davidson. It was about seven 
hundred yards in circumference and was de- 
fended by four thirty-two pound guns and 
three twenty-four pounders. This plain on 
which the fort stood is almost entirely sur- 
rounded by mountains, the only exceptions a 
gap between Shepherd Mountain and Pilot 
Knob, through which runs Stouts creek and 
a gap to the southeast known as the Slnit-in 
through which passes the Fredericktown road. 
General Ewing obstructed the roads and 
cleared awav the timber on the sides of the 



hills and dug two rifle pits in order to com- 
mand the best approaches. 

General Price and his anny entered this 
valle.y by the Fredericktown road througli the 
Shut-in. The first engagement took place on 
the 26th of September when a part of the 
Federal forces started from Pilot Knob in the 
direction of Fredericktown. They were 
driven back by Price's army into fronton. 
General Price followed tiiem and probably 
would have captured them at Ironton had it 
not been for the approach of night and a 
heav}^ rain storm. In spite of these handi- 
caps the army of Price was in motion during 
most of the night and was concentrated about 
the town of Ironton. In the meantime the 
Federal forces had been busy moving their 
stores further up the railroad and in con- 
structing fortifications. At daylight on the 
27th of September, Major Wilson, who was in 
command at Ironton, was attacked by Price's 
troops and driven back into the gap between 
Pilot Knob and Shepherd's ^Mountain. Here 
he made a stand and during the assault on 
his position a detachment of the 14th Iowa 
was ordered by Ewing to take a position on 
the east end of Shepherd Mountain and then 
Wilson was ordered to fall back along the side 
of Pilot Knob so that the Confederate forces 
might be fired upon from the fort. A long 
and bloody engagement followed in which the 
losses were heavy on both sides. General 
Marmaduke was ordered by Price to take a 
position on the east side of Shepherd Moun- 
tain, which he did and planted two pieces of 
artillery. The fire from the artillery was very 
effective and he was able to drive the Federal 
forces out of the gap and to take possession of 
it. At the same time General Fagan marched 
from Pilot Knob and assaulted the fort from 
that side but was unable to take it. When 
night came on the operations of the forces 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



339 



were suspended, both sides feeling sure that 
the fort would not be able to hold out much 
longer. During the night General Ewiug de- 
termined to evacuate the fort and if possible 
to draw his forces off in order to escape what 
seemed to be the inevitable, defeat and cap- 
ture. The retreat was made without discov- 
eiy and after the forces had withdrawn the 
magazine in the fort was fired and the fort 
destroyed, this feat was performed by Daniel 
Flood of the Third Cavalry ^Missouri State 
Militia. This battle at Pilot Knob was one of 
the most obstinately contended of any fought 
within the limits of Southeast Missouri during 
the war. It was a victory for the Confed- 
erate forces though both sides lost heavily. 

After retreating from Pilot Knob General 
Ewing sent a detachment to Mineral Point 
where a small troop of Federal troops were, 
in order to warn them of his reti-eat, these 
troops, however, were attacked by Confed- 
erate soldiers under command of General Joe 
Shelby who had not participated in the battle 
at Pilot Knob but had marched from Freder- 
icktown by the way of Farmington. This un- 
expected check caused General Ewing to 
change the plans of his retreat. He was no 
longer certain of being able to retreat in the 
direction of St. Louis and he turned toward 
Rolla. At Webster, however, he decided to 
march for Harrison, here he fought a skirmish 
with General Shelby and later retreated to 
Rolla. 

Price's main force marched through Potosi 
and Richwoods which place was reached Sep- 
tember 30. While on the march a number of 
men had been sent to DeSoto where they 
fought a skirmish and destroyed a depot of 
supplies. From Ricliwoods the command 
turned toward Washington, Hermann and 
Jefferson City and finally to Lexington and 
out of the state into Kansas. 



The war left Southeast Missouri in a very 
deplorable condition. Its effects were the 
usual effects of war where it is bi-ought home 
to the people. As we have said. Southeast 
]\Iissouri was really on the border between the 
North and the South and while it was not the 
scene of great battles nor formed the pathway 
of great armies, it was ravaged by guerrilla 
bands from both sides. The fact that neigh- 
bors and friends and even members of the 
same family served on opposite sides tended 
to increase the bitterness that war naturally 
brings. There were hundreds of non-com- 
batants who attempted to remain peaceably in 
their homes and who were killed during the 
war. The section was overrun by organized 
bands of lawless men who used the opportu- 
nity which war brings to live lawless and un- 
controlled lives. The harried the whole 
country, they seized property when and 
where they pleased, and to resist them was 
almost certain to bring vengeance and per- 
haps death. 

A country so disturbed was certain to suffer 
very greatly. Many flourishing towns were 
practically depopulated during the war. This 
was true of Bloomfield, Poplar Bluff, Fred- 
ericktown and other places in this district. 
The inhabitants were either killed in war or 
in the raids of the bands from either side, or 
else they were driven away from their homes 
and found shelter in other places. The popu- 
lation of the entire district was greatly di- 
minished by the same causes. It is a fact 
that Southeast Missouri sent as large a pro- 
portion of its inhabitants into the armies of 
the North and South as any other part of the 
country; very many of whom never returned 
from the war. , 

But not only was the loss of life appalling 
and terrible, the country suffered a very 
great loss of property as well. Houses were 



340 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



destroyed aud burned and even whole vil- 
lages were practically wiped out of existence 
by the torch, fields were destroyed, in many 
eases all the fencing disappeared. Either it 
rotted away from neglect or else was burned 
for wood and fields left uncultivated grew 
up in briars and brush. The stock that ex- 
isted at the time of the war was either killed 
or driven away by the soldiers and robber 
bands or else it became half wild in the woods 
and some died of starvation and of neglect. 

These material lo.sses were very great and 
it took many years for the country to recover 
from them. In many parts of Southeast Mis- 
souri a new conquest of nature had to be 
made. Fields were once more to be reclaimed, 
houses, fences and towns had to be rebuilt. 
But great as were these losses they were no 
greater than the damage brought to other in- 
terests not material in themselves. It is im- 
possible to measure the ruin wrought by war 
viewed from the moral standpoint. It of- 
fered an opportunity for vicious men to reveal 
what was in them and live unrestrained lives. 
It took away in many cases the chance for 
making an honest living and substituted for 
it theft and robbery. Many men were demor- 
alized by these conditions and it required 
years for the country to recover from the 
damage done to the country in this way. Civil 
authority had been to a very great extent done 
away with during the war. It was subordi- 
nated to the military power. Martial law pre- 
vailed and it was not for a long time that the 



courts could transact their business in the reg- 
ular and usual way, and until the authority of 
the law came to be once more felt and recog- 
nized as it had been before. 

It was certainly a most trying situation 
which the returned soldier from North or 
South was compelled to face as he came home 
from the war. He, in all probability, found 
his house in ashes, his horses and cattle dead 
or driven away, his fences in ruins, and his 
fields overgrown. He himself came home in 
most cases, practically penniless and must 
make a new start in life. Added to this was 
the fact that there was for sometime no se- 
cure protection for himself or property 
against these bands that were unwilling to 
give up their marauding and plundering even 
when the war closed. 

But terrible and disheartening as these cir- 
cumstances were the people of Southeast Mis- 
souri set themselves to rebuild their country, 
to develop its resources, and to make it once 
more a habitation fit for civilized men. In 
comparatively a short while the towns were 
rebuilt and houses once more arose from the 
ashes. The fields were reduced again to the 
purpose of agriculture, churches and schools 
were opened, and life resumed its ordinary 
condition. Out of the ruin which the war 
brought and out of its very demoralization 
there came vigor and splendor of enthusiasm 
that enabled men to make of this section of 
the state one of the richest and best parts of 
Missouri. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

REGIMENTAL HISTORIES 

Union Troops Organized — Home Guards and State Militia — Third, Fifth, Sixty-Fourth, 
Sixty-eighth, Seventy-eighth, Seventy-ninth, Second, Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth and 
Forty-seventh Infantry — Sixth and Tenth Missouri Cavalry — Engineer Regiment, 
West Missouri Volunteers — Twenty-third and Twenty-ninth Regiments of Enrolled 
Militia — Other Commands of State Guards — Ninth and Second Infantry — Noted 
Confederate Organizations. 



The Union troops organized in Missouri 
for service in the Civil war on the Union side 
were of five different kinds. The first of these 
were Home Guards, as they were called, en- 
listed for a period of three months. At a 
somewhat later period there began the enroll- 
ment of what was called the Six Months Mili- 
tia. The third group of organizations was 
called the Missouri State Militia, the fourth 
group were the Missouri Volunteers. This 
group contained the principal number of regi- 
ments and of course, saw active, hard service 
in the campaigns of the war. Just about the 
close of the war, 1865, there were enlisted in 
Missouri a number of regiments kno'wai as the 
Enrolled Missouri Militia. These regiments 
served for a very short time, the organization 
of some of them was never even completed 
owing to the fact that peace was made al- 
most immediately after they were enrolled. 

An effort is made to furnish a statement 
of all the troops enlisted on both sides dur- 
ing the war. The information here given 
concerning Union troops is taken from re- 
ports of the Adjutant General of Missouri 



published in 1863 and 1865, and is as full and 
complete as it has been possible to make it. 
An account is given first of the troops en- 
listed for service in the Union armies. It 
has already been said that the Missouri State 
Militia was the term under which the state 
troops seiwing for the Union were known, 
while the Confederate troops under authority 
of the state were called the Missouri State 
Guard. 

The first Union troops of Southeast Mis- 
souri were called at first Home Guards and 
their term of enlistment was three months. 
A battalion of four companies was organized 
in Cape Girardeau in June, 1861, under the 
command of Major George H. Cramer. The 
officers of the companies were as follows: 
Company A, John M. Cluley, captain; Com- 
pany B, William J. Stevenson, captain ; Com- 
pany C, ^lichael Dittliuger, captain, and 
Company D, Arnold Beck, captain. 

As the name implies these troops were in- 
tended for the defense of Cape Girardeau and 
the surrounding communities ; they were to 
be in fact, as the name implies, home guards. 



341 



342 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



The battalion thus organized saw no particu- 
lar service except in the town and county and 
they disbanded in the following September. 
Previous to this organization a battalion had 
been organized in Scott county in ]\Iay, 1861, 
under Major Daniel Abbey, who was com- 
missioned for the purpose by General Lyon. 
The captains of the four companies in this 
battalion were : John Orth, Coustautine Gro- 
jean, James Daniels and Frank Klepman. 
When General Fremont came into command 
of the department of ^Missouri, he gave a com- 
mission of lieutenant colonel to Lindsay 
Murdock, of Bollinger county, and ordei-ed 
him to recruit a battalion to be used in the 
defense of the post of Cape Girardeau. Four 
companies were raised under this order known 
as Fremont's rangers; they came from Bol- 
linger, Scott and Cape Girardeau counties 
and their captains were : J. F. Burk, William 
P. Harris and Michael S. Eddlemon. These 
Fremont rangers served up to December 25th, 
1861, and upon them fell the brunt of most 
of the work done in Southeast Missouri, es- 
pecially the work of scouting. During their 
term of service they were not paid nor were 
they provided with clothing. 

A company known as the Potosi Home 
Guards was organized in June, 1861, with 
George R. French as captain; Irwin K. 
Walker, first lieutenant; and Thomas H. Mac- 
lird as second lieutenant. The company con- 
sisted of 75 men and did guard duty in Wash- 
ington county until August, 1861, when the 
term of enlistment expired. In the course of 
its guard duty it fought a skirmish at Potosi. 

A company known as the DeSoto Home 
Guards was organized in June, 1861, and 
served until September of the same j-ear. Al- 
len Cook was captain ; Christian Ellrodt, first 
lieutenant; and William Hendrickson, second 



lieutenant. This company was' composed of 
85 men and did guard service. 

A company was organized at Pilot Knob 
in June, 1861, with Ferdinand Schmitz as 
captain; John Schwartz, first lieutenant; and 
Charles Cordrie, second lieutenant. This 
company was composed of 99 men and the 
only service that it saw was guard duty about 
Pilot Knob. 

The Washington County Battalion was or- 
ganized in July, 1861, and its lieutenant col- 
onel was J. B. Elmer. Company A had the 
following officers: P. R. VanFrank, captain; 
Samuel E. Turner, first lieutenant; William 
Plumb, second lieutenant. The officers of 
Company B were Captain J. L. Page, and 
Lieutenants H. N. Cook and Isaac Penning. 
The officers of Company C were Captain H. 
M. Hulser, Lieutenants Charles MaClay and 
Gardner Henning. The officers of Company 
D were Captain Oscar Dover and Lieutenants 
Dugan and Williams. The officers of Com- 
pany E were Captain T. C. Casselman, Lieu- 
tenants Samuel Weast and Eli Vincent. Th.is 
battalion was organized at Potosi, September 
19, 1861, and after doing scout duty aud 
taking part in a number of skirmishes, was 
mustered out at Hillsboro in January, 1SG2. 

The Missouri State Militia was not largely 
recruited in Southeast Missouri, but one regi- 
ment being organized here, the 12th cavalry. 
It was during the winter and spring of 1862 
that the eight companies comprising this reg- 
iment were organized. Company A was re- 
cruited at Cape Girardeau and organized 
February 10. 1862. The captain was Lindsay 
Murdock; first lieutenant, George W. Hamil; 
second lieutenant, Erick Pape; Company B 
organized Januaiy 2-3, 1862, was from Wayne 
county; William T. Leeper, captain; Evan 
Francis, first lieutenant; C. W. Purcell, sec- 



IJISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



343 



Olid lieutenant ; Company C was recruited in 
Stoddard county and was organized Febru- 
ary 4r. Its captain was Thomas B. Walker; 
first lieutenant, Anthony Arnold ; second lieu- 
tenant, John McMillan; Company D was or- 
ganized February 27th, with William Flentge 
as captain; Henry Wolters, first lieutenant, 
and Louis Storts, second lieutenant; Com- 
pany E from PeiTy county was organized 
March 26th, and had for its oiHcers: cap- 
tain, Peter Hogan; first lieutenant, Ferdi- 
uant Charveau and second lieutenant, Thomas 
Goin ; Company F was recruited in Perry 
and Bollinger counties and organized on 
IMarch 26th. Its officers were captain, Levi 
C. Whybark; first lieutenant, M. S. Ed- 
dlemon ; second lieutenant, Samuel G. Bid- 
well. Bollinger and Wayne counties recruited 
Company G, which was organized March 
29th. The officers were A. R. Dill, captain ; 
Phillip Sutheiiin, first lieutenant, and Henry 
W. Worth, second lieutenant ; Company H 
was from Washington county and William T. 
Hunter was its captain. 

The Third Regiment was organized May 14, 
1862. Albert Jackson was made colonel; 
Samuel P. Simp.son, lieutenant colonel; Ben- 
.iamin F. Lazear, major; and H. M. Mathews, 
surgeon. Neither the colonel nor lieutenant 
colonel ever took active command of the regi- 
ment and during its existence IMajor Lazear 
was in actual charge of it. Owing to a com- 
bination of circumstances it was deemed best 
to break the regiment up and this was done 
February 2, 1863. Companies A, B, and H 
were made a part of the Third Cavaliy ; Com- 
panies D, E, and F, a part of the Fifth Cav- 
alry ; and Companies C and 6 were disbanded 
and distributed among the companies of the 
Fifth Cavalry. This Third Regiment was at 
this time at Pilot Knob. From there it went 



to Patterson in Wayne county, where it was 
attacked April 20, 1863, by General Marma- 
duke and driven back to Pilot Knob. This 
regiment took part in no other active fighting 
though it did duty as guard and escort in 
various ways and did some fighting against 
the guerrilla bands. This regiment was or- 
dered to St. Louis after Price 's raid and then 
to St. Joseph where it was employed until 
mustered out about May 1, 1865. 

The Fifth Regiment, to which some of the 
companies of the 12th had been attached, was 
at Rolla. The regiment was engaged in scout- 
ing service up to the time of Price's raid and 
took pai't in the pursuit of Price, participat- 
ing in the battles at Jefferson Cit.y, California, 
Booneville, Lexington, Big Blue, Independ- 
ence, Hickmans Mills, and Fort Scott. They 
were later returned to Rolla and remained 
until they were mustered out of service. 

Besides these there were a number of regi- 
ments of Enrolled Missouri ililitia organized 
in Southeast Missouri. The Fifty-sixth Regi- 
ment was raised in Cape Girardeau county. 
It was organized October 4, 1862 ; and its gen- 
eral officers were : W. H. McLane, colonel ; G. 
C. Thilenius, lieutenant colonel ; and Ca.sper 
Uhl, major. The company officers were : Com- 
pany A, Captain A. P. Shriner ; Company B, 
Captain William Regenhardt ; Company C, 
Captain Lemon Haile ; Company D, Captain 
William N. Wilson ; Company E, Captain R. 
IT. Ruhl ; Company F, Captain S. W. Why- 
bart ; Company G, Captain J. S. Needham ; 
Company H, Captain Elisha Sheppard; and 
Company I, Captain Adolph Tacke. 

The Sixty-fourth Regiment was from Periy 
county and was organized October 27, 1862. 
Its general officers were Robert ]\I. Brewer, 
colonel ; Joseph C. Killian, lieutenant colonel ; 
Charles A. Weber, major; and Thomas Hoos, 
adjutant. The captains were : Company A, 



344 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



William T. Wilkinson, later John J. Seibel; 
Company B, Felix Layton, later W. H. Ben- 
nett ; Company C, John C. Ochs, later Anthon 
Hunt; Company D, Thomas G. Chadwiek; 
Company E, Henry Little; Company F, Jo- 
seph Meyer, later Henry B. Knox ; Company 
H, Chris Feig ; Company I, T^manuel Estel ; 
Company K, Joseph Lukefahr. 

The Sixty-eighth Regiment was organized 
November 20, 1862 ; it was made up of men 
from Iron and Wayne counties. Its general 
officers were : James Lindsay, colonel ; George 
W. King, lieutenant colonel ; Robert L. Lind- 
say, major; and C. R. Peck, adjutant. In 
March, 1864, John W. Emerson was appointed 
colonel in place of Lindsay. The captains 
were: Company A, William P. Adair; Com- 
pany B, Ross Jekyll, later W. B. Connelly; 
Company C, E. A. Killian, later Franz 
Dinger; Company D, Morgan ilace; Company 
E, W. J. Ezell ; Company F, W. W. Bunyard, 
later Pleasant W. Hodges ; Company G, James 

E. Davis; Company H, H. H. Finley; Com- 
pany I, Jasper Belkin and Company K, P. L. 
Powers. 

The Seventy-eighth Regiment was organized 
principally from Ste. Genevieve and sur- 
rounding counties, was constituted April 21, 
1863, with F. Leavenworth as colonel, George 
Bond lieutenant colonel, James Hodgmeiller 
majoi', and Leon Bogy adjutant. The cap- 
tains were: Company A, C. H. Eddlemon ; 
Company B, Thomas Stone ; Company C, 
Phillip Wagner; Company D, John B. Eber- 
ett; Company E, Lawson Hughes; Company 

F, Andrew Miller; Company G, Herman 
Kustner; Company H, J. M. Benham ; Com- 
pany I, S. E. Montgomery, and Company K, 
William Roth. 

The Seventy-ninth Regiment was organized 
in June, 1863, in Scott and Mississippi coun- 
ties: Henry J. Deal was colonel: George M. 



Kayser, adjutant, and Solomon D. Golder, 
surgeon. The captains were : Company A, 
Edwin P. Deal; Company B, L. W. Priehett; 
Company C, Samuel Coleman ; Company D, 
George C. Vail; Company E, W. W. Camp- 
bell, later C. Grojean; Company P, Samuel 
Tanner; Company 6, James H. Howard; 
Company K, John L. Painsberry. 

.The Second Infantry was organized and 
mustered into service at St. Louis, Septem- 
ber 10, 1861, and was composed in part of 
men from Southeast ]\Iissouri. It saw a great 
deal of hard service and took part in the bat- 
tles in Southwest Missouri and then in the 
principal battles in Arkansas including Pea 
Ridge. Then it was transferred to Cape Gir- 
ardeau and from there to Corinth, Riengi, 
Mississippi. In September, 1862, it was or- 
dered to Cincinnati, and then to Lawrence- 
ville. On October 1, 1862, it started for Nash- 
ville and took part in the great battle at Per- 
ryville ; it reached Nashville in December, and 
participated in the battle of Murfreesboro. It 
was also engaged at Chickamauga and Chatta- 
nooga, at Charleston, Tennessee, and Dalton, 
Georgia. It was mustered out September 29, 
1864. 

In October, 1862, the Twenty-ninth In- 
fantry was organized in Cape Girardeau. 
John S. Cavender was colonel, James Peck- 
ham, lieutenant colonel, and B. H. Peterson, 
major. Companies F, G, and H were re- 
ciniited in Southeast Jlissouri ; Christian 
Burkhardt was the first captain of Company 
F. He was made major of the regiment in 
November, 1864, and was succeeded as cap- 
tain by Herman Bader. James McGarve.v was 
captain of Company G, and Thomas Rhodes 
of Commerce, Missouri, was first lieutenant. 
The captains of Company H were: N. A. 
Cole, Thomas Jork, W. H. Gra.v and David 
Allen, Jr. This regiment also took part in 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



345 



many of the larger battles of the war, after 
its organization it was sent first to Patterson 
in Wayne county and then returned to Cape 
Girardeau. On December 8th, it was trans- 
ferred to Helena ; the regiment there became 
part of General Blair's brigade and took part 
in the campaign in Louisiana and ]\Iississippi. 
under Sherman. In the next summer it was 
engaged in the operations around Vicksburg 
and was present at the capture of that place. 
In September of that year it was ordered to 
Charleston and took part in the storming of 
Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. 
Later the regiment was sent to Georgia and 
then to Alabama and on April 30, 1864, it 
became a part of the First Division of the 
Fifteenth Army Corps and was with that 
command in all the battles of the Atlanta 
campaign and the campaign against Hood ; it 
was then mounted and took part in the cam- 
paign through the Carolinas. The regiment 
was mustered out in Washington and was re- 
turned to St. Louis in June, 1865. 

The Thirtieth Regiment of ^Missouri In- 
fantry was composed of eight companies re- 
cruited for this regiment and two of which had 
been raised for the 34th, which, however, was 
not organized. The general officers were : B. 
J. Farrar, colonel ; Otto Schadt, lieutenant 
colonel, and James W. Fletcher, ma,jor. Com- 
pany B was organized in Perry county in 
1862, with William T. Wilkinson, captain; 
George S. Ziegler, first lieutenant, and C. M. 
French, second lieutenant ; this regiment was 
also attached to Blair's brigade participating 
in the campaign along the Mississippi, and 
in the bordering states. It was in Louisiana 
in 1864, and in November of that year was 
made into a battalion of four companies and 
placed under the command of William T. 
Wilkinson who was made lieutenant colonel. 
After this change in organization it saw active 



service in Louisiana and about Mobile until 
it was transferred to Texas in June, 1865, 
and was there mustered out August 24 of that 
year. 

The Fort.y-seventh Regiment was recruited 
by Colonel Thomas C. Fletcher, who had been 
authorized in August, 1864, to raise this regi- 
ment and was assigned to Southeast Missouri. 
The response to the call for soldiers was very 
prompt and more companies were offered than 
could be assigned one regiment, and out of 
the remaining companies the Fiftieth Regi- 
ment was formed. The officers of the 47th 
were : Thomas C. Fletcher, colonel ; A. W. 
Maupin, lieutenant colonel, and John W. 
Emerson, major. Colonel Fletcher was elected 
governor of the state in November, 1864, and 
was succeeded as colonel b.y Lieutenant Col- 
onel Maupin. The companies were recruited 
and officered as follows: Company A, Iron 
and Wayne counties. Captain J. S. McMur- 
try ; first lieutenant, J. T. Sutton and second 
lieutenant, P. A. Hodges ; Company B, Jef- 
ferson county; captain, W. J. Buxton; first 
lieutenant, J. C. Hamel ; second lieutenant, 
B. F. Butler ; Company C, Perry county ; cap- 
tain, C. A. Weber; first lieutenant, Felix 
La.yton ; second lieutenant, Thomas Stone ; 
Company D, Washington county ; captain, J. 
W. Maupin ; first lieutenant, L. J. Crowe ; 
second lieutenant, A. J. Gilchrist; Company 
E, Iron county; captain, F. Dinger; first 
lieutenant, George J. Fetle.y ; second lieuten- 
ant, John Schwab ; Company F, St. Francois 
county; captain, W. P. Adair; first lieuten- 
ant, C. Helber. second lieutenant, W. B. Con- 
nelly ; Compan.y G, Wayne and Bollinger 
counties; captain, IMorgan Mace; first lieu- 
tenant, Samuel W. Wliybark; second lieuten- 
ant, W. B. Wilson ; Company II, Wayne 
count.v ; captain, P. L. Powers ; first lieuten- 
ant, W. P. Tate ; second lieutenant, E. P. Set- 



346 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tie ; Company I, Madison count}' ; Captain, H. 
W. Bradley; first lieutenant, C. H. Cummings ; 
second lieuenant, "\V. A. Dunlap ; Company K, 
Ste. Genevieve county; captain, Gustavus St. 
Gem ; first lieutenant, Leon Bogy : second lieu- 
tenant, Robert D. Brown. The organization 
of this regiment was completed in September. 
1864, and as soon as companies were ready 
they were sent to their resp)ective counties 
and assisted in the defense against General 
Price; Companies A, G, and H were sent to 
Patterson and later returned to Pilot Knob 
where they were joined by Companies F and 
I and took part in the engagement at that 
place ; later the regiment was sent to Rolla 
and was there joined to the command of Gen- 
eral Thomas Xash ; the regiment I'emained a 
part of the force under General Nash until 
nuistered out in March, 1865. 

The surplus companies which had been 
raised for the Forty-seventh Regiment were 
ordered to be organized into the 50th. The or- 
ganization, however, had not been effected at 
the time of General Price's raid through the 
country and the companies were sent back to 
their counties before the organization was 
completed. After Price had passed on to 
north ilissouri and work of organization was 
taken up and David IMurphy was made lieu- 
tenant colonel at first and then in the spring 
of 1865, was made colonel of the regiment. 
B. Newey was the lieutenant colonel ; the com- 
pany officers were as follows : Company A, 
^lississippi county; captain, E. P. Deal; 
Company B, captain, Charles Perry; Com- 
pany C. Cape Girardeau county; captain, 
Charles F. Bruihl ; Company D, Scott county ; 
captain. W. W. Campbell; Company E, cap- 
tain, Arthur 'SI. Kuson ; Company F, Iron 
county : captain, Robert L. Lindsay ; Com- 
pany G, Perry county; captain. Christian 
Popp ; Company H, captain, Lindsay Jlur- 



dock; Company I, captain, William R. 
Vaughn ; Company K, captain, Clinton Spen- 
cer. The only service the regiment saw was 
that of the respective companies in their own 
counties; in the summer of 1865, they were 
ordered to St. Louis and were a little later 
mustered out of service. 

The Sixth Regiment Missouri Cavalry was 
organized February, 1862, by consolidating 
two battalions and a company; these battal- 
ions were known as Wright 's and Wood 's, and 
the company was the one raised by H. P. 
Hawkins. The regimental officers were: C. 
Wright, colonel; S. N. Wood, lieutenant col- 
onel; H. P. Hawkins and Samuel ]\Iontgom- 
ery, majors; during the remainder of the 
j^ear, 1862. the regiment saw service in south- 
west ^Missouri and Arkansas. It was then 
sent to ]\Iemphis, Tennessee, and took part in 
the battles around Vicksburg, some of these 
battles being Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas 
Post, Greenville, Champions Hill, Black River 
and Bridgeport. From Vicksburg the regi- 
ment went to Jackson and then to Louisiana ; 
it served in Louisiana until the close of the 
war when it was nmstered out. 

The Tenth Alissouri Cavalry was organized 
at Camp Magazine near Jefferson Barracks, in 
December, 1862; its colonel was F. M. 
Cornyn ; the regiment was made up in large 
part of men from Southeast ^Missouri. After 
its organization it was sent to the South and 
was divided for a time, parts of it being sta- 
tioned at Helena, ilemphis, Columbus, Ken- 
tucky. In the early part of 1863 the regi- 
ment was brought together at Memphis and 
then sent to Tuscumbia and took part in the 
operations against General Vandorn; its fur- 
ther service was confined to northern ilissis- 
sippi and Alabama and won for itself an en- 
viable record for bravery and activity. 

The Engineer Regiment of West ^Missouri 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



3i7 



\'uluuteers was reeruitud throughout most of 
tlie southern part of the state. Ooe company 
of this regiment, the 3rd, was organized at 
Cape Girardeau in September, 1861, and took 
part in fortifying Cape Girardeau and Bird's 
Toiut. In ilarch, 1862, this company was 
consolidated witli tliree other companies to 
form a battalion which was then attached to 
General Pope's army as a pioneer corps; it 
took part in the engagements about New I\Iad- 
rid and Island No. 10. After Island No. 10 
had been captured, the battalion was sent to 
northeast ilississipj^i with Pope's army and 
participated in the operations against Cor- 
inth, the rest of the year was spent in Ten- 
nessee, ilississippi and Alabama in repairing 
r;dlroads. bridges, cars, locomotives, etc. Dur- 
ing the year 1863, the regiment operated in 
two battalions the first against Vieksburg, the 
second was employed in keeping the railroad 
between Grand Junction and Corinth in re- 
pair. In December, 1863, the regiment was 
consolidated with the Fifth Missouri Volun- 
teers and took part in the construction of the 
Nashville and Northwestern Railroad. It 
was then sent to Atlanta and took part in 
the fortification of that city after it was sur- 
rendered. The term of enlistment of many 
of the men expired while the regiment was in 
Atlanta and many of them were sent home; 
the remainder were organized into five com- 
panies and accompanied the Army of Tennes- 
see in its march to the sea, having charge of 
the building of bridges on this march. 

Battery F was recruited in Cape Girardeau 
and Scott counties and made a part of the 
Second Illinois Light Artillery, the organiza- 
tion being completed December 1st, 1861. 
The officers of the battery were : John W. 
Powell, captain; Michael Dittlinger and Jos- 
eph W. Mitchell, David Bliss, G. A. Tirmen- 
stein. lieutenants ; Fred Roeboeck, H. R. Hen- 



ning, J. B. Walker, Lucius Moore, William 
Buchanan, Albert Gratenheim, W. H. Pow- 
ell and Alfred S. Looker, sergeants. This 
battery was on duty in Cape Girardeau until 
]March, 1862, when it was sent to Savannah, 
Tennessee; it took part in a number of en- 
gagements in Tennessee and Mississippi, and 
was later ordered to Louisiana, where it saw 
active service until the close of the war. 

The Second Regiment of Missouri Volun- 
teers was organized at St. Louis, September 
10, 1861. Shortly after its organization it was 
sent to Southwest Missouri, where it took 
part in the battles at Pea Ridge, then in Ar- 
kansas where it fought at Batesville. Later 
the regiment returned to ^Missouri and was 
for a time stationed at Cape Girardeau ; from 
Cape Girardeau it was sent east of the river 
and took part in the engagements at Corinth 
and Rienzi, Tennessee. In 1862 the regiment 
was sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, then to Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, and from there to Nashville, 
Tennessee; it took part in the great battles 
of Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and 
Chattanooga. 

The Forty-seventh Regiment of Missouri 
Volunteers was mustered in September 16, 
1864, and disbanded March 30, 1865; the or- 
ganization of the regiment was never entirely 
completed for as soon as the companies were 
enrolled they were dispersed in their counties 
where they saw active service for a time. 
Most of the companies of this regiment took 
part in the resistance of Price's raid. They 
fought in the battle of Pilot Knob and after 
Price had been driven from the state, they 
were sent to Tennessee and there formed part 
of Sherman 's command on the march through 
Georgia. 

Of the Enrolled Missouri Militia, most of 
which was recruited in 1865, the Fifteenth 
Regiments was raised in Jefferson county The 



348 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



regimental officers were colonel, Anthon Yer- 
ger; lieutenant colonel, C. C. Fletcher, and 
major, D. W. Bryant. The officers of the va- 
rious companies of this regiment were ^s 
follows : Company A, captain, John Williams ; 
lieutenants, John C. Powers, and R. W. Mc- 
Millin; Company B, captain, B. F. Butler; 
lieutenant, S. F. McGee ; Company C, lieu- 
tenants, Elbert Ogle, and R. M. Whitehead; 
Company D, captain, Eugene Annor, and 
lieutenants, George Martin and Xaver Koh- 
ler; Company E, captain, F. W. Fritter and 
lieutenant, J. J. McMillen; Company F, cap- 
tain, J. W. Sullens and lieutenants, Philip 
Edniglo and C. M. VanGordon; Company G, 
lieutenant, William C. Alford; Company 11, 

C. T. Edwards and lieutenant, Alfred Ste- 
wart; Company I, captain, F. D. Heaton and 
lieutenant, William Knapp ; Company K, 
captain, E. F, Donnell. 

Some of the companies of tlie Twenty-third 
Regiment of the Missouri Enrolled Militia 
were from Southeast Missouri also. The 
officers of these companies were as follows : 
Company B, captain, Joseph H. Vaughn and 
lieutenant, Ignaz Lutz; Company C, captain, 
J. H. Bridges, lieutenants, David Baker and 
William II. Bartlett; Company D, captain, 
Joseph M. Ayer ; Company E, captain, S. R. 
Hoglan ; Company F, captain, George W. 
Hutson ; Company H, captain, Robert L. 
Bush. 

The Twenty-third Regiment was raised 
principally in Iron county, its regimental of- 
ficers were, colonel, James Lindsay, and after- 
ward W^. T. Leeper ; lieutenant colonel, J. S. 
McMurtry; major, Warren E. Peck. The 
company officers were. Company A, captain, 
Martin G. Foster and lieutenant, Robert N. 
Spaugh ; Company B, captain, W. Ake ; Com- 
pany C, captain, James G. Rauft ; Company 

D, captain. William Russell ; Company E, 



captain, John G. Imboden ; company F, cap- 
tain, D. E. Eddington; Company G, captain, 
Jacob Granthorn; Company H, captain, W. 
F. Mitchell, and lieutenants, Eli D. Ake and 
George Spitzmiller; Company I, lieutenant, 
Henry Schwan. 

The Thirty-ninth Regiment of Missouri 
Enrolled Militia was raised principally in 
Cape Girardeau county ; G. C. Thilenius was 
colonel, and another of the regimental officers 
was Patrick Gilroy. Company A of this regi- 
ment was commanded by Adolpli Tacke, 
the organization of this regiment was never 
completed. 

A regiment was also begun to be formed in 
Bollinger countj' and was known as the 
Eighty-third Battalion. It was never com- 
pleted; the company officers were: of Com- 
pany A, captain, James Rogers and lieuten- 
ants, Levi M. Lincoln and H. F. Rhodes; 
Company B, captain, Enoch Virgin, and lieu- 
tenants, S. J. Leesley and John A. Barks 
Company C, captain, James G. Woodfin 
lieutenants, Jonathan Couch and John Bess 
Company D, captain, Erich Pape; lieuten- 
ants, Henry Samuels and James W. Stepp ; 
Company E, captain, F. E. Witener, and lieu- 
tenant, John C. Krimminger; Company P, 
captain, W. A. Dunlap; lieutenants, Henry 
Yount and Jacob J. Conrad ; Company G, 
captain, Andrew J. Horth. 

Confederate Organizations 

Before the war began a company of militia 
was organized at Cape Girardeau under com- 
mand of Samuel J. Ward. This company was 
known as I\L'irble City Guards. In the spring 
of 1861 after President Lincoln had made a 
call for troops, the ]\Iarble City Guards were 
divided. The organization contained in its 
ranks sympathizers with the South and men 
whose sympathies were with the North. The 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\riSSOURI 



349 



former of these became parts of Wood's bat- 
talions of State Guards which was organized 
at Jackson and enlisted for a term of six 
months. About the same time that this bat- 
talion was organized a company of cavalry 
was also formed at Jackson enlisted for the 
same length of time the captain of this com- 
pany was W. L. Jeffers ; first lieutenant, Dr. 
S. S. Harris ; second lieutenant, W. Watkin.s, 
and third lieutenant, Joel "Wilkerson. Within 
a short time the companies that were being 
organized in Southeast Missouri were formed 
into a battalion, the lieutenant colonel being 
W. L. Jeffers and Solomon G. Kitchen was ma- 
jor. The four comijanies which made up this 
battalion were from Stoddard, Bollinger, 
Washington and Cape Girardeau counties; 
the captains were : Solomon G. Kitchen, Ed- 
ward Wilson, John J. Smith and W. L. Jeffers. 
The organization saw active service during its 
period of enlistment, but was disbanded at the 
end of the six months' term. The officers at 
once began to recruit independent companies. 
Lieutenant Harris organized an artillery com- 
pany which was ordered to Fort Pillow in 
i\Iarch. 1862, and took part in the fight, having 
l)een sent on board the flagship General 
Bragg. From here this company was sent to 
Yazoo City on the ram Arkansas and par- 
ticipated in the ^engagement with Porter's 
fleet, July 15, 1862. It was then made part 
of the regiment under command of Colonel 
]\Iartin Green and served until the close of 
the war. In February, 1863, Jeffers, who had 
in the meantime been made a captain, organ- 
ized a battery composed of Southeast Missou- 
rians at Camden, Arkansas, and this battery 
became part of ^larmaduke's brigade. Also in 
1861, a regiment of the State Guards was or- 
ganized in Dunklin county. The regimental 
officers were : James A. Walker, colonel ; D. 
Y. Pankey, lieutenant colonel : among the cap- 



tains were : L. P. Eldridge, Lee Taylor, A. J. 
Dooley, W. P. Jones and Taylor Pickard. 

The regimental organization was formed 
at Clarkton and after preliminary drill it be- 
came a part of the force under General Jeff 
Thompson and took part in the battle at 
Fredericktown ; from there it was ordered to 
New iladrid and was mustered out at the 
end of the six months' period. 

In the summer of 1862 a battalion was 
formed at Hornersville in Dunklin county, 
by Andrew Jones, who was soon afterward 
killed by deserters and was succeeded by 
Charles Williford. This battalion was com- 
posed of two companies; Williford com- 
manded one and Lewis Chandler the other. 

Another regiment of State Guards was or- 
ganized at Bloomfield in Stoddard county by 
William G. Phelan ; it was sent from Bloom- 
field to Camp Hunter, then to Belmont and 
Columbus and took part in the battle at Fred- 
ericktown and was disbanded January 1, 
1862. 

A battalion of the State Guards was or- 
ganized in Butler county under command of 
Daniel L. Jennings. There were four com- 
panies commanded by James M. Jennings, 
John C. Smart, William Gregory and N. C. 
Dodson. 

A company of State Guards was also 
raised in Bollinger county under command of 
J. H. Hunter. Two companies were organ- 
ized in Mississippi county, one by Charles B. 
Price and another by Captain Taylor. 

As we have seen the term of service for the 
State Guards was usually fixed at six months 
and most of the companies that were organized 
had disbanded at the end of that period. The 
organization of these troops was an attempt 
on the part of the state to be practically in- 
dependent of both Noi'th and South and they 



350 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



were not a part of the Confederate ti'oops 
though the men who formed the various or- 
ganizations were southern sympathizers, the 
fact that they were disbanded at the end of 
their term of enlistment was a confession that 
the attitude assumed by Missouri was really 
an impossible one. A state with symijathies 
as widely divided as Missouri and as closely 
in touch with the South as well as with the 
North, could not hope to maintain long any 
armed neutrality. Men who composed the 
State Guards, almost without exception, en- 
tered one or another organization of Confed- 
erates and took the oath of allegiance, not to 
the state as before, but to the Confederate 
government itself. We have now to give an 
account of the principal ones of these organi- 
zations. 

One of the first was a regiment organized 
at Belmont with John Smith as colonel, Solo- 
mon G. Kitchen, lieutenant colonel, and H. 11. 
Bedford, major. Just before the battle was 
fought at Belmont, the regiment was ordered 
to New Madrid and took part in the skir- 
mishes and battles around that place. In 1863 
it was sent across the river to Memphis and 
made a part of Price "s army. It operated un- 
der Price until the close of the war and took 
part in most of the battles fought by that 
command. 

In the spring of 1862, W. L. JefEers organ- 
ized a company of cavalry with W. E. Mc- 
Guire as first lieutenaxit and John A. Ben- 
nett as second lieutenant. This company took 
part in the operations in Southeast ]\Iissourl 
and northern Arkansas and became the basis 
of a regiment organized by Jeif el's and known 
as the Eighth Missouri Cavalry ; its regi- 
mental officers were : W. L. Jeffers, colonel ; 
Samuel J. Ward, lieutenant colonel: James 
H. Parrott, major, and James Craig, sergeant 
major. 



In 1862, Colonel Solomon G. Kitchen or- 
ganized a battalion of four companies of vol- 
unteers and reported to Vandorn at Mem- 
phis. This battalion was then consolidated 
with troops from northern Missouri. A regi- 
ment of cavalry was organized with Robert 
McCuUoch as colonel; S. G. Kitchen, lieuten- 
ant colonel, and H. A. Smith as major; this 
regiment was a part of General Price's com- 
mand during the remainder of the war and 
participated in all his campaigns. 

At a later date Colonel Kitchen returned to 
Stoddard county and recruited another regi- 
ment of which he was made colonel ; Jesse El- 
lison, lieutenant colonel, and Captain Walker 
of Dunklin county, major. This regiment 
was united with a battalion which Colonel 
Kitchen organized in Arkansas and was 
known as the ilissouri and Arkansas Legion ; 
this legion was also joined to the forces of 
Price and took part with him in his engage- 
ments until the end of the war. 

In 1861 a battalion of cavalry was organ- 
ized at Bloomfield, composed in part of men 
from Ste. Genevieve and Madison counties. 
There were two companies in the battalion, 
one of them commanded by Captain John J. 
Casey and the other l)y Captain William 
Cousins. In the fall of 1861, they were sent 
to New iladrid and from there were trans- 
ferred to Pocahontas, Arkansas, and made 
part of Colonel Lowe's regiment of infantry. 
In the spring of 1862, this regiment, with the 
exception of Captain Casey's company, was 
sent to the east side of the river with Gen- 
eral Price's army. Captain Casey's company 
remained at Helena, Arkansas, during the 
summer of 1862. General Thompson crossed 
the Mississippi and took a part of the com- 
panies of Casey's and Cousins' with him and 
the remainder of these companies was placed 
under the command of James Surge and or- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



351 



dered to Brownsville, Arkansas. There the 
men were dismounted and were dissatisfied 
with this proceeding and they were then sent 
to Thomasville, Arkansas, where they were 
attached to the Third Missouri Cavaliy un- 
der Colonel Green. They were later, after 
participating in the battles of Prairie Grove 
and Cane Hill, ordered to join General Por- 
ter and were then made a part of the com- 
mand of General ]\Iarmaduke until the close 
of the war. 

The Ninth Jlissouri Infantry was organ- 
ized in September, 1862, at Little Black river 
bridge in Butler county, of which James B. 
"White was colonel and William S. Ponder 
lieutenant colonel. It was made up of men 
from Southeast Missouri in large part ; it 
marched to Pocahontas, Arkansas, then to 
Fort Smith and took part in the battle of 
Prairie Grove. It was then sent to Helena 
and to Camp Bragg where it was consolidated 
with the Tenth Infantry under Colonel 
Moore. The two regiments were then or- 
dered to Shreveport, Louisiana, and in the 
following year took part in the battles 
of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. Thej' were 
then sent liack to assist in the campaign 
against Steele and were in the fight at Jenk- 
ins Ferry ; were then ordered to Camden and 
later to Shreveport, where they remained un- 
til the close of the war. 

The Second Missouri Infantry was organ- 
ized at ]\Iemphis, Tennessee, in 1861 ; it was 
made up of men principally from New ]\Iad- 
rid and Pemiscot counties; its regimental of- 
ficers were : Colonel, John S. Bowen ; lieuten- 
ant colonel, L. L. Rich, and major, Camp- 
bell. Company A, Captain Sprague, from 
New Orleans : Company B, Captain Duffie, 
from St. Louis; Company C, Captain Hearst, 
from St. Louis, New Madrid and Pemiscot 
counties; Company D, Captain Burke, from 



St. Louis ; Company E, Captain Riee, from 
Hickman, Kentucky, and Southeast ^Missouri ; 
Company F, Captain Garland, from St. 
Louis; Company G, Captain John A. Gordon, 
from Pemiscot and New Madrid counties; 
Company H, Captain Ilogan, from Pemiscot 
county ; Company I, Captain Thomas J. Phil- 
lips, from New Madrid county; Company K, 
Captain John E. Averill, from Pemiscot. 

This Second ^lissouri Regiment had a long 
and illustrious service from the place of its 
organization. New Madrid ; it was sent to Fort 
Pillow then to New Madrid, Colum})us, Ken- 
tucky, and to Camp Beauregard, taking part 
in all the battles and skirmishes on the way. 
On December 25, 1861, it was ordered from 
Camp Beauregard to Bowling Green, thence 
to Nashville, ]\Iurfreesboro, luka and Barnsby. 
The mention of these places is sufficient evi- 
dence that the regiment was seeing its share 
of fighting. This regiment was at Shiloh and 
after that battle it went into camp at Mill- 
dale not far from Corinth. The term for 
which the men had enlisted expired while the 
regiment was in this camp, most or all of 
them, however, reenlisted for three yeai*s or 
for the entire period of the war. 

Colonel Bowen had been placed in com- 
mand of a brigade before the battle of Shi- 
loh and Lieutenant Colonel Rich was made 
colonel and A. C. Riley, first lieutenant of 
Company I, was made lieutenant colonel. 
This promotion of Riley offended some of the 
other officers who resigned their commissions. 
Lieutenant Colonel Riley was aftei-wards 
made Colonel of the regiment on the death 
of Colonel Rich, who was wounded at Shiloh. 
After the battle of Corinth the regiment was 
in camp at Lumpkins ]\Iill near Holly 
Springs, and was there consolidated with the 
Fourth Missouri and assigned to Cockerill's 
brigade: it spent the winter of 1862-63 in 



352 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Mississippi aud was then sent on an expe- 
dition to Louisiana and to Grand Gulf ; it took 
part in the battle of Champions Hill and was 
surrendered with the army at Vicksburg on 
July 4th, 1863. From here it was sent into 
Parole Camp at Demopolis, Alabama, where 
it remained until it was exchanged in the 
following September. It was then sent to 
Mobile it went into winter quarters; from 
Mobile it went to Lauderdale Springs and 
then to Gainesville, Alabama. It was attached 
to Hood's army and took part in the great 
battles of Franklin and Nashville and the 
lesser engagements of that campaign. The 
regiment suffered very greatly at the battle 
of Franklin. Out of 140 men who went into 
the battle not more than thirty came out un- 
injured. It took part in all the campaigns 
about Atlanta ; it was then sent to ^lobile and 
was again captured at Fort Blakesly, which 
put an end to its active sei-viec. Colonel Ri- 
ley was killed at New Hope Church and was 
succeeded by Captain Garland. When the lat- 
ter was wounded the regiment was placed in 
command of Ambrose Keith, who had en- 
tered the service as lieutenant in Company II. 
The record of these two regiments was not 
surpassed by many in either army. They cov- 
ered long distances in their marches, took 
part in many of the great battles and won 
for themselves a name for steadiness and 
bravery that is enviable. 

One of the most famous of the Confederate 
organizations of Southeast ]\Iissouri was the 
Second ]Missouri Cavalry recruited in a num- 
ber of counties in this part of the state. Its 
most famous colonel was Robert ilcCulloch. 
who was elected at Springfield in October, 
1861. They took part in the battles in Mis- 
souri and Arkansas especially the one at Elk 
Horn Tavern, where the regiment displayed 
such courage and fortitude and such unusual 



steadiness as to attract the attention of offi- 
cers even at this point in its career. In 1862, 
with the First and Third Regiments, it was 
assigned to the brigade commanded by Gen- 
eral M. E. Green and sent to Arkansas. It 
made its headquarters at Van Buren and then 
crossed the river to the east with Generals 
Vandorn and Price. East of the river the 
First and Third Regiments were dismounted 
and became part of the Missouri Brigade, com- 
manded by General Cockrell ; the Second was 
retained as a cavalry regiment throughout 
the war. It took part in the great battle at 
Bolivar, Tennessee, in August, 1862, wiiere 
it was commanded by General Armstrong. A 
little later it was at luka and with Bledsoe's 
Missouri battery checked the pursuit after 
tlie battle. The regiment distinguished itself 
at Corinth and later during the terriffic 
fighting on Hatchie river. On this river 
when General Price's army seemed almost 
certain to fall into the hands of the enemy, 
the Second ]\Iissouri with Bledsoe's Battery, 
formed the rear guard and fought desperately 
for several days. At one time they formed an 
ambush and inflicted great damage and loss 
on the enemy. 

In 1863 the regiment operated in ilissis- 
sippi until in October when it took part on 
the raid of Tennessee, fighting at Savery and 
Collinsville. On the retreat from this raid 
the companies of Captains Savery, Thompson, 
and Lichlighter fought as the rear guard. It 
formed a part of the command of General 
Bedford Forrest and distinguished itself for 
bravely at Okalona in 1864. It led the charge 
made against Fort Pillow, and in every action 
which it took part, won new laurels for 
itself. Colonel McCuUoch was wounded at 
Old Town creek, and Lieutenant Colonel R. 
A. ^IcCulloeh was chosen in his place as col- 
onel. The regiment took part in the fighting 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



353 



around Memphis and went on Wilson's raid 
in Alabama and Georgia, surrendering at 
Gainesville, Alabama, in 1865. 

The Missouri troops, including the First 
and Second Missouri Brigades and Marma- 
duke 's Cavalry and the First and Second Mis- 
souri regiments, were everywhere recognized 
as among the finest soldiers of the South. 
General JMaury in speaking on the repulse of 
Rosecrans' attack, says: "The glorious First 
ilissouri Brigade." At one time there was a 
report that General Lovell, to whose negli- 
gence was probably due the defeat at Corinth, 
had spoken of Missouri troops as undisci- 
plined. After the Corinth campaign, the 
troops were reviewed by Generals Vandorn 
and Price in the presence of President Da- 
vis. Davis said : " I have attended reviews of 
Generals Beauregard, Bragg, A. S. and J. B. 
Johnson, and the old United States service, 
but I have never seen a finer looking body 
of men nor of more soldierly appearance and 
efficiency, nor have I ever witnessed better 
drill or discipline among the soldiers belong- 
ing to any military service than these Mis- 
souri soldiers." 

On another occasion he said : " I have never 



seen better fighters than Missouri troops or 
more gallant soldiers than General Price and 
his officers." 

The attack on Corinth was made in three di 
visions, the First and Second Divisions car- 
ried out the plan and got into town. The 
Third in command of General Lovell, was in- 
active. Among those that entered the town 
were the Missouri troops. General Maury, 
in speaking of this attack on Corinth says of 
the Missouri troops: "General Price looked 
on the disorder of his darling troops with 
unmitigated anguish. The big tears coursed 
down his bronzed face and I have never wit- 
nessed such a picture of mute despair and 
grief as his countenance wore when he looked 
upon the defeat of those magnificent troops; 
he had never before known them to fail and 
they had never failed to carry the lines of any 
enemy in tlieir front, nor did they ever to the 
very close of their noble career on April 9, 
1865, fail to beat the troops before them. I 
mean no disparagement to any troops of the 
Confederacy when I say that the Missourians 
were not surpassed by any soldiers in the 
world. ' ' 



SECTION VI 



Since the Civil War — Moveineiits and Towns Founiled 



CHAPTER XXIX 



MOVEMENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 

Railroad Building — Drainage — Wealth — Manufacturing — Mining - 
Resources — Schools and Churches — Local Option • — Population 
Spanish- American War. 



Transportation- 
- Organizations - 



The period of the history of Southeast Mis- 
souri which extended from the close of the 
war in 1865 up to the present time is in many 
respects the most interesting period of our 
history. It differs widely from the other pe- 
riods whose history we have already recounted. 
From 1820 to 1860, as we have seen, the popu- 
lation of Southeast Missouri increased from 
20,000 to 130,000. This was a great increase 
in population and was accompanied by a like 
marvelous increase in resources and general 
social and industrial development; biit the 
period from 1865 to 1912 not only saw a 
greater increase in population but also a 
vastly greater development of resources and 
of every side of the people's life. Doubt- 
less few sections of the country anywhere have 
witnessed a more marvelous expansion of 
resources than Southeast i\Iissouri in this 
period. 

The period is distinguished for a number 
of great movements. The first of these, and 
perhaps the most powerful influence upon the 
building up of the countiy, was the building 
of railroads. In another place we have re- 
counted in detail the story of railroad build- 
ing. No one can study the figures of popula- 
tion or look over the map of the section or 
consider the figures which tell of industrial de- 
velopment without being at once struck with 



the very great part which the railroads played 
in the development of Southeast Missouri. Of 
course this was to be expected. So long as 
there were parts of the territory situated at 
great distances from river transportation, dis- 
tances multiplied in a great many cases by the 
lack of roads, the developement of these 
parts of the district was greatly retarded, but 
with railroads penetrating to the farthest 
corner bringing every part of the section into 
connection with the centers and great markets 
by means of railroads, then development pro- 
ceeded with leaps and bounds. 

Another movement which distinguished 
this period of our study is the drainage move- 
ment. As we saw in the chapter on the geog- 
raphy of Southeast Missouri, nearly half of 
the area of this section lies within the Missis- 
sippi low lands or bottoms. Not all of this by 
any means, nor even half of it, is land that 
needed to be reclaimed, but in spite of this 
fact there were large bodies of the richest soil 
which could not be cultivated until steps were 
taken to protect it from overflow from the river 
and to drain from it the waters which it re- 
ceived from the streams entering it from the 
hills. Both of these things have received 
careful attention. To shut out the waters of 
the Mississippi river at flood time, levees have 
been built along the banks of the river, some 



357 



358 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of them miles in length and at such a height as 
to preclude the probability of their ever giving 
way. These levees were built under govern- 
ment supervision and in part at government 
expense, the greater part of their cost, how- 
ever, was borne by the people whose lands 
were affected, who organized levee districts 
and placed a tax against lands for this pur- 
pose. This levee building was the first work 
done toward the reclamation of the swamp 
lands and while its results were very evident 
and very gratifying, it became evident that 
levee building alone was not sufficient. 
The levees saved from overflow thousands of 
acres and made it possible for land to be cul- 
tivated without fear of damage from the Mis- 
sissippi river, but there were hundreds of 
thousands of acres in the swamps of Little 
river and other streams in the section, which 
could not be utilized without the cutting of 
drainage ditches. A realization of this fact 
coupled with a rise in the value of Southeast 
Missouri lands led to the organization of 
drainage disti'icts and the cutting of drain- 
age ditches and canals throughout the over- 
flowed regions. 

The effect of these drainage ditches was 
soon apparent, the ditches made it possible to 
cultivate large tracts of land which were be- 
fore practically worthless and the produc- 
tions of Southeast Missouri increased at a 
marvelous rate. 

In order to understand the drainage sys- 
tem of Southeast IMissouri it is necessary to 
keep in mind the physical condition of the 
alluvial plains. A line drawn from the Mis- 
sissippi river at Cape Girardeau southwest to 
the Arkansas line at the southeast corner of 
Ripley county, follows practically the divid- 
ing line between the Ozark uplift and the Mis- 
sissippi basin. The great stretch of territory 
lying south and east of this line is nil alluvial 



flat laud with the exception of two ridges. Be- 
ginning about two and a half miles south of 
Cape Girardeau and stretching along the 
bank of the river to a short distance below 
Commerce, is a ridge of hills known as the 
Scott county hills, and these and the ridge 
which extends through Stoddard county and 
part of Dunklin county into Arkansas and 
which is known as Crowlej's ridge, form the 
only exception to the alluvial character of this 
part of Southea.st Missouri. 

The Scott county hills, which do not cover 
a very large area, have a rather rough sur- 
face, still much of the area is capable of cul- 
tivation. Crowley's ridge is principally com- 
posed of hills of clay sloping from the south- 
east to the northwest and being very rapidly 
worn by stream action. 

The other physical features of the section 
are first of all, beginning at the river and go- 
ing toward the west, an elevated level plain 
of high bottom land from 3 to 8 miles in 
width and extending south from the Scott 
county hills through Scott and New iladrid 
counties, reaching the river at New Madrid 
and then extending along the river to the 
south line of New Madrid county. This ele- 
vated ridge is generally known as the Sikes- 
ton ridge ; it is the great corn, wheat and 
cotton producing area of the counties men- 
tioned. Just east of Crowley's ridge stretch- 
ing south from Dexter to the Arkansas line 
and lying between the St. Fi-ancois river and 
Little river, is another ridge somewhat simi- 
lar in character to the Sikeston ridge ; on this 
elevated land are situated the towns of 
Bemie. Maiden, Kennett and others. 

East of the Sikeston ridge and stretching 
to the Mississippi river is a territory which 
is sometimes called the Charleston district ; 
much of this district at one time was subject 
to overflow bv the river but was not disturbed 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



359 



very greatly by overflow from the local 
streams. This, too, is a very fertile and pro- 
ductive district containing some of the best 
farm land in this section of the state. 

West of the Sikeston ridge, lying between 
it and the ridge in Stoddard and Dunklin 
counties, stretching north to the foothills in 
Cape Girardeau county and with an arm ex- 
tending to the river at the town of Cape Gir- 
ardeau, is Little river valley. This valley va- 
ries in width from 10 to 20 miles and is about 
9 miles in length from its head at the foot- 
hills to the Arkansas line. This great area 
containing several hundred square miles was 
subject to overflow from Little river and the 
greater part of it not capable of being culti- 
vated. 

On the west side of Crowley's ridge extend- 
ing to the Ozark hills is a flat bottom of the 
St. Francois and Black rivers, a strip of ter- 
ritory not much unlike the Little river bot- 
tom though not subject to such constant over- 
flow. 

As we have seen the first settlements in 
these alluvial districts were made on the hills 
in Scott county, on Crowley's ridge in the 
Charleston district and on the ridge extend- 
ing south from Dexter; these were the parts 
of the district that were not subject to over- 
flow and that could be cultivated without the 
drainage system : some of this teiTitory, es- 
pecially in the Charleston district and on 
Sikeston and Dexter ridges, was prairie land; 
not only was it high above overflow, but free 
from timber, being covered when the settle- 
ment was made upon it, by high, coarse grass 
and in some eases overgrown with bushes. 
Some of this prairie land retains the name 
as Mathews Prairie, Little Prairie, West 
Prairie and Grand Prairie. We see Avhy 
settlements were being made both east and 
west of the Little river bottoms, which for a 



great many years formed a practically im- 
passable barrier between the settlements on 
its east and west respectively, and it further 
explains the reason why Dunklin county and 
Stoddard county were settled much later than 
some other counties in the district. They were 
cut off from immigi-ation from the east by 
the Little river bottoms and it was impos- 
sible to reach Dunklin county especially, ex- 
cept after traveling long distances out of the 
way. Another thing which is made evident 
by this study of the physical situation of 
Southeast Missouri is why Cape Girar- 
deau became early an important trading 
point. The settlers in Dunklin county and in 
Stoddard county could not come in touch with 
river transportation except by coming to Cape 
Girardeau, and thus for many years that 
town was the principal shipping and distrib- 
uting point for large areas of Southeast Mis- 
souri. 

It has been estimated by competent au- 
thority, that Crowley's ridge and the Scott 
county hills near Commerce, together com- 
prise about one-eighth of the total area of the 
alluvial section and that the dry bottom lands 
not subject to overflow which were found in 
Mississippi county, in Scott, in New Madrid, 
Stoddard and Dunklin taken together com- 
prise also about one-eighth of the total area. 
If this estimate is correct only one-fourth of 
the vast area of the alluvial section, as it 
was seen by the first settlers, was capable of 
cultivation. This statement needs to be taken 
in this light that while some of the lands not 
included within this one-fourth made impos- 
sible to be cultivated, they were subject to 
overflow at times. Three-fourths of the dis- 
trict which we have under consideration was 
subject to overflow from the Mississippi river 
and from other streams in the territory. 
Most of this land was covered with heavy 



360 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



timber. Among the finest forests to be found 
in the state or in the whole country were 
growing on the ovei-flowed lands of Southeast 
Missouri. 

This timber became exceedingly valuable 
and much of it was cleared away, but the cut- 
ting of the timber was for many years the 
only thing that was done in connection with 
the overflowed lands. So long as the popula- 
tion in the alluvial district was sparse and 
so long as land was consequently cheap, but 
little attention was paid to the reclamation 
of the overflowed lauds. In 1850 the United 
States donated to the several states the swamp 
lands contained within their limits. By an 
act of the General Assembly passed in 1852, 
Missouri conveyed to the different counties 
the title to the swamp lands within them to 
be disposed of in such a way as to j^romote 
their drainage. There thus came into control 
of these counties large bodies of overflowed 
lands at the time having no great value for 
any purpose whatever. The first disposition 
attempted to be made of them by the various 
counties was to grant them for tlie purpose 
of aiding the construction of roads and rail- 
roads. We have seen that when the Cairo & 
Fulton railroad was promoted that the coun- 
ties affected by it subscribed to its cai)ital 
stock in swamp lands. After the first ex- 
citement consequent upon the attempts to 
build railroads had somewhat subsided, the 
counties began to transfer their swamp lands 
to private owners usually in a way, ostensibly 
at least, to promote drainage. It was found 
very difficult, however, properly to drain these 
lands. The slope was usually about one foot a 
mile from north to south and the quantity of 
water to be handled at certain seasons of the 
year was so vast that local ditches were found 
to be entirely insufficient to handle it. On 
account of this fact the lands wei-e for many 



years practically flood lands; they could not 
be sold for even the minimum price of $1.25 
per acre, so that the greater part of the lands 
remained in the possession of the counties, 
and some of them were granted to aid in the 
construction of levees. 

The inability to construct sufficient ditches 
was principally due to inadequate methods 
of construction and it was not until the in- 
vention of the dipper dredge, which since its 
improvement is capable of handling 2,000 cu- 
bic .yards of earth a day and of cutting a 
canal through the swamp, that it became at 
all possible to drain these lands. 

After this dipper dredge was invented and 
came to be known as an efficient instrument, 
a movement was begun in the counties having 
swamp lands, for the organization of districts 
for the purpose of digging ditches. The land 
in much of this district was taxed so mucii an 
acre for the purjjose of digging and the 
ditches were dug to the southern limit of the 
district carrying the water to the next dis- 
trict. Some efficient work was done in this 
way and some land reclaimed. It was found, 
however, that there were other difficulties, 
there was no scheme for Iniilding a system of 
ditclies aiul for this reason some of the work 
that was done in the early days was not pro- 
ductive of very good results. There was a 
failure to appreciate the magnitude of tlie 
enterprise and most of the early ditches were 
entirely too small for the purpose for which 
they were constructed. The construction, 
however, has gone on and up to this time 
there have been constnicted more than 1,600 
miles of canals at an approximate cost of 
$2,500 a mile. Most of these canals are from 
12 to 20 feet in width and from 8 to 14 feet 
in depth. It has usiially been estimated that 
each mile of ditch reclaims one section of 
land. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



361 



While much has been accomplished in the 
matter of drainage, there still remain a num- 
ber of problems to be solved. The Charleston 
district has been levied and this protects 
from the overflow waters of the Mississippi 
river and it has been partly drained. It is 
possible that the levee will be extended to St. 
John's Bayou by which New Madrid and the 
lower part of this district will be drained. 

Two great problems remain to be solved — ■ 
the drainage of the Little river bottoms and 
the drainage of the basin of the St. Francois. 
The magnitude of the problem of the Little 
river is ajjparent when we consider the vast 
extent of these bottoms having an average 
width of from 12 to 15 miles and a length of 
nearly 90 miles. About 500,000 acres of land 
in these bottoms have been drained already 
by local ditches, but this drainage is to a cer- 
tain extent inadequate and the great problem 
now is how to increase the efficienc}' of the 
drainage and add to the system. Two prob- 
lems confront the engineers who would re- 
claim the remaining lands in the Little river 
bottoms. The bottoms receive an enormous 
quantity of watei,- from Castor and White- 
water and the other streams which have their 
source in the Ozark hills and pour their wa- 
ter into the upper part of these bottoms. 
Some efficient means is to be found for the 
distribution of these waters. Besides this, 
however, the local drainage must be cared for. 
The rainfall from such a great area as the St. 
Francois bottoms is very large and provision 
must be made for taking care of this rainfall. 

The problem of draining the St. Francois 
and Black river bottoms is a simpler one ; it 
seems that the overflow waters of these rivers 
can be cared for by leveeing the banks of the 
rivers and confining the streams within the 
banks and by digging drainage ditches to the 



south. It is estimated that 200,000 acres of 
land in these bottoms may be reclaimed. 

This period, along with many other changes 
which it has witnessed, has brought with it a 
very great increase in wealth. Land values 
have mounted up within the last few years to 
a height undreamed of by the people who 
lived here before the war. This increase in 
land values has been accompanied by a very 
great increase of other property. Perhaps 
in the first place the wealth of the district 
was enhanced by the cutting of the timber. 
Some of the most valuable timber in all the 
United States was found in Southeast Mis- 
souri ; great forests of cotton wood, of white 
oak, of gum, of cypress and poplar existed. 
For a long time this timber of the finest qual- 
ity was practically valueless. This was true 
because of the lack of facilities for manu- 
facturing lumber and in a large degree be- 
cause of the lack of facilities for transporta- 
tion. The price, too, was low because of the 
existence in other parts of the country of 
vast bodies of timber. First other parts of 
the countiy worked iip their timber, the price 
of lumber rose gradually, and there came to 
be more and more a demand for timber in 
Southeast Missouri. Those of the younger 
generation can hardly realize the vast extent 
of the forests that were once found here, nor 
can they appreciate the attitude which the 
eai'ly settlers and even of the settlors in the 
time immediately following the Civil war held 
toward this timbei-. It was looked upon . 
not as an asset, but rather in the nature of 
an encumbrance. A body of land covered 
with timber was not as valuable by any 
means as a body of land without timber. The 
finest forests of gum or cottonwood were cut 
down and the timber destroyed in any way 
in order to get rid of it. Trees which would 



362 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



now be worth many dollars were regarded as 
so much encumbrance upon the soil, they 
were deadened and allowed to be blown down 
by the winds or to rot upon the surface of the 
ground or else burned. Sometimes thej' were 
cut down while yet green and cut up into 
logs which could be handled and thus burned 
in order to prej^are the ground for cultiva- 
tion. 

For the year 1907 the surplus products of 
the Southeast Missouri counties reached a 
value of more than $60,000,000. The total is 
an impressive one and speaks more strongly 
than any other words could of the wealth con- 
tained witliiu the borders of this territory. 
The mere amount of that wealth, however, is 
not in itself so significant as is the variety of 
its sources and the probability of a long con- 
tinuance of its production. The wealth of 
Southeast ^Missouri not only does not depend 
uijon one or two sources but is of such a char- 
acter that it will continue. We have no rea- 
son to believe that the sources of wealth in 
this part of the state will fail. This is not 
true of course of some things that have added 
to our wealth in the last decade or two. The 
timber will be depleted and there will not be 
the immense shipments of lumber from some 
of the counties such as lias been made within 
the years since 1890 ; but, as the timber fails, 
and this source of wealth disappears, its 
place will be taken by the products of the 
soil, for practically all the land which is be- 
ing deforested is valuable for agricultural 
purposes. The probabilities are that the to- 
tal of surplus products instead of being de- 
creased by reason of the exhaustion of the 
timber, will be increased owing to the use of 
the land for farming purposes. 

One striking development of the period we 
are now considering is the growth of manu- 
factures. In other chapters we have dis- 



cussed the very limited manufacturing inter- 
ests of the section in former years. During 
the year 1910 the total of manufactured prod- 
ucts for the twenty counties reached the sum 
of $39, 370, 538. The great items of manufac- 
ture were lead and other products of the 
mines, timber in its various forms, cotton and 
cotton-seed oil, flour and feed, and shoes. 
]\Iany other things were manufactured, many 
of them in large quantities, but these were the 
great items which make up the total. No 
doubt this form of industry is destined to 
become more and more important. River 
transportation, nearness to the Illinois coal 
fields, and the existence of undeveloped water- 
power render certain the future of this part 
of the state as regards manufacturing. 

The present period has witnessed the great 
developement of the mining industry. The 
principal minerals mined are iron and lead. 

Southeast Missouri contains considerable 
deposits of iron ore, which is found in a belt 
crossing the state from the ^Mississippi on the 
east of the Osage river. The ore contained in 
the mineral region is of two principal char- 
acters, the specular ore which is of a concen- 
trated character and the limonite or red. The 
specular ores are found in the southern part 
of St. Francois county and the northei-n part 
of Iron county. It was thought at one time 
that Iron Mountain in St. Francois county 
was a mass of specular ore and that Pilot 
Knob and Shepard ]\Iountain in Iron county 
contained vast quantities of the same mineral ; 
in fact a company was formed for the purpose 
of taking out the ore in Iron Mountain and 
large quantities of ore were mined at one 
period. It was found, however, that in none 
of these mountains was the quantity of ore so 
great as had been thought. Iron Mountain, 
which was considered at one time to be com- 
posed almost entirley of iron ore, has been 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



363 



found to contain no great quantities of high 
grade ore; mining is still carried on at these 
points but the ore is of an inferior grade, 
the best ore having been practically exhausted. 
There are also quantities of ore in Lewis 
Mountain near Arcadia, in Buford Mountain, 
also in Iron county, and in Boden Mountain 
in the same county. Besides these, such places 
as the Shut-In, Riissell, Ackhurst and Big 
Bogy bauks of iron also contain considerable 
quantities of iron ore. Limonite ores in large 
quantities are found in Wayne, Bollinger and 
Stoddard counties; the ore, however, is not 
so concentrated and the expense of working it 
is greater there than in the case of the specular 
ore. In spite of this disadvantage thei-e is 
still going on a considerable amount of 
mining. 

The last twenty years has witnessed a re- 
markable development of that section of the 
state known as the Lead Belt. About 1880 it 
wa.s discovered that lead in large and paying 
quantities existed in what is known as the 
Flat River district. This discovery resulted 
in tiie opening of extensive mines first at Flat 
River then at DesLoge, Leadwood and Elvins. 
After the building of the Mississippi River 
& Bonne Terre railway to Bonne Terre, tlie 
necessity for providing transportation facil- 
ities for the products of the new mines re- 
sulted in the extension of this new railway 
through DesLoge and Flat River to Doe Run. 
The population of this Lead Belt increased 
very rapidly and in fact there is almost a 
continuous town from near Bonne Terre to 
Flat River. This large population rendered 
it almost imperative to constnict an inter- 
urban line which was built in the year 1906, 
principally by capitalists of Farmingtou, from 
the Iron Mountain railway at DeLassus 
through Farmington to Flat River. This road 



has given an impetus to the building up of 
the section Avhieh has been very marked. 

At the present time to a very much greater 
extent than formerly the lead belt is develop- 
ing a characteristic life. Once those who 
worked in the mines were also interested in 
farming and the country depended about 
equally on its mines and its farms. The great 
extension of mining interests in recent years, 
however, has changed this; agricultural in- 
terests have become relatively unimportant 
throughout most of the section and a greater 
number of the population are directly de- 
pendent ui^on the mines and smelters. This 
has resulted in the development of the charac- 
teristic life of mining communities ; the people 
are concentrated in the towns and these are all 
typical mining to\\^^s. 

Of course the mining of lead on a large 
scale such as it is now conducted, differs very 
widely from the old system of mining which 
required little or no capital. In the former 
method any man with sufficient energy and 
strength could engage with some success in the 
digging of ore for himself independent of 
all other persons. The organization of gi'cat 
companies, however, and the almost universal 
use of imjjroved machinery has made it prac- 
tically impossible for an.y one to engage in 
mining independent of those companies or 
associations which control large amounts of 
capital. Accordingly we find practically all 
the mining in the entire district carried on 
by a few large companies. 

It has been the policy of the mine owners 
in the district to concentrate the smelting of 
lead in one or two places. At the present time 
the great amount of smelting is carried on at 
Herculaneum. This point is a number of 
miles distant from any of the mines but the 
existence of the Mississippi & Bonne Terre 



364 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



railway renders the shipmeBt of ore to one 
plant and its reduction there entirely practi- 
cable. 

The quantity of ore produced in the lead 
belt is very great. In the year 1911 there was 
shipped from the single county of St. Fran- 
cois, which contains most of the large mines, 
more than seven million dollars worth of mine 
products, principally lead. The deposits 
seem to be practically inexhaustible and the 
industry bids fair to continue to develop for 
a good many years even with the ore that is 
now in sight. There seems no reason to be- 
lieve that all the ore has as yet been located, 
there are probably other fields in the district 
which await development. 

Farming 

The time has been, and that not far in the 
past, when farming in Southeast Missouri de- 
pended very largely upon a few staple prod- 
ucts; corn, cotton and wheat were the great 
products and in some places the only crops 
grown. This dependence upon a few staples 
was due in part to distance from the market 
and to insufficient means of transpoi-tation. 
Today this dependence upon staple products, 
however, is disappearing. The improved fa- 
cilities for transportation have made it pos- 
sible for farmers to raise other crops than the 
so-called staples and ship them to market in 
such a way and at such a cost as to render 
them valuable. The soil and climate of South- 
east Missouri are adapted to a variety of 
farm products and more and more this diver- 
sity of farm interests is appearing. It is 
clear to be seen that as farming becomes 
more diversified the value of farm products 
will increase and the degree of certainty of 
a good crop every year will also increase. 

Outside of those two or three counties 
which produce enormous quantities of lead 



and other mineral products, it is clear that 
for many years the principal interest here 
will be agriculture. The time will come of 
course, when manufacturing will be devel- 
oped. The water power which now goes to 
waste in many counties of the Southeast will 
be utilized and there is a sufficient quantity 
of power capable of development to make cer- 
tain that manufacturing establishments of 
many kinds will be supported. 

River Transportation 

The histoiy of river transportation in ]Mis- 
souri is a story of wonderful interest. The 
time was when it formed practically the 
only transportation possible. The products 
of Ste. Genevieve and of the mining region 
were transported- by canoe or keel boats to 
New Orleans and then were shipped to vari- 
ous parts of the world. All the supplies used 
by the people of Missouri at one time came 
up the river by the same precarious means of 
transportation. The application of steam to 
the propelling of boats brought about a very 
great increase in the use of the river. From 
1817, when the first steamboat made its ap- 
pearance on the upper Mississippi until the 
period of rj.ilroad activity which really be- 
gan in the state just before the Civil war, 
river transportation grew to almost unpar- 
alleled proportions. Hundreds of steamers 
were engaged in the business of transpoi'tiug 
passengers and goods upon the river. River 
transportation was cheap, it was reasonably 
fast, and for these reasons reached a very re- 
markable development. 

The building of railroads, however, practi- 
cally put an end to the use of the river as a 
means of transportation. Today, instead of 
the hundreds of boats that once plied its 
waters, there are only a few, travel has been 
diverted from the river, steamboats are no 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



365 



longer crowded with passengers and over- 
loaded with freight; the passengers travel by 
train and the freight is carried in the same 
way. The causes of this change in transpor- 
tation are many. One of them is the greater 
speed of railroad traffic and another greater 
certainty. Railroad owners soon came to see 
that a great advantage could be obtained by 
operating their trains on a schedule. Rail- 
roads also had a great advantage in that they 
reached every part of the country so that 



steamboat owners. In a competition of 
this kind the advantage was all on the side 
of the railroads. They had a traffic which 
could not be taken from them by the steam- 
boats under any circumstances, the inland 
traffic was all carried by rail and the money 
thus derived was used to enable railroad op- 
erators to fight steamboat transportation in 
those communities and towns situated along 
the river. There seems to be no doubt that 
the present failure to use the river transpor- 




SouTHERN Mississippi Steamer 



persons living away from the river might 
travel to their destination or ship their goods 
to market without transfer or i-eshipment. 
These advantages which the railroad pos- 
sessed were natural and legitimate advan- 
tages. It is not quite clear, however, that the 
very gi-eat ascendancy which the railroads 
came to have was attained altogether by le- 
gitimate methods. The fierce competition be- 
tween the river and the railroads no doubt 
impelled railroad owners and managers to re- 
sort to methods not legitimate in fighting 



tation is due in part at least, to unfair meth- 
ods of comi^etition on tlie part of the rail- 
roads. 

No doubt, however, the decline of river traf- 
fic was due also in part to a failure on the 
part of the owners of boats to provide proper 
facilities for handling the traffic and to bring 
their methods to a high state of efficiency. 
The owners of steamboats today operate them 
in about the same way in which steamboats 
were operated before the war. Just as for- 
merly the freight is still handled by hand 



366 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



and there has been a failure to install freight 
handling machinerj- and to provide ample ter- 
minal facilities in the towns. There has been 
a failure to keep the equipment of the boats 
up to the standard demanded by the travel- 
ing public and to increase the speed or the 
comfort of travel on the river. 

These are some of the causes which have 
brought about the virtual destruction of river 
traffic. We must not conclude, however, that 
these causes will continue to operate and to 
bring about the same result. There are rea- 
sons for believing that river transportation 
will once more become important and perhaps 
reach a degree of importance which it did 
not possess even in its most prosperous days. 
It is a serious situation which confronts the 
people of a country when there comes a con- 
gestion of traffic, when the means of trans- 
portation are inadequate to supply the needs 
of the country. Railroad owners in this 
country have themselves confessed that we 
have reached a point in our development when 
it is almost if not entirely, impossible, to 
build railroads sufficient to handle the traffic 
offered them. "We are virtually compelled 
then to turn to the river for relief. Besides 
this tliere is a movement already on foot to 
provide terminal facilities and to equip boats 
with modern machinery and to bring them up 
to tlie high standard of efficiency displayed 
by the railroads. This movement will iin- 
ddubtedly result in securing for the owners 
of boats a part at least of the traffic now car- 
ried by the railroads. More than all else, 
however, which leads us to lielieve in the com- 
ing importance of the river is a movement 
known as the deep waterway movement, by 
which it is planned to increase the depth of 
the channel of the Mississippi sufficiently to 
allow the operation of larger boats and even 
of sea-going vessels as far up as St. Louis. 



If this proposed plan is ever carried out it 
will undoubtedly mean a great deal for South- 
east Missouri. It will then be possible for 
residents of these counties to ship their prod- 
ucts to almost any part of the world at very 
much less than the railroads now chai'ge. 
Taken in connection with the opening of the 
Panama Canal and the consequent shortening 
and cheapening of transportation to the sea, 
such a use of the ^Mississippi would mean a 
great deal. 

Resources 

The great resources of Southeast Missouri 
are soil and climate, minerals, timber, and 
water-power. These do not exhaust the list, 
but they are the great items in the inventory 
of potential wealtli. First place among these 
must be given to soil and climate. No part of 
the earth's surface has richer or more pro- 
ductive soil than is to be found in some coun- 
ties of the section. This is not merely in small 
tracts, hundreds of square miles of fertile soil 
exist. Taken in connection with a climate, 
tliat by reasons of its rainfall and its long 
summers renders possible the production of 
both the great staple grains, corn and wheat, 
and of cotton, this soil is the greatest asset of 
the entire section. 

ilineral wealth as we have seen is very 
great, and timber in the past has been one of 
the great resources. There is enough left 
of the great timbered areas to represent mil- 
lions of dollars yet. 

The water-power of these southeast coun- 
ties is doubtless destined to be of gi-eat value 
and importance. It has as yet been developed 
except the smallest way, but it forms one of 
the sources of future wealth of the highest 
importance. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



367 



Not all the movements which have distin- 
guished this period, however, have had to do 
with material wealth; railroad building and 
swamp reclamation were important in them- 
selves and led to great consequences. They 
must have failed, however, of doing that for 
which they were intended had they not been 
associated with other movements in the life 
of the people. One of these was a movement 
looking toward the improvement of educa- 
tion. This movement while it had its be- 
ginning shortly after the war, and led, even 
then, to the organization and establishment of 
schools in every district through Southeast 
ilissouri and brought a public school within 
reach of nearly every family, did not provide 
for a complete system of schools. It was pos- 
sible for a state superintendent of education 
in 1894, to speak of Southeast ^Missouri as the 
educational low land of the state and to jus- 
tify his characterization by pointing out that 
in all this great section of the state there ex- 
isted only one, or at the most two schools, de- 
serving of the name high school, and that in 
this section also there was only one school, 
the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, 
that was doing any large amount of work 
above the common school branches. This situ- 
ation has changed ; and today, there is scarcely 
a town of any importance in Southeast 
Missouri that does not have a well organized 
and equipped high school. In rural communi- 
ties, too, there is a movement for the organ- 
ization of rural high schools and a consoli- 
dation of scattered and isolated districts into 
larger units for the maintainanee of these 
country high schools. 

Along with this increased interest in pub- 
lic education as evidenced in the establish- 
ment of public schools, the building of 
good schoolhouses, and the consolidation of 



rural schools, has come an increased interest 
in religious affairs. The time has come in 
Southeast Missouri when the various com- 
munities are no longer satisfied with a modi- 
fied barn in which to hold religious services, 
but want comfortable, commodious, and even 
splendid structures erected for church pur- 
poses. This movement, too, has gone hand in 
hand with the spread of religious teaching 
and religious knowledge to every community. 
There is scarcely to be found within the 
bounds of Southeast Missouri a single settle- 
ment or community, no matter how remote, 
that does not have its regular gospel services 
carried on by one or another of the religious 
denominations. 

One of the movements which has had a 
place in the history of Southeast I\Iis.souri in 
late years is known as the local option move- 
ment. In 1887 the General Assembly passed a 
law giving counties the right to determine 
for themselves whether intoxicating liquors 
should be sold within their limits. At that 
time campaigns were made by the temper- 
ance people in a number of southeast coun- 
ties and part of them complied with the terms 
of the law and voted against dram sliops. On 
appealing to the Supreme Court, however, the 
law was declared defective and the action of 
the counties null and void. At a later time, 
however, the General Assembly passed an- 
other law which is at present on the statute 
books, providing for local option elections. 
By its terms the county may vote on the ques- 
tion of local option, and each town within the 
county having a population of more than 
2,500 may hold an election separate from the 
rest of the county. Under the provisions of 
this law local option elections have been held 
in a number of Southeast Missouri counties 
and maijy of them have become dry territory. 



368 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



At the present time there are no saloons in 
Dunklin, Stoddard, Bollinger, Wayne, Iron 
and New Madrid. 

There is presented a table showing the pop- 
ulation of the various counties as shown at 
each census from 18(50 to 1910. It is unfor- 
tunate that the figures are not obtainable 
for 1865 when the war closed. While this is 
not possible the figures that are given are 
highly instructive. Viewing them as a whole 
it is evident that all the counties have ex- 
perienced a great growth and development of 
population since the close of the war. That 
growth has been marvelous and in some coun- 
ties little short of incredible. 

It is evident that beginning in 1900 the 
section entered on a different era. Up to that 
time with scarcely a single exception the coun- 
ties showed a considerable increase during 
each decade. In the last decade a change 
takes place in some of the counties. The 
great growth in population was in the great 
agricultural counties of the alluvial bottoms, 
notably in Dunklin, New Madrid, Stoddard, 
Pemiscot, Scott, Mississippi and Butler; in 
the great mining county of St. Francois and 
in Jefferson county which is developing in 
both agriculture and manufacturing. The 
expansion of the agricultural counties is ex- 
plained by the great increase in cultivated 
lands due to drainage and the removal of the 
timber. The population of St. Francois has 
kept pace with the great increase in its min- 
ing interests. Cape Girardeau with its grow- 
ing city and its manufacturing interests, and 
Madison with the development of new mines 
showed considerable growth in the same pe- 
iod. Some of the counties lost population. 
This was doubtless due to the decided drift 
of population toward the cities, and in few 
cases to the closing of mills which had for 



merly supported numbers of people. It can- 
not be doubted that the population of South- 
east Missouri will continue to increase. The 
opportunities are good, and the possibility of 
supporting much greater numbers is present 
in every section of the district. 

Counties 1S60 1S70 ISSO 1890 1900 1910 

Bollineer . 7.120 S,162 11.130 13.121 14.050 14,576 

Butler .... 2,839 4.298 0,011 10.152 10,709 20,624 

Cape 

Girardeau .14,014 17,558 20,998 22.000 24,315 27.621 

Ciirter .... 1,215 1.455 2.168 4,059 0.700 5,504 

Dunklin ... 4.855 5.982 9,004 15,085 21,700 30,328 

Iron 5.529 6.278 8.183 9,119 8,710 8.503 

Jefferson .. 9.780 15.380 18.736 22.484 25,712 27,878 

Madison .. 5.197 5.844 8.876 9,268 9.975 11,273 

Mississippi.. 3.849 4,982 9.270 10.134 11.837 14.557 

New Madrid 3. 877 6.357 7.694 9.317 11.280 19,488 

Pemiscot .. 2.694 2.059 4.299 5.975 12.115 19,569 

Perry 8,389 9,877 11.895 13,237 15,134 14.898 

Reynolds... 3.135 3.756 5.722 6.803 8.161 9,592 

Ripley 3,609 3.175 5.377 8,512 13.180 13.099 

St. Francois 0.372 9.742 13.822 17.347 24.051 35.738 
Ste. Gen- 

erieve 7.412 8.3S4 10.390 9,883 10.359 10,607 

Scott 4,744 7.317 8,587 11,228 13,092 22,372 

Stoddard .. 7.602 8.535 13.431 17.327 24.G09 27.807 

Washineton. 8.695 11.719 12.896 13.153 14.263 13.378 

n-ayne 5,368 0.008 9.090 11.927 15.309 15.181 

Organizations 

There are certain organizations within 
Southeast Missouri having somewhat dissimi- 
lar aims and purposes and yet all of them 
fitted for public services in some way or 
other. Some of them seek to keep alive the 
memory of great events while others, less his- 
torical in theory, have for their purpose the 
improvement of present conditions. One of 
these organizations is the Daughters of the 
American Revolution, a society of women who 
can trace their descent from some one or 
other of the Revolutionary soldiers. The pur- 
pose of this organization is to keep alive the 
memory of the Revolutionary struggle, of 
the men and women of our country who are 
descendants of Revolutionary patriots and to 
forward certain public movements within the 
state. 

The only chapter in Southeast Missouri is 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



369 



the Nancy liuuter Chapter at Cape Girar- 
deau. The first member at Cape Girardeau, 
who was received October 7, 1897, and ap- 
pointed a regent to organize a chapter. She 
began the organization but removed from the 
city before she completed the work. After her 
going Mrs. Louis Houck was appointed re- 
gent and completed the organization. The 
chapter was completed February 12, 1901, 
with the following charter members: Miss 
May H. Fee ; Mrs. Jennie Allen Wilson, reg- 
istrar; I\Irs. Julia Allen Block; Mrs. Mary 
Hunter Giboney Houck, regent; Mrs. IMarie 
Mount Green Houck, historian ; Mrs. ilary 
Amanda Harris Blomeyer, secretary; Mrs. 
Mabel Ellen Hunter Howe, vice regent ; Mrs. 
Clara Hunter Whitesell; Mrs. Mary Hunter 
Pierce; Mrs. Lucy Hunter Bird; Mrs. Mary 
B. Hunter Moore; Mrs. Virginia Hunter 
Houck, treasurer. 

The chapter was named in honor of Nancy 
Hunter, daughter of Joseph Hunter, a dis- 
tinguished soldier of the Revolution. Nancy 
Hunter herself rendered service to her coun- 
try at Fort Jefferson. She married Isaac 
Dodge, the first American settler in Ste. 
Genevieve district ; her sons were among the 
distinguished men of Missouri and other 
states. One of them was General Henry 
Dodge, another was Senator A. C. Dodge and 
another son by a second marriage was Sen- 
ator Lewis F. Linn. The chapter is in a 
prosperous condition. It has accomplished a 
number of things of importance, among tlieni 
the gathering of documents, the investiga- 
tion of genealogical records and the begin- 
ning of a movement for the preservation of 
McKendree Chapel, a meeting house of the 
Methodist church, not far from Cape Girar- 
deau which is the oldest Protestant house of 
worship now standing, west of the Mississippi 



river. 

Vol. I- 



Another of these organizations is the 
United Daughters of the Confederacy. It is 
also an organization of women in this case 
of those who can establish their relationship 
to Confederate soldiers. Its purpose is prin- 
cipally historical, also to keep alive the mem- 
ory of the Civil war, to secure correct treat- 
ment of the South and its struggles, and to 
perpetuate in every possible way the fame of 
those who fought for the South. It is also to 
a certain extent a social organization and con- 
cerns itself with progressive movements of ev- 
er.y kind. 

Among the societies and organizations 
founded in Southeast IMissouri of a general 
public interest is the organization of Confed- 
erate Veterans. It has existed in Missouri 
since 1895 and the work of organization in 
this state was begun by General Joe Shelby. 
Its purpose is social, benevolent and histori- 
cal, it holds annual reunions in order to pre- 
serve the memorj^ of the struggles of its mem- 
bers, stri^'cs to render assistance to svich as 
need it, and to collect and preserve all facts 
and incidents of the Civil war. At the present 
time there are camps at Doniphan, Green- 
ville, Poplar Bluff, Farmington, Marble Hill, 
Jackson, Morley, Dexter, New Madrid, Ken- 
nett, Bloomfield and Fredericktown. 

In many of the towns are camps of the 
Grand Army of the Republic composed of the 
veterans of the Union army in the great Civil 
war. The purpose of these camps is to keep 
alive the memory of the heroic deeds and sac- 
rifices of the war, to provide opportunity for 
fellowship among those who stood together 
on the field of battle and to assist worthy his- 
torical and patriotic movements of every kind. 
The observance of Memoral Day is one of the 
means for accomplishing these purposes. Al- 
lied with the camps of the G. A. R. are or- 



370 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



gauizations of women called the Women's Re- 
lief Corps. It was due to the initiative of a 
chapter of this organization that a statue 
fountain was recently placed in the court- 
house square in Cape Girardeau and dedi- 
cated with appropriate ceremonies, the chief 
address being delivered by Governor Hadley. 

There are also to be found in almost every 
community organizations of the great secret, 
social and philanthropic orders. As we have 
seen at a very early date lodges of the Ma- 
sonic order were formed in Southeast ]\Iis- 
souri and the activity of this order was soon 
followed by others. A detailed account of 
their organization cannot be presented here, 
but they have been and still are powerful and 
vital forces in the life of the people. 

Every profession and business has its or- 
ganization.s. Commercial clubs exist in many 
of the larger towns, the club at Cape Girar- 
deau being regarded as one of the most ac- 
tive and efficient organizations of the kind 
in tlie state. There ai-e organizations of 
farmers, lawyers, physicians, dentists. All 
of them are active in advancing the interests 
of this pai't of the state. 

Spanish-American War 

Tlie only regiment raised in Southeast ilis- 
souri was the Sixth Regiment which was nuis- 
tered in at Jefferson Barracks, July 20 to 
23, 1898. The regiment officers were Letcher 
Hardemann, Colonel ; H. C. Clark, Lieuten- 
ant Colonel ; Orlando F. Guthrie, Ma.jor ; J. 
J. Dickinson, ]\Iajor, and E. A. Hickman, Ad- 
jutant. Not all the companies of the regi- 
ment were from Southeast ^Missouri ; Company 
D was recruited priucipalh' at Bloomtield 
and Stoddard county. Its officers were Mack 
Richardson, Captain; Grant Gillispie. First 



Lieutenant ; Ward Wilson, Second Lieuten- 
ant. Company E was recruited at Doniphan 
and in Ripley county, its officers were Pierre 
D. Ladd, Captain; Giboney Houck, First 
Lieutenant ; Walter F. Martin, Second Lieu- 
tenant. Company H was from Bollinger 
county being recruited principally at Lutes- 
ville; its officers were: Captain, John W. 
Revelle; First Lieutenant, Robert V. Cor- 
dell; Second Lieutenant, Stanley Gordon. 
Company I was from Dunklin eount.v ; its of- 
ficers were : Albert D. Sloan, Captain ; Rob- 
ert A. Cox, First Lieutenant : W. H. Clopton, 
Second Lieutenant. Company K was re- 
cruited in Jefferson and St. Louis counties; 
its officers were: Captain, Robert E. Lee; 
First Lieutenant, Charles A. Conklin ; Sec- 
ond Lieutenant, Arthur W. Brent. 

This regiment was the last to take the field 
during the Spanish- American war, but it 
saw a more extensive service than any other 
of the ^Missouri regiments. It was mustered 
in at Jefferson Barracks July 20 to 23, 1898, 
and soon afterward was sent to Florida,' 
where it stayed for sometime, the men being 
thoroughl,v drilled. It became a part of the 
arm,v under General Lee and went witli him 
to Culia and took possession of Havana. Tlie 
fact that its commanding officer. Colonel 
Hardeman, was an officer of the regular army 
and a skilled tactician, enaliled the regiment 
to be brought to a high degree of discipline. 
It was regarded as the best regiment in 
General Lee's army. It remained on duty in 
Havana until ]\Iay 10. 1899. when it was re- 
turned to Georgia and nuistered out at Sa- 
vannah. At the ceremon,v of nuistering out 
the regiment presented a beautiful saber to 
Colonel Hardeman as a token of the esteem 
in which he was held. 



CHAPTER XXX 



TOWNS FOUNDED SINCE CIVIL WAR 



Marquand — Glenallen — : Zalma — Bessville — Neeleyville — PiSK — Habviel, -^ 
Van Buren — Ellsinore — Grandin — Hunter — Pocahontas — Allenville — Whitev 

WATER BURFORDVILLE MiLLERVILLE OaKRIDGE GORDONVILLE MaLDEN CAMP- 
BELL — Gibson — Holcomb — Senath — ^Whiteoak — Glennonville — Cardwell — 
Caruth — Cottonplant — Des Arc — Sablila — Belleview — Annapolis — Festus 

— House's Spring — Morse Mill — Peveley — Victoria — Mine LaMotte — Corn- 
wall — Diehlstadt — East Prairie — Bertrand — Marston — Gideon — Parma — 
Lilbourn — CoMO — Morehouse — Hayti — Holland — Cottonwood Point — Steele 
— Calryville — Lithium — Wittenberg — Longtown — Schumer Springs — Bunker 

— Ellington — Naylor — Flat River — Desloge — Leadwood — Elvins — Bonne 
Terre — Bismarck — DeLassus — Knob Lick — Libertyville — Doe Run — Oran — 
Fornfelt — Illmo — Crowder — Kelso — Blodgett — Morley — Chaffee — Vandu- 
SER — Dexter — Advance — Bernie — Puxico — Irondale — Mineral Point — Rich- 

•WOODS ChaONIA LeEPER ]\IlLLS RiNG — WiLLIAMSVILLE. 



That the founding of towns since the close 
of the Civil war has been quite a busy in- 
dustry iu Southeast Missouri, is evident from 
the record which follows. 

Marquand in Bollinger county was settled 
in 1868. It is situated on the Belmont branch 
of the Iron Mountain Railroad. Among the 
early settlers were J. H. Stanfill, Henry 
Whitener and B. F. Finger. The first mer- 
chants were J. Q. A. Whitener, Williain Mat- 
thews, and Jacob Lutes. The town was not 
incorporated until 1908, the first mayor be- 
ing F. J. Limbaugh. At the present time 
there are three general stores. Besides these 
there are wood working establishments, a 
flour mill, and a soda water factory. There 
is one bank in the town and among its im- 



portant buildings are four churches, 
population of Marquand now is 339. 

Glenallen 



The 



The town of Glenallen in Bollinger county, 
was settled about 1870 and incorporated as a 
town in 1906. The first settler and also the 
first merchant was J. A. Berry. The first 
mayor of the town was R. Smith. There are 
now three general stores supported entirely 
by the farming connnunity about it. It is 
situated on the Belmont branch of the Iron 
^Mountain, and has a population of 106. 

Zalma 

Zalma in the southern part of Bollinger 
county, is the terminus of the Frisco branch 



371 



37: 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



from Zalraa by way of Brownwood to Bloom- 
field. Its population is 373. It has several 
stores, a flouring mill, and other interests. 
The Bank of Zalma with a capital stock of 
$12,000 was organized in 1905. 

Bessville 

Bessville on the Belmont branch of the Iron 
Mountain, was laid out soon after the build- 
ing of the railroad. Other villages in Bol- 
linger county are Buchanan, Castor, May- 
field, Patton, Scopus, Sedwickville, Sturdi- 
vant, and Tallent. 

NEELEY\aLLE 

Neeleyville in the southern part of Butler 
county, was laid out as a town in 1870. It 
is now the terminus of the Doniphan branch 
of the Iron Mountain Railroad. Its popu- 
lation is 241. It has stores, blacksmith shops, 
gins, and other business establishments. The 
Bank of Neelej^ille was organized in 1910, 
and has a capital of $10,000. There are 
two churches in the town and a good public 
school. 

PiSK 

Fisk, a village in Butler county, is situ- 
ated not far from the Stoddard county line 
on the Cairo branch of the Iron Mountain. 
It is a flourishing community supported by 
timber and farming interest. Its population 
is 270 and it has stores and other small busi- 
ness establishments. 

Har\iel 

Harviel, with a population of 201, is a town 
on the main line of the Iron Mountain, south 
of Poplar Bluff and on the Hoxie branch of 
the Frisco. 

Other villages in Butler county are Hen- 



drickson and Keener on the Iron Mountain, 
and Rombauer and Sawyer, new saw-mill 

towns on the Frisco. 

Marston 

The town of Marston in New ]\Iadrid coun- 
ty, was settled in October, 1898, the first set- 
tlers being George W. Coleman, H. L. Shid- 
ler, C. M. Barnes, R. W. Maxey, W. A. 
Barnes, R. D. Welshans, E. F. Shai-p, S. S. 
Barnes and M. Foy. The first mayor of the 
town was E. F. Sharp. The early merchants 
were Barnes Store Company, il. H. ilaxey, 
and Finsberry & Mennen. At the present 
time there are two general stores, six grocery 
stores and one drug store. In addition to 
these establishments there is a stave factory, 
one hoop factory, and a cotton gin. The 
Bank of Marston was organized in 1905 and 
has a capital stock of $10,000. The principal 
buildings in the town are the Fraternal Hall, 
opera house, a Methodist church building and 
a Baptist church building. Marston is on the 
main line of the Frisco and is the southern 
terminus of the St. Louis & ilissouri South- 
ern, a new railroad which has just been put 
into operation between Marston and New 
Madrid, but which it is proposed to extend 
to the Thebes bridge. The present population 
is 258. 

Van Buren 

Van Buren, the county seat of Carter 
county, is an unincorporated village. It is one 
mile from the Frisco and is on Current river. 
It has churches, school, five stores, mills, the 
Current Local, a weekly newspaper, and its 
population is about 500. The Carter County 
Bank was chartered in 1901, with a capital 
of $20,000. The most important buildings 
are those of the county. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



373 



Ellsinore 

The largest town in Carter county is Ellsi- 
nore which has a population of 813. It is 
in the eastern part of the county on the Frisco 
Railroad. It is the site of some large mills, 
has about twenty business establishments, and 
is growing rapidly. The Bank of Ellsinore 
was chartered in 1907, and has a capital of 
110,000. The public school is in good con- 
dition. 

Grandin 

Grandin in Carter county, was at one time 
the most important saw-mill town in the state. 
Here were very large mills employing about 
2,000 men, and cutting enormous quantities 
of lumber. The town was owned by the mill 
company which made extensive public im- 
provements. With the decline in the timber 
interests, tlie town lost something of its im- 
portance. Its population is about 600. It 
has a school, six stores, three churches, side- 
walks, electric lights, and is situated on the 
Frisco Railroad and Little Black river. 

Hunter 

Hunter, a mill town in Carter county, is 
suiiported largely bj' timber interests. It 
has a population of 710 and is a rapidly grow- 
ing and thriving town. It is on the Frisco 
Railroad, has fifteen business establishments 
and a public school. 

Pocahontas 

The first settlement at Pocahontas, Cape 
Girardeau county, was made before the war, 
liut tlie town was not incorporated until 1893. 
at which time John Bonney was elected 
mayor. Among its early settlers were Rob- 
ert Baldridge, Robert McNeely, and John 
Bonney. The first merchants were Robert 
McNeely and Samuel M. Green; Mr. Green 



afterwards removed to Cape Girardeau where 
he is now a practicing lawyer. There are 
three general stores and one flour mill. The 
town was iinfortunate in its relation to the 
railroad. When the Cape Girardeau & 
Chester Railroad was built north from Jack- 
son, it passed about one and three-quarter 
miles from Pocahontas. This has handicapped 
the town to a certain extent. Still it has con- 
tinued to grow. Its popiilation now is 239. 

Allenville 

The town of Allenville in Cape Girai'deau 
county is situated at the junction of the Jack- 
son branch of the Belmont branch of the Iron 
Mountain Railroad and was laid out as a town 
in 1869, the first mayor being H. C. Hinton. 
There are now three general stores in the town 
and some other minor business establish- 
ments. The population is 257. 

Whitewater 

The town of Whitewater is situated on the 
Belmont branch of the Iron ^Mountain Rail- 
road in Cape Girardeau county. It was first 
settled as a town in 1866. Among its early 
settlers were William Devore, John Albert, 
William Steel, William and Thomas Wheeler, 
Dr. Dodson, Martin Lawrent, F. H. Stecker, 
Ur. S. M. McAnally, Miles Ax and P. X. 
O 'Brien. The town was not incorporated un- 
til 1898, and its first mayor was P. N. 
O'Brien. Among the early merchants were 
Shell & Albert, Miles Ax, S. M. McAnally and 
P. N. O'Brien. There are now four general 
stores in the town. Besides these there is a 
riour mill, a saw mill and a mill devoted to the 
manufacture of butcher blocks. The Bank of 
Whitewater, with a capital of $10,000 supplies 
the financial wants of the citizens. The town 
is situated in a good farming community and 
is prosperous. It has a population of 250. 



374 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Allenville 

Allenville, an incorporated village iu Cape 
Girardeau county is situated at the junction 
of the Jackson branch of the Iron Mountain 
with the Belmont branch of the same line. It 
was laid out as a town in 1869 on the building 
of the railroad. It has a jiopulation of 257 
with the usual business interests. There are 
Baptist and Alethodist churches and a pub- 
lic school. 

Burfordville is on Whitewater river near 
the old site of Bollinger 's mill. It has been a 
village for many years and has two or three 
stores, a church and its population is about 
150. 

Millerville is in Whitewater township. Cape 
Girardeau county. It has stores, two churches 
and a school. Its population is 99. 

Oakeidge 

Oakridge is in Apple Creek township. It 
was settled in 1852 and its present popula- 
tion is 256. Bank of Oakridge was organized 
in 1904 and its capital is $10,000. There are 
three churches, and business interests of vari- 
ous kinds. Oakridge has always supported a 
good school. 

Gordonville 

Gordonville is one of the oldest settlements 
in Cape Girardeau county, the tii-st settlers 
having come to the vicinity during the Span- 
ish regime. Its present population is 170. 
The Bank of Gordonville was chartered in 
1910 and has a capital of $10,000. There are 
several church organizations and the town is 
on the Jackson branch of the Iron Mountain 
Railroad. 

Other villages in Cape Girardeau county 
are Dutchtown, Pocahontas, Fruitland, New 
Wells, Shavraeetown and Deray. 



Malden 

Maiden, Dunklin county, was laid out in 
1877 under the direction of Major George B. 
Clark. It was the western terminus for a time 
of the Little River Valley & Arkansas Rail- 
road which then extended from New JMadrid 
to JMalden. The first house was built by S. W. 
Spiller and Daniel Haynes and was occupied 
by them as a store. They furnished supplies 
to the men engaged in building the railroad. 
Another early merchant was James Gregory 
and some who came with him were Jackson 
Erlick, William Ilarkey and Sisel and Plaut. 
The J. S. Levi Mercantile Company was or- 
ganized in Maiden during its early years and 
has been one of its largest stores ever since 
that time. The town had the usual growth of 
a country town. Its situation on the railroad 
gave it an advantage and it attracted various 
interests from Clarkton and became for awhile 
the largest town in the county. It was built 
largely of wood and the greater part of the 
business interests in town were destroyed by 
fire in January, 1899. The burnt bixildings 
were replaced by brick and the town has had 
a steady and substantial growth since that 
time. Maiden was incorporated at the April 
term of the county court in 1878 and the first 
trustees were Daniel Haynes, James Gregory, 
S. W. Spiller, Samuel B. Dennis and J. P. 
Laswell. 

One of the men most closely associated wdth 
the growth and prosperity of the town was 
George W. Peck, who was a native of New 
York, was educated in the State Normal 
School, taught for a time, equipped himself 
as a surveyor and came to Missouri as one of 
the engineers on the Little River Valley & Ar- 
kansas Railroad. He made his home in IMal- 
den and engaged in buying and selling grain. 
He added to his interests an insurance busi- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



375 



ness and an ice plant and was for many years 
one of the foremost men of the to^\^l. In ad- 
dition to his business interests he held various 
positions of trust having been mayor and for 
more than twenty years was president of the 
school board. Mr. Peck was a man of high 
public spiriit and did much to advance the 
interests of his community. No man deserved 
more at the hands of the town and none stood 
higher in the aifection of the people. He 
died very suddenly in 1910. 

At present the to\^'n has about fifty busi- 
ness establishments of one kind and another 
and is constantly adding to the number. 
There are several large general stores and 
many other business institutions of different 
kinds. Several large cotton gins take care of 
the cotton crop in the vicinity and there is a 
cotton oil mill. The town has also some large 
wood working establishments that manufac- 
ture lumber, staves and heading. A new elec- 
tric liglit plant and water works system has 
recently been installed giving first class serv- 
ice. There are two l)anks. The Dunklin 
County Bank, the oldest in the county, was es- 
tablished in 1890. It now has a capital stock 
of .$20,000. The Bank of INIalden was char- 
tered in 1903. Its capital stock is also $20,- 
OOU. The town is situated on the main line of 
the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and a 
branch of this line runs from here to Cairo, 
Illinois. There is also a branch of the St. 
Louis & Gulf which reaches Maiden from 
Clarkton. One of the large wood-working 
establishments has a tram road running for 
a number of miles itito the East Swamp 
which is being converted into a standard 
gauge railroad. Maiden has the usual 
church organizations all of them having biiild- 
ings, and the Presbyterian church has re- 
cently completed the erection of a handsome 
brick structure. The public school sy.stem 



is well organized, the town has just completed 
a new building at a cost of $25,000. The 
farming country aliout the town is unusually 
rich and large quantities of cotton, melons 
and corn are shipped from this place every 
year. The population of Maiden at the pres- 
ent time is 2,116. 

Campbell 

The town of Campbell, Dunklin county, was 
established in 1881, the first residents in the 
tow^l were L. McCutcheon, J. H. Bridges, H. 
A. Gardner, L. Walker, Dr. Hale, Dr. William 
R. Hughes, and the first merchants in the 
town were Lasswell Brothers, A. D. Bridges 
& Son, L. JlcCutcheon & Company, Levi 
AValker and William Bridges. The town grew 
slowly for a number of years but on the erec- 
tion of a large wood working establishment 
the population increased very rapidly for a 
number of years. At the present time there 
are nineteen general stores besides restau- 
rants, drug stores and other smaller business 
interests and there are ten factories, most of 
these are wood-working establishments of one 
kind or another, all of them taken together 
give employment to a large number of men 
and add considerable to the prosperity of the 
town. The town was incorporated May 18, 
1894, and the first ma.yor was Charles Cheny. 
The Bank of Campbell was organized in 1897. 
It now has a capital stock of $30,000 ; the First 
National Bank of Campbell was organized in 
1903 and also has a capital of $30,000. The 
town has a good system of electric lights and 
is completing a system of water works; the 
city water is to be taken from an artesian well, 
one of the few flowing wells in Southeast Mis- 
.souri. Among the important buildings are 
the city hall and public school buildings. One 
of the things of which the city is especially 
proud is its system of public schools, employ- 



376 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ing ten teachers and giving opportunity for 
a good high-school education. Under the pat- 
ronage of the school there have been held each 
year, for a number of years, an Old Settlers' 
day which has attracted many people and 
been the cause of great interest. In 1911 
there was organized a Fair Association which 
that year gave the first of a series of fairs, 
whicli was very successful in every way. It is 
the pui-pose of the association to continue the 
custom of an annual fair. The association is 
pursuing a somewhat different course from 
other fairs in laying particular stress upon 
farm improvement and farm development. 

Campbell is located on the main line of the 
St. Louis Southwestern Railway and on a 
branch of the St. Louis & San Francisco. It 
is situated in a prosperous farming commu- 
nity and doubtless has before it a considerable 
growth. Its present population is 1,781. 

Four miles south of Campbell on the Frisco 
Railroad is the little town of Gibson. It is the 
junction point of two branches of the Frisco 
Railroad and is a flourishing village. It has 
three general stores, blacksmith shop, two 
churches and a school. 

HOLCOMB 

Two miles south of Gibson is the town of 
Holcomb, both in Dunklin county. This was 
laid out as a town about the year 1870. Ow- 
ing to its situation with i-egard to the farming 
country about it has experienced a steady 
growth and now has a population of 279. It 
has good general stores, banks, and school 
such as are usually found in towns of this 
size. It is constantly growing and the re- 
sources of the country around it warrant the 
belief of its people that it will continue to 
grow. 



Senath 

Ten miles south of Kennett, the county seat 
of Dunklin county, is the town of Senath. 
The tirst settler in the town was A. W. Doug- 
las who moved there about 1878. The town 
had very slow growth, and was a mere village 
for a long time. It depended for its support 
entirely upon the farming community about 
it. The farms in this vicinity, however, are 
among the richest in Southeast Missouri and 
so the town continued to grow. A postoffice 
was established and some general stores 
opened, among the first being J. M. Baird & 
Company. Cotton gins were built and a mar- 
ket was formed for the purchase and selling of 
cotton. In 1897, Louis Houck, who built so 
many railroads in Southeast Missouri, ex- 
tended his St. Louis, Kennett & Southern 
Railroad from Kennett to Senath, and this 
immediately brought about a growth of the 
town. Today it is a flourishing community of 
more than a thousand population and is sub- 
stantially built of bi'ick in its business section, 
and has all the evidences of a prosperous com- 
munity. 

Cardwell 

The town of Cardwell, Dunklin county, is 
situated on the line of the Paragould-South- 
eastern and Paragould & Memphis Railroad 
not far from the Arkansas line. It was first 
settled as a town in 1896 and was not incor- 
porated until 1904. Among the eaiiy settlers 
were J. T. Meredith, J. A. Southers, W. D. 
Jackson, J. M. Barber and J. D. Washington. 
The first merchants were J. M. Seaborn, J. D. 
Hale, and the Bertig Mercantile Company; 
the latter two stores are still in existence and 
transact the greater part of the mercantile 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



377 



* business of the town. The town has depended 
very largely on the farming country and 
also on the timber interests for support. 
When the settlement was first made at 
this point there were immense forests of tim- 
ber about it and the town was made the loca- 
tion of some wood-working establishments em- 
ploying large numbers of men. At the pres- 
ent time the Cardwell & Buffalo vStave Com- 
pany operates the most important factory. 
The Peoples Bank with a capital of $15,000 
supplies the financial wants of the citizens. 
The first mayor was J. R. Pool, who was also 
postmaster for a number of years. Cardwell 
is situated in the midst of fine farming coun- 
try and will no doubt continue to have a 
steady growth. It now has a population of 
874. 

Whiteoak, a village in Dunklin county, sit- 
uated nine miles north of Kennett on the St. 
Louis & Gulf Railroad, was settled in 1902 on 
the opening of this road. It has never been 
incorporated but exists only as a village with- 
out organized form. It contains at the pres- 
ent time three general stores and a saw mill. 
The country around "Whiteoak is ver.v fertile 
and much new farming land is being opened 
up so that the town will probably continue to 
be a good trading point. 

Glennonville 

The village of Glennonville in Dunklin 
county north of Campbell, was established in 
1904. It was laid out on lands which had been 
purchased by the Catholic church in the name 
of Archbishop Glennon of St. Louis. The col- 
onj' was composed of immigrants principally 
from Germany. It has had a considerable 
growth and is a flourishing town. The first 
merchant was L. M. Michlong. There are now 
three stores in the town and also three wood- 



working establishments manufacturing staves 
and handles. 

Carutii 

Caruth is an unincorporated village in 
Dunklin county. It has two stores, a mill, 
two churches and a population of about 100. 
The sehoolhouse is the most important build- 
ing in the place, being built of brick and hav- 
ing all modern improvements. It contains 
four rooms. 

Cottonplant in Cla.y township was laid off 
as a town by E. J. Langdon who for a long 
time was the only merchant and the town's 
postmaster. At the present time there is a 
school, a church, one store and about 150 in- 
habitants. 

Other villages in Dunklin county are Bra- 
num in the south part of the county, Octa on 
Varner river south of Kennett and a station 
on the Frisco Railroad, Hollywood south of 
Senath. McGuire near Maiden on the Frisco, 
Paulding, Rushcreek on Crowley's ridge, 
Townley, a saw-mill town north of Maiden on 
the Cotton Belt, Valleyridge north of Camp- 
bell, Vincit on Buffalo creek south of Kennett, 
and Wrightville. 

Des Arc 

The town of Des Arc, in Iron county, was 
settled first in the year 1800, the early settlers 
being David Shaver, Andrew Wallace and 
Major McFadden. The town was not incor- 
porated as a town until 1889. The first mayor 
was Charles H. Collins. Some of the early 
merchants were David Shaver, Charles Col- 
lins and John and James Heifner. There are 
now seven general stores, two planing mills, 
two handle factories, two grist mills, one 
broom factory and two saw mills. The Bank 
of Des Arc was organized in 1907 and has a 



378 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



capital stock of $10,000. The town is lighted 
with electric lights and among the important 
buildings are the "Woodman hall and three 
church buildings. It is on the main line of 
the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern and 
has a population of 287. 

Sabula is a little village on the main line of 
the Iron Mountain Railroad in Iron county. 
It has a population of 70. 

The old village of Belleview is situated west 
of Middlebrook and is an inland community 
having no railroad communications. It was 
lor a long time famous as a place of residence, 
the surrounding country being esteemed un- 
usually healthful and is also very beautiful. 

Other villages in Iron county are Granite- 
viHe, Bixby, Hogan, Mann, Munger, Pippin 
and Tolu. 

Annapolis 

Annapolis in Iron county was settled about 
1872. It was incorporated in 1902, but the 
incorporation was allowed to lapse. The first 
mayor was C. Hart. Among the early settlers 
were John Thomas Jackson, James Christo- 
pher and R. A. Clarkson. There are four gen- 
eral stores, a saw mill and a planing mill in 
the town. It has the usual number of hotels, 
restaurants and other minor interests and its 
present population is 160. 

Festus 

Festus is situated on the St. Louis & San 
Francisco and the Mississippi & Bonne Terre 
railways in Jefferson county, about thirty- 
five miles from St. Louis. It was laid out in 
1878 by W. J. Adams and for several years 
known as Derby City. It contains a number 
of general stores and other business establish- 
ments and a good system of public schools, 
Catholic, Christian, Methodist and Presby- 
terian churches and a flouring mill. It is only 



two miles from Crystal City and many per- 
sons who are employed at that place make 
their homes in Festus. It has a system of 
electric lights and its present population is 
2,556. The Citizens Bank was organized in 
1889, and has a capital stock of $35,000. The 
Farmers and ^Merchants Bank, with a capital 
of $15,000, was organized in 1903. 

House's Springs and IMorse Mill are two 
small village communities in Jefferson county 
whose names perpetuate the memories of fa- 
mous pioneers of that county. Both were set- 
tled very early in the history of that section 
and both were the scene of Indian attacks dur- 
ing the early days. 

Pevely 

I'evely in Jeffei'son county is a station on 
the Mississipjji river and Bonne Terre Rail- 
road just south of Riverside. It has a popula- 
tion of 247. It is supported by farming 
country and its railroad interests. It has a 
school, several stores and a church. The Bank 
of Pevelj' was organized in 1906 and has a 
capital stock of $10,000. 

Victoria, with a population of 150, Plattin, 
Riverside, Rushtower, High Ridge, Gruliville, 
Frumet, Silica, Selma, and Wickes are other 
small villages. Valles Mines on the Missis- 
sippi river and Bonne Terre Railroad in the 
south part of the county is one of the old min- 
ing locations of this county. It bears th'e 
name of the pioneer French family long fa- 
mous in the history of Ste. Genevieve district. 

Mine LaMotte 

Mine LaMotte, a village in Madison county 
four miles north of Frederickton and two 
miles from the Belmont branch of the Iron 
Mountain, is one of the oldest settlements in 
Southeast Missouri. "We have elsewiiere given 
the history of the mine situated here which is 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



379 



i-eally the history of the town as it exists 
solely by virtue of the fonuer. Its present 
population is estimated at 500 and it has 
churches, schools, a few stores and a hotel. 
Among the men closely associated with the 
place were the Valles of Ste. Genevieve who 
operated the mine for a time, one of whom was 
killed here by Indians, St. Gem Beauvais and 
J. B. Pratte. 

Cornwall is a station on the Belmont 
branch south of Frederiektou. Its population 
is 45. 

Other villages in Madison county are White 
Springs, famous for its medicinal springs and 
used as a summer resort, and situated west of 
Cornwall off the railroad ; French Mills, Ro- 
selle, Saco, Silvermiue and Twelveniile. 

DiEHLSTADT 

The village of Diehlstadt in Mississippi 
county was settled in 1868 by John Kirkpat- 
rick who also conducted the first store in the 
town. The town was incorporated in 1894 
and its first mayor was John Rushing. There 
are at present five general stores besides 
minor business establishments of various 
kinds. The town has no factories of any kind 
and is supported wholly by the farming com- 
munity in which it is situated. The land 
about the town is fertile and the conunuuity 
is a prosperous and growing one. Prepara- 
tions are being made to organize a bank to 
care for the financial interests. The impor- 
tant Iniildings are the lodge hall and the 
church buildings belonging to the IMethodists 
and Baptists. The town is situated on the 
Belmont branch of the Iron ^Mountain Rail- 
road, and has a pojjulation of 160. 

East Prairie 

East Prairie, an unincorporated village for- 
merly known as Hibbard, in St. James town- 



ship in Mississippi county twelve miles from 
Charleston, was laid out in 1883 and for a 
number of years was almost entirely depend- 
ent upon saw mills and other wood working 
establishments. The country about the town 
has been opened up in recent years and it is 
now supported very largely by the farming 
community. It has Methodist, Christian and 
Catholic churches, cotton gin, several general 
stores and olher business establishments and 
one newspaper, the East Prairie Eagle, a well 
edited and newsy county paper. The town 
is situated on the Cairo branch of the St. 
Louis Southwestern Railway. The New Bank 
of East Prairie has a capital stock of $15,000 
and was organized in 1905. 

Bertrand 

Bei'trand is a village on the Cairo branch 
of the Iron Mountain six miles from Charles- 
ton. It was laid out in 1859 by H. J. Diehl. 
It has stores, a church and school. The Bank 
of Bertrand was chartered in 1906 and its 
capital is $15,000. 

Other villages in Mississippi county are 
Whiting, a saw-mill town. Sands and Wolf 
Island. Bird's Point, the famous old town 
settled in early days ))y a member of the Bird 
family for whom it was named has practically 
ceased to exist having been washed away by 
the river on whose bank it was situated. 

Gideon 

One of the fastest growing towns in New 
iladrid county is Gideon which is situated on 
the St. Louis & Gulf Railroad about three 
miles east of the Dunklin county line. Fif- 
teen years ago its site was in the midst of the 
unbroken forests of the Little River lowland. 
In 1900 a mill was located at this place by the 
firm of Gideon & Anderson. A town sprung 
up about the mill and it became a prosperous 



380 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



community. It was incorporated as a village 
in 1906. Among the early settlers were W. P. 
Anderson, M. S. Anderson, Frank E. Gideon 
and M. V. lilumma. The first merchants in the 
place were Gideon & Anderson, the owners of 
the mill. There are now general stores and 
other business establishments. There are also 
two sawmills, a stave factory, handle factory 
and planing mill. The town has electric light 
supplied by the mill company. There are two 
churches — Methodist aiul Baptist, a four-room 
school building, and seven acres of land has 
been set aside for a park. The country about 
Gideon is exceedingly fertile, and as it is 
drained and cleared will be supported by a 
fine farming community. Its population is 
702. 

Parma 

lu 1!J00 the first settlers moved to the site 
of the present town of Parma, New Madrid 
county. This town is eight miles northwest 
of Maiden on the line of the St. Louis South- 
western Railway between Cairo and ilalden. 
It is not a great way from an earlier village 
which was known as Lotta. The site of the 
new town of Parma was determined by the 
crossing of a line of the Frisco Railroad at 
this point. The presence of the two railroads 
and construction of mills for the working iip 
of the great timber supplies, brought a con- 
siderable numlier of jieople to the town. It 
was situated in rather a low place and before 
drainage ditches were cut, was subject to con- 
stant overflow. This has been remedied, how- 
ever, by the cutting of the ditches so that its 
site now is a very good one. The timber is be- 
ing rapidly cut out and farming land opened 
up in the vicinity. Among the early set- 
tlers were: "William "Webb, Sol Hon and H. L.. 
Boaz. Boaz and "Wrather Brothers were 
among the early merchants. In 1905 owing 



to the wealth of the town and its importance 
it was incorporated and F. P. "Wrather was 
the first mayor^ The town now has six gen- 
eral stores and a number of other business in- 
terests, among them a handle factory and two 
large veneering factories. The financial in- 
terests of the town are cared for by the Bank 
of Parma, established in 1905, with a capital 
of .iilO,000. The more important buildings are 
the I. 0. 0. F. hall, recently constructed and 
the new brick school building erected in 1910, 
containing eight rooms and thoroughly 
equipped. The town has electric lights. Good 
sidewalks have been built in the central part 
of tlie town and some work done towards the 
paving of the streets. The population is now 
905. 

LiLBOUEN 

One of the fastest growing towns in South- 
east Missouri is Lilbourn in New Madrid 
county, situated at the junction of the St. 
Louis Southwestern and the St. Louis & San 
Francisco railroads. The first town in the 
vicinity was called Papaw Junction and was 
situated about a mile west of the present site 
of the town where the New Madrid branch 
joined the main line of the St. Louis South- 
western. The town was incorporated in 1904, 
its first mayor being R. T. "Waring. Waring 
was one of the first settlers and also one of the 
early merchants of the town, others being D. 
H. "Wilkison and R. F. Baynes. The town has 
eight general stores and besides these several 
factories, broom, stave, handle, brick and tile 
plant and two saw-mills. There is one bank 
in the town known as the Bank of Lilliourn 
which was chartered in 1910 and has a capital 
of $10,000. The town is lighted with electric 
lights and is growing very rapidl.y. It is situ- 
ated in the midst of good farming country and 
has unusual railroad facilities. The popula- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



381 



tion as given by the census of 1910 is 274 but 
now the citizens claim a population of 1,200. 
The town has recently made a number of 
public improvements including over five miles 
of granitoid sidewalks. 

Como, on Como lake, is a village in New 
Madrid county on the St. Louis Southwest- 
ern. It has timber interests and is in the 
midst of what is destined to be a fine farming 
country. Canalou is on the Gulf branch of 
the Frisco. It was settled as a sawmill town 
when the Houck road was constructed in 1902. 
It has extensive timber interests, a saw mill, 
store, and several minor business interests. 
Hyman, Mathews, and Riseo are other villages 
in New Madrid county. 

Morehouse 

Morehouse, in the extreme northwest corner 
of New Madrid county, had its origin in the 
location here of large saw mills when the Cairo 
branch of the Iron Mountain made possible 
the handling of the vast quantities of timber 
found about the town and surrounding coun- 
try. For many years the place was merely a 
saw-mill town. It is on the bank of Little 
River which overflows most of the place. The 
surrounding country was almost wholly tim- 
bered, and much of it not capable of being 
cultivated without being di-ained. With the 
building of the Gulf Railroad, the clearing 
away of the timber, the drainage and subse- 
quent cultivation of the lands, and the protec- 
tion of the town from overflow by the build- 
ing of levees along the course of Little River, 
the place began to develop. It is now a thriv- 
ing and prosperous town of 1,700 people, with 
good streets, sidewalks, well built business 
blocks, churches, a good brick school building, 
a superior hotel, and one of the largest saw- 
mill plants in the state. In this mill, which 



is owned by the Himmelberger-Harrison Lum- 
ber Company are cut vast quantities of cy- 
press and gum lumber. The town bids fair 
to grow and to become even more prosperous 
as more of the land is subjected to cultivation 
as it is of unsurpassed fertility. 

Hayti 

At the junction of the main line of the 
Frisco with the Caruthersville and Kennett 
branch, six miles from Caruthersville, is the 
town of Hayti, Pemiscot county. It began to 
be a town at the time of the building of the 
railroad from Kennett to. Caruthersville and 
has had a rapid growth since. It now has a 
population of 1,057. Its business interests 
consist of a number of general stores, two 
banks and several manufacturing establish- 
ments devoted to wood working principall.y. 
It has a good system of public schools, several 
churches and a city hall which is above the 
average for towns of this size. There is one 
paper, the Hayti Herald, which is edited by 
William York. 

Pascola 

Pascola, an unincorporated village in Pemis- 
cot county, is situated on the Frisco Railroad 
between Kennett and Ilayti. It began to be 
a town on the building of the railroad from 
Kennett to Caruthersville in 1894 but pre- 
vious to that time there had been settlers liv- 
ing in the immediate vicinity of tlie town since 
1879. The earliest of these were Tim In- 
gram and Mrs. Sarah Brown. The town was 
incorporated in 1899, the first maj^or being A. 
Russell. The merchants in the early period 
were John Swails and Edward Harrison. 
There are now three general stores and one 
stave factory. The town is largely dependent 
upon the agricultural community around. 



382 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Holland 

In 1871 J. C. Winters and J. W. Holland 
settled on the site of the present town of Hol- 
land in Pemiscot county. Winters is still a 
resident of the town but Holland, for whom 
it was named, is dead. It was twenty years 
before the place was anything more than 
simply a little group of farms; not until 
the opening of the Frisco Railroad be- 
tween St. Louis and Memphis was there any 
considerable activity in building up of the 
town. This was in 1901 and the first incor- 
poration was made in May, 1903 ; Samuel E. 
Redmond was the first mayor. Besides Win- 
ters and Holland, Joe and J. L. Lester, J. E. 
Butler and James Mills were among the first 
who moved into the town. The first mer- 
chants were W. A. Sanford, Holland Supply 
Company, A. L. Watson and G. S. ^Mirick. 
There are now five general stores and the 
usual number of blacksmith shops, restau- 
rants and other small establishments. In ad- 
dition to these there are two cotton gins and 
a saw mill in the town. One of the local in- 
stitutions of wliich the town is proud is the 
telephone exchange owned by the Citizens 
Co-operative Telephone Company of Holland. 
The population is about 400, having increased 
very rapidly in the last two or three years. 
This is due to the development of the sur- 
rounding country, which is of unusual fer- 
tility. 

Steele 

Steele is an unincorporated village in the 
southern part of Pemiscot county. It was 
named for L. L. Steele. Some of the persons 
who lived there during its first years were 
William Wilford, Jesse VanlToy, G. E. :Moore 
and Henry Flowers. The first merchants 



were F. T. Jackson Store Company and 
George W. Freese. The business interests of 
the town are now represented by seven gen- 
eral stores, three cotton gins, a saw-mill and a 
grist mill. The Bank of Steele was chartered 
in 1904, and has a capital of $10,000. The 
town is in the midst of fine farming country 
and gives every evidence of continued pros- 
perity. It now has a population of 600 and is 
situated on the Frisco Railroad. 

Cottonwood Point on the river, in Pemiscot 
county, was for a long time an important ship- 
ping point for the adjacent country, iluch 
traffic came to the place from Pemiscot and 
even Dunklin counties on the constraction of 
a road across the Little River swamp. The 
town prospered on account of this business, a 
number of large stores and other business es- 
tablishments sprung up, churches were built 
and a school maintained. Tyler, to the south, 
experienced a similar growth in a smaller de- 
gree. Both of these towns lost their impor- 
tance in a large measure by the building up 
of Caruthersville to the north of them and the 
construction of the Frisco Railroad through 
the county west of them. 

Deering and Wardell are important saw- 
mill towns, and other villages in Pemiscot 
county are Game on the Frisco, Stancil, Stew- 
art and Covington and Kennedy. 

Claryville 

The town of Claryville in Perry county was 
settled in 1869 and incorporated as a town in 
1871, the first mayor being V. P. Tucker. The 
first merchant in the town was E. J. Rhodes. 
There are now three general stores, but no 
factories of any kind and the town is depend- 
ent upon the farming community about it. It 
has a i^opulation of 140. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST. MISSOURI 



383 



Lithium 

Lithium, same county, was surveyed as a 
town in 1882. At that time the settlers were 
Dr. Henry Clay Tish, Richard P. Dobbs and 
James G. Christian, all of whom came to Mis- 
souri from Illinois. The town was incorpo- 
rated in 1883 and the first maj'or was Richard 
C. Lisenby. The first store was opened by 
Brown and Hartley in the spring of 1883. A 
public bath house was built by Thomas King 
in the same year. The location of the town 
was determined by certain mineral springs. 
They were very popular and the town grew 
very rapidly for about a year. There are two 
of these springs of water both of them being 
highly prized on account of medicinal quali- 
ties. One of them belongs to the town and the 
other is owned by Mrs. Richard P. Dobbs. 
The town is situated on the Cape Girardeau, 
Perryville & Ste. Genevieve Railroad and is 
two miles from the Frisco. These are two 
churches in the town, a Baptist church organ- 
ized in 1885, and a Catholic church organized 
in 1896. The town has two general stores, a 
Hour mill, a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, 
lirick yard and a feed stable. Its population 
is 98. 

Wittenberg 

Wittenberg, in Perry county, was laid off 
as a town and incorporated in 1867. It is sit- 
uated at the mouth of Brazeau creek and as 
its name indicates is a settlement of Gennan 
Lutherans. It is a shipping point on the river 
and is a station on the Frisco from St. Louis 
to Memphis. 

Longtown, an inland village of Perry 
county, was laid out in 1871. It has a church, 
school and three stoi'es. Seventy-six is a flour- 
ishing village on the Frisco with a population 
of 367. It was for a long time only a ship- 



ping point on the river and was called Sev- 
enty-six Landing. With the construction of 
the railroad it assumed new importance. It 
has a flouring mill, stores and churches. 

Schumer Springs, a village in Perry county 
two miles from the line of the Cape Girardeau 
& Chester Railroad, is a health resort famous 
for the medicinal character of its waters. 

Other villages in the county are Menfro on 
the Frisco with a population of 365, LTnion- 
town, Yount, Frolma and Farrar. 

Bunker 

Bunker is a new town on the line between 
Dent and Reynolds counties. The first settle- 
ments in the neighbcrhood of the town were 
made about 1840, but there was not even a 
village before 1907. The town was incorpo- 
rated in 1909 and Dr. J. B. Gordon was the 
first mayor. It is now a thriving town with 
eight general stores and one large saw mill. 
The town is lighted with electric lights and 
has a population of 106. It is the terminus of 
the Missouri Southern Railroad which runs 
from Leeper in Wayne county. 

Ellington 

Ellington, while not the county seat of Rey- 
nolds county, is the most important town ex- 
cept for the transaction of legal business. It 
is near the center of the county and is on the 
Missouri Southern Railroad. It is a thriving 
business community witli mills, stores, 
churches and a good school. There are two 
banks in the town. The Bank of Ellington was 
incorporated in 1905 with a capital of $25,- 
000 and the Farmers State Bank in 1909. It 
has a capital of $25,000 also. These amounts 
show the extent of the interest of the commu- 
nity. The town is largely supported by tim- 
ber and farming interests. 



384 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JNIISSOURI 



Naylor 

Naylor is a village in Thomas township in 
Ripley county. It is on the main line of the 
Iron Mountain Railroad and is the western 
terminus of the Doniphan branch. Its pop- 
ulation is 406. There are two churches, a 
school and about ten business establishments 
of various kinds. The Bank of Naylor was 
chartered in 1903 and has a capital stock of 
$10,000. 

Other villages in Ripley county are Fair- 
dealing, Ponder, Gatewood, Pine and Poyner. 

Flat River 

The largest cit.y in St. Francois county is 
Flat River. Settlement was made here early 
in the history of the county and lead mines 
opened just before the war. The lead inter- 
ests were not greatly developed until after the 
building of the Mississippi River and Bonne 
Terre Railroad. The mines were developed 
rapidly then and they are so extensive and so 
rich as to cause the growth of a large com- 
munity supported in large part by them. 
There are farming interests also, but they 
are of much less importance than the mines. 
The town now has another railroad — 
the Illinois Southern — which passes through 
extending between Bismarck and Ste. Gene- 
vieve. Flat River is the northern terminus 
of the St. Francois county interui-ban line. 
Its transportation facilities are thus unusu- 
ally good and the prosperity of the town 
greatly enhanced by them. There are about 
100 business establishments including stores, 
mills, mines, wagon shops and minor estab- 
lishments. The Bank of Flat River was char- 
tered in 1907 and has a capital of $15,000. 
The Miners & IMerchants Bank was chartered 
in 1899 and its capital is also $15,000. The 
school system is one of the best in this part 



of the state. The town is a typical mining 
community, differing from all others of South- 
east i\Iissouri outside the Lead Belt. 

DesLoge 

DesLoge is an unincorporated village of St. 
Francois county. It has a large and con- 
stantly growing population due to its large 
mining interests, but has never assumed a 
municipal organization. The Bank of Des- 
Loge was clmrtered in 1902 and has a capital 
of $10,000. The Citizens Bank dates from 
1907 and its capital is also $10,000. The town 
has recently erected a fine new school build- 
ing, one of the best and most modei'n in South- 
east Missouri. It maintains a good system of 
schools and is a progressive and thriving com- 
munity. 

Leadwood 

Leadwood is another unincorporated village 
of the Lead Belt in St. Francois county. Its 
population is large though no municipal gov- 
ernment has been organized. The village of 
Iron Mountain is in Iron township in St. 
Francois county. It is situated at the foot of 
Iron Mountain and is fourteen miles south- 
west of Farmington. The town is owned in 
large part by the mining company which 
owns Iron Mountain. There are stores, 
churches, a school and a population of 180. 
At one time it was a large community having 
more than 1,000 people, but with the cessa- 
tion for many .years of active work on the iron 
mines the population dwindled away. 

Elvins 

Another of the great mining communities 
is Elvins. It forms practically a part of Flat 
River, being situated but a little further south 
and west. It is organized as a separate mu- 
nicipality, however, and has a population of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



385 



2,071. It depends upon its mines and tlie rail- 
road traffic, being situated ou two lines 
of railroad — the Mississippi River & Bonne 
Terre, and the Illinois Southern. It is 
reached also by the St. Francois county in- 
terurban line. The Bank of Elvins was or- 
ganized in 1900 with a capital stock of $15,- 
000. 

Bonne Tebre 

Bonne Terre is in the northwestern part of 
St. Francois county about thirteen miles from 



mine of Bonne Terre which had been oper- 
ated in a very successful manner, passed into 
the hands of a number of men who organized 
the St. Joseph Lead Company and began very 
soon to carry on mining operations on a much 
more extensive scale than formerly. They 
employed large numbers of men and the town 
consequently grew rapidly. It was under the 
direction of this company that the first ex- 
tensive shafts were sunk in the earth for the 
obtaining of lead in Southeast Missouri. 

The growth of the town and the prospect 




In the Bonne Terre Lead Mining District 



Farmington. Until after the close of the Civil 
war it was simply a collection of miners' huts 
or tents, there having been mining carried on 
for a number of years. It received its name 
from the French words meaning "good land," 
applied to the district because of the fact that 
lead ore was scattered through the clay of the 
region and could be obtained by simply wash- 
ing. This particular clay with the lead ore 
disseminated through it was called "bonne 
terre." The little village came to have this 
name and it was retained by the first post- 
office that thej' established and still applies 
to the town. It was in the year 186-4 that the 

Vol. 1—25 



that it had become an important place in- 
duced the St. Joseph Lead Company to pro- 
vide for its wants. They had the town sur- 
veyed, laying out a number of large lots and 
wide .streets. The policy of the company was 
to keei? all the business in the town practi- 
cally in their own hands and they were not 
willing to sell property but followed the plan 
of leasing it for long periods of j'ears ; owing 
to this restriction and to the further fact that 
property would not be leased for the carrying 
on of any business which the company wished 
to conduct, the large part of the population 
grew up on the land outside of the town it- 



386 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



self. In February, 1883, and in March, 1885, 
the town was seriously damaged by fire and 
the Lead Company's works were largely de- 
stroyed on each of these occasions. 

The principal industry of the town is, and 
has been from the very first, lead mining. The 
number of persons engaged in this business 
has made the town a good market for all the 
produce of the surrounding country. The 
largest lead smelter in the United States is in 
Bonne Terre and there are a large number of 
other business establishments in the town, 
their number being about a hundred, including 
banks, flouring and planing mills, brick yards, 
machine shops, hotels and stores. The town 
has organizations of the principal secret or- 
ders and is well supplied with churches, there 
being Catholic, Congregational, Methodist 
Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal South. 
The Catholics maintain a school and the pub- 
lic schools are among the best in this part of 
the state. 

Not only is the city unique among South- 
east Missouri cities because of its unincorpo- 
rated condition and lack of municipal govern- 
ment, more than any other town in the sec- 
tion it is developing a distinctive character of 
architecture. There are a number of build- 
ings which are quite different from those now 
found in any other of the towns. One of 
the.se is the building occupied by the St. Jo- 
seph Lead Company as a store. It is English 
in its style, the first story being of brick and 
the second of frame and plaster. Another 
building of marked individuality is the Con- 
gregational church, a new and handsome 
building of the English style. This church is 
set in the midst of a beautiful lawn and forms 
an altogether chaniiing addition to the town. 
The central school Iniilding is also very differ- 
ent from that of most school buildings. An- 
other unique and ehaiuning building is the 



Memorial library. This is a small building, 
but handsomely constructed and well suited 
to its purpose. The Mississippi River & 
Bonne Terre Railroad maintains extensive 
shops and roundhouses here. The population 
is more than 5,000, though no exact estimate 
can be made as the place is not incorporated. 

Bismarck 

Bismarck, a town at the intersection of the 
Belmont branch with the main line of the St. 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, in 
St. Francois county, was laid out in 1868 by 
C. T. Manter, P. R. YanFrank, J. H. Worley 
and E. H. Cordell. The town was supported 
by the farming interests about it and pos- 
sessed some advantages in transportation. Its 
population is now 848. The principal indus- 
tries are the stores, hotels and flour mills. 
In 1877 the town was incorporated by the 
county court, the first trustees being "William 
H. Gulliver, Benjamin Schoch, C. C. Grider, 
George H. Kelly and A. H. Tegmeyer. The 
Bank of Bismarck was organized in 1902 and 
has a capital of $25,000. 

Delassus 

Delassus is situated two miles west of 
Farmington on the Belmont branch. It was 
laid out by A. DeLassus in October, 1869. For 
many years it was the principal shipping 
point for both Farmington and Doe Run. It 
is now connected with Farmington and other 
towns in the lead belt by interurbau railway. 
It was the residence for many years of A. 
DeLassus who was a descendant of Lieuten- 
ant Governor DeLassus. 

Seven miles south of DeLassus on the Bel- 
mont branch is a little town known as Knob 
Lick. Its importance is due to the fact that 
it is a shipping point for the granite quarries 
in this part of St. Francois county. Just 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



387 



west of the village of Knob Lick is one of the 
granite peaks of the St. Francois mountains 
and here for many years have been quarried 
large quantities of granite. Some of this 
granite is worked into paving blocks and some 
of it into building and monumental blocks of 
various kinds. 

Libertyville is the present name of one of 
the oldest settlements in St. Francois county. 
This was Cook's Settlement in the southern 
part of the county. It is removed from the 
railroad and has a few general stores and 
lilacksmith shops, flouring mill, church and 
schoolhouse. 

Doe Run 

In 1880 Doe Run, an unincorporated vil- 
lage in St. Francois county, had not been 
founded. Its site was the pasture land and 
orchards. About 1885 lead was discovered in 
that vicinity, and after prospecting it was 
found that the region was rich in lead ore. 
The Doe Run Lead Company was organized 
and commenced a mine there. They operated 
a number of shafts and built large reduction 
works for handling the ore. The mine at- 
tracted large numbers of settlers and the town 
grew rapidly. It is the southern terminus 
of the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre 
Railroad Company and is at a distance of 
three miles from the Belmont Branch of the 
Iron Mountain. 

Oban 

Oran is in Sylvania township, Scott county, 
on the Belmont Branch of the Iron Mountain 
and on the St. Louis & Gulf Branch of the 
Frisco. The first settlement here was called 
Sylvania. It was laid out as a town in 1868 
and was first called St. Cloud. At a later time 
it was named Oran. It is on the level sandy 
ridge just east of the Scott county hills. 



There are large deposits of yellow ochre 
and at one time a paint factoiy was operated 
here. It has five general stores, other minor 
business establishments, large flouring mill, 
and the Bank of Oran with a capital of $25,- 
000. The public school building is a brick 
structure of eight rooms and is well equipped. 
The present population of the town is 1,023. 

FORNPELT 

The two towns of Fornfelt and Illmo, Scott 
county, owe their existence to the building of 
the Thebes bridge and the consequent con- 
struction of the St. Louis, Southwestern Rail- 
way to this bridge. The first persons who 
made their home in what is now Fornfelt, 
were G. S. Cannon and A. Baudeudistel. The 
town dates its settlement from September, 
1904, and was incorporated as a town in the 
following May, the first mayor being Charles 
Hannn. At the present time there are four 
general stores together with some other busi- 
ness interests of minor character. There is 
one box factory which employs about a hun- 
dred and fifty men and turns out a large 
amount of box material, The Bank of Edna 
is one of the principal institutions of the 
town. It was organized in 1905 and has a 
capital of $15,000. Among the more impor- 
tant buildings are the two brick schoolhouses 
and the building occupied by the bank. The 
town is lighted by electricity and other im- 
provements in the way of sidewalks and 
streets have been made. The possession of the 
railroad yards of the St. Louis Southwestern 
and St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern is 
shared by Fornfelt and Illmo, as the yards 
are between the two towns. They consist of 
round houses and machine shops and employ 
several hundred men forming one of the rea- 
sons of the prospei-ity of the towns. Fornfelt 



388 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .AIISSOURI 



has experienced a rapid growth, sixty resi- 
dences having been erected during 1911. 

Illmo 

Just as is true of Fornfelt, lUmo owes its 
existence to the building of the Thebes bridge. 
It was settled in 1904 and incorporated in 
1905, the first mayor being Phillip Ruebel. 
Among the first settlers were J. P. Lightner, 
Casper Roth and Charles Will. The mer- 
chants during the early period were B. 
Thomas, D. T. Titwell and Beggs Brothers. 
At the present time there are eight general 
stores and one factory. The Bank of Illmo 
is in a flourishing condition and takes care of 
the financial interests of the town. There is 
an electric light plant which supplies the resi- 
dences, business houses, and also lights the 
streets. The more important buildings are the 
Southern Hotel, Lightner 's Opera House and 
Crews building. The town of Illmo is the 
division headquarters for the St. Louis South- 
western and St. Louis, Iron ^Mountain Rail- 
roads. 

Crowder 

The first settlers in Crowder, Scott county, 
were James ilarshall, James H. Marshall, J. 
H. Denbow, W. H. Page, Lee and W. C. Well- 
man, E. Virgin, W. J. Page, S. W. Wisdom, 
T. A. Cooksey, S. P. ilarshall, T. A. Mc- 
Cutchen, William Utley, Dr. C. C. Harris and 
Major McKinley. The first settlement in the 
town was made in 1897 and the town was in- 
corporated in 1902, the first mayor being 
Sterling P. ^Marshall. The first stores in the 
town were conducted b.v James Marshall & 
Brother, Huddleson Store Company, and J. 
A. Rifner. There are now three general 
stores in the town. Besides these the princi- 
pal business interests consist of a saw mill, 
hoop mill and stave factory. The town is sit- 



uated in the midst of a farming community 
and draws its support from the farms about 
it. There is still more land to be opened up 
and no doubt the town will experience a 
growth with the cultivation of this land. 
The population is now 288. 

Kelso 

Kelso was settled in 1882 and incorpo- 
rated as a town in 190-4, the first mayor being 
A. L. Drury. Among the early settlers were 
John Blattle and Charles Roberts. The first 
merchants in the town were George G. Wright 
and A. Baudendistel. There is now one gen- 
eral store and the principal manufacturing 
establishment is a flour mill. The Farmers & 
Merchants Bank was established in 1903 and 
has a capital stock of $10,000. The town is 
in Scott county and is situated on the main 
line of the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad, 
and is also the southern terminus of the Cape 
Girardeau & Thebes Bridge Railroad. 

Blodgett 

The settlement of Blodgett in Scott was 
made in 1869. It is situated on the Belmont 
branch of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & 
Southern Railway. The men who laid out the 
town and were among its first residents were : 
W. B. Congleton, B. P. Slarshall and Charles 
L. Stubbs. Marshall and Stubbs and W. R. 
Sherer were the early merchants. The town 
was incorporated in 1900 and Z. T. Wright 
was made the first mayor. There are now two 
general stores besides some drug stores and 
other business establishments. Both the gen- 
eral stores are of viuusual size considering the 
population of the town, cariying stocks of 
goods which would be a credit to a city. The 
Blodgett Bank, which was organized in 1901, 
with a capital of $15,000, looks after the finan- 
cial interests of the town. The present pop- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



389 



Illation is 422. Blodgett is situated iu the 
midst of fine farming country and enjoys the 
distinction of shipping more watermelons 
than any other station in the world. During 
the season of 1911 there were shipped 600 
cars of this fruit. 

MORLEY 

]\Iorley is a town on the Belmont branch of 
tlie Iron Mountain in Scott, and was for a 
number of years the shipping point for the 
county seat, Benton. It was laid out as a 
town in 1869 and incorporated in 1872, the 
first mayor being James Bardwell. The first 
merchants were B. D. Gaither, W. A. Cade, 
Hughes and Watkins and J. T. Anderson & 
Brother. There are now three general stores 
and two cotton gins. The first mill was built 
by F. C. Martin & Brother. The town is sit- 
uated in the midst of fine farming counti-y 
and ships a great deal of surplus produce 
every year, including many cars of melons. 
The soil in the immediate vicinity of the town 
seems to be especially suited for the produc- 
tion of canteloupes. The Scott County Bank 
was organized in 1891 and has a capital of 
.+15.000. The population is 494. 

Chaffee 

The town of Chaffee, in Scott county, was 
laid otif iu August, 1905. The land on which 
the town is situated was purchased by officials 
of the Frisco Railroad and laid off into town 
lots. Shortly after its establishment the town 
was made the division point of the Frisco road 
and the repair shops removed to this point 
from Cape Girardeau. The first mayor of 
the town was R. J. Wright and its first mer- 
chants were Wright IMercantile Company and 
II. A. Osman. Besides the smaller establish- 
ments, such as restaurants, drug stores, etc.. 



there are four general stores in the town, all 
of them carrying complete stocks of goods. 
There are also two factories, one a general 
lumber manufacturing company, the other is 
engaged in the manufacture of hoops. Chaffee 
State Bank was organized in 1906 with a cap- 
ital of $10,000. The town is lighted with 
electric lights. Among the important build- 
ings are the Astoria Hotel, bank buildings and 
the offices of the railroad company. The 
town now has a population of 2,082. 

Vanduseb 

Vanduser in Scott county is on the St. 
Louis & Gulf branch of the Frisco and is the 
terminus of the Bloomfield branch. It has a 
population of 338. The Bank of Vanduser 
was organized in 1907 and its capital stock is 
$10,000. The town is supported by the farm- 
ing country around it which is very fertile 
and productive. 

Dexter 

Dexter is situated not far from the center 
of Stoddard county. It is on the east side of 
Crowley's ridge, the site of the town being 
about seventy -five or one hundred feet higher 
than the level plains to the east and south. It 
was laid out as a town in 1873. The advan- 
tages of the place for a town are very great 
and immediately after the site was surveyed 
a sale of lots took place and stores began to 
be opened. Among the early merchants were : 
R. P. Liles & Co., William Edwards, J. N. 
Miller, Sisel & Plant, and Riggins & Co. At 
a later time the leading merchants were Mil- 
ler, Ladd & Co., Dowdy & Co., Edw. Webber, 
T. N. Doherty, R. A. Sisler & Co., J. J. 
Dowdy, T. S. Ulen. A. E. Bohlcke, E. E. Car- 
ter and J. R. Clark. Copper & Jorndt were 
millers. Miller, Ladd & Co. also operated a 



390 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



grist mill and cotton gin, and were dealers in 
cotton. 

The great advantage which Dexter possessed 
at the early period and the cause of its rapid 
growth was the railroad. It was located on 
the Cairo branch of the Iron Mountain be- 
tween Bird's Point and Poplar Bluff. It thus 
had connection with the river and with the 
main line of the Iron ilountain to St. Louis. 
The transportation problem, the greatest 
which had to be solved for towns and com- 
munities in this part of the state when they 
were situated away from the river, was not 
troublesome in the early history of Dexter. 
Conseciuently it grew rapidly. It was in a 
position to seize a large part of the trade from 
Stoddard and Dunklin counties which had 
formerly gone to Cape Girardeau and New 
Madrid. To the south of Dexter was the 
great sand ridge over which travel was easy. 
It was separated from Dunklin county by 
Taylor and Gum sloughs, it is true, but these 
were easily crossed so that no real obstacle 
was interposed except distance. This was 
much less than the citizens of that country 
had previously travelled to market so that 
there soon poured into Dexter a constantly in- 
creasing streaUi of cotton and other produce 
especially from Dunklin county. Much of the 
country around the town was suitable for 
wheat growing and a mill was built which 
brought wheat from places many miles dis- 
tant. Much of this wheat had formerly been 
carried to Cape Girardeau or Bloomfield. 

Not only was much produce brought to the 
town. Those who came to sell their products 
bought large quantities of goods. The greater 
part of the country to the south was supplied 
with practically all imported goods from Dex- 
ter. This trade brought wealth to the town. 
Its merchants were prosperous and added to 
their stocks. 



The first blow to the prosperity of the town 
came with the building of the Little River 
Valley & Arkansas Railroad from New Mad- 
rid to Maiden. The latter town was nearer to 
the cotton regions and soon absorbed much of 
the trade which had formerly come to Dexter. 

Two things, however, contributed to the 
growth of the town perhaps more than was 
lost. One of these was the building of St. 
Louis Southwestern Railway north from Mai- 
den, first to Delta, later to Gray's Point and 
eventually to Thebes. This provided railroad 
competition and direct connection by through 
trains to St. Louis. The other fact important 
in the development of the town was the drain- 
age movement which resulted in the opening 
of vast quantities of the richest and most pro- 
ductive lands. These lands were naturally 
tributary to Dexter and the increased trade 
which they brought added to the town's 
wealth. Large wood-working plants were 
erected and are still in operation. 

For years there was bitter rivah-y between 
Dexter and Bloomfield. The latter town was 
without railroad facilities for years after Dex- 
ter had acquired them, but it was the county 
seat, was older and seemed more firmly estab- 
lished. The people of Dexter made efforts to 
move the county seat to their town. Failing 
in this they secured the passage of a law re- 
quiring two sessions of the circuit court to 
be held in Dexter and two in Bloomfield each 
year. To provide a place for the meetings of 
the court they erected a fine brick building. 
The arrangement was not found satisfactory 
and the law was repealed. The building 
which was thus left vacant was sold to the 
Christian church for use as a college building. 
After some efforts to establish a college the 
church sold it to the public school and it is 
now in use as a high school building. 

The schools of Dexter have alwavs been 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



391 



among the best. The first organization for a 
public school was made in ISTi and from that 
time much interest and attention has been 
given to the schools. At the present time there 
are two good brick buildings, a well organ- 
ized system of grade schools, and a good four 
years high school. 

Besides the two railroads Dexter has some 
good public roads. From Dexter to Bloom- 
field a distance of seven miles there is a fine 
rock road, and there are other good roads also. 
At present there are about seventy business 
establishments of various kinds. They in- 
clude large genei-al stores, drug stores, furni- 
ture and hardware stores, saw mills, heading 
and stave factories, handle factories, other 
minor establishments and two banks. The 
Bank of Dexter was organized in 1892 and 
has a capital stock of .$50,000. The Citizens 
Bank, organized in 1903, has a capital of 
$30,000. There are the usual church organ- 
izations with good buildings. The town has 
good streets, sidewalks, water-works, electric 
lights, and all the conveniences of modern 
cities of its size. Its present population is 
2,322. 

Advance 

Advance in the extreme northern part of 
Stoddard county is on the Hoxie branch of 
the Frisco. It has a population of 621 and 
is a thriving and prosperous town. The farm- 
ing country around it is very productive and 
its people are enterprising. The Bank of 
Advance was chartered in 1902. Its capital 
is $20,000. The Advance Exchange Bank 
with a capital of $15,000, was chartered in 
1909. Advance has good public schools, about 
twenty business establishments, the usual 
church organizations. 



Bell City 

Bell City in Stoddard county, is a town on 
the St. Louis Southwestern, laid out soon 
after the building of that line. Its present 
population is 316. It has one bank with a 
capital of $10,000. There are churches, a 
public school, hotel, four stores, and other 
smaller business establishments. 

Brownwood, situated at the crossing of the 
Zalma and Bloomfield branch and the Hoxie 
branch, is a saw mill town. 

Ardeola, Idalia, Dudley, Headquarters and 
Avert are other Stoddard county villages. 

Bernie 

The town of Bernie in Stoddard county, is 
situated ou the main line of the St. Louis 
Southwestern Railroad between Dexter and 
Maiden. The first settlement was made there 
in the year 1878. It was incorporated as a 
village in 1890 and as a city in 1908, the first 
mayor being L. J. Turner. Among the early 
settlers were A. H. Slayton, W. L. Smith, 
Jlorgan Wood, T. J. Bailey, T. L. Whitehead, 
W. S. Russell, J. A. Walker, W. L. Schutt, 
M. C. Dooin and J. M. Barnett. The early 
merchants were W. L. Smith, W. L. Schutt, 
:\r. C. Dooin. :\IcFadden, Louis Klein and T. 
L. Whitehead. There are now eighteen gen- 
eral stores in the town and also a cotton gin 
and grist mill. The financial interests of the 
town are cared for by the Bank of Bernie 
which was chartered in 1901, and has a capi- 
tal stock of $20,000. The town has just com- 
pleted the erection of a $10,000 public school 
building and is conducting a good school in- 
eluding a high school. Besides the general 
interests which we have mentioned there are 
other minor business establishments includ- 



392 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ing a drug store and undertaking establish- 
ment. There are Baptist, Christian, iletho- 
dist and General Baptist churches. The pop- 
ulation of the town is 742. 

Puxico 

The iirst settlement at Puxico in Stoddard 
county was made September 29, 1883, and the 
town was incorporated June 2, 1884. The 
first mayor was E. L. Hawks. Among the 
early settlers were J. A. Hickman, E. L. 
Hawks, W. C. Clark, George Eaton. Henry 
Jeffords, Prior Daniels, John W. Reed, "Wil- 
liam Gray and H. B. Purcell. The business 
interests of the town were, for the first period, 
in the hands of J. A. Hickman, John Reed. 
H. B. Purcell and T. J. Moss. There are now 
four general stores, handle factory, flour mill, 
electric light plant, canning factory, saw mill. 
and planing mill. Among the important 
buildings are the opera house, three churches. 
brick school building and a lodge hall. The 
town is situated on the Hoxie branch of the 
Frisco Railroad and has a population of 814. 
The Bank of Puxico was organized in 1898 
and has a capital stock of $25,000. One news- 
paper, the Puxico Index, is published in the 
town. 

Irondale 

Irondale, in Washington county, was laid 
out in 1857 by Hon. John G. Scott, who 
erected a large iron furnace there. It is on 
the Iron Mountain Railway, ten miles south- 
east of Potosi, the county seat. 

There are three churches, Catholic. Cum- 
berland Presbyterian, and Methodist, a pub- 
lic school, hotel, five stores, and a mill. The 
Bank of Irondale was organized in 1901 with 
a capital stock of $10,000. The population 
is now 338. 



Mineral Point 

^lineral Point is a village in Washington 
county, four miles east of Potosi and is the 
tenninus of the Potosi branch of the Iron 
Mountain Railway. It was laid out in 1857 
by the Hon. John Evans. It has a school, a 
^letliodist Episcopal church, a hotel, four 
stores, and its population is 290. 

RiCHWOODS 

Richwoods is a village in Washington 
<ounty near the Jefferson county line. It has 
recentlj' taken on new life and is becoming 
more important. A bank called the Bank of 
Richwoods, was organized in 1910 with a cap- 
ital stock of $10,000. There are ten business 
establishments, a church, and a mill. The 
population is about 300. Other villages and 
towns are Baryties, Tiff, Hopewell, Shirley, 
Summit, and Undine. 

Chaonia 

Chaonia, in Wayne county on the Hoxie 
branch of the Frisco, is a town which sprung 
up around a saw-mill about 1899. After the 
timber was cleared away the farming inter- 
ests began to support the town and it is now 
growing. The population is 363. There are 
stores, a church, mills, and the Bank of Cha- 
onia with a capital stock of $10,000. It was 
chartered in 1907. 

Leeper 

Leeper in Wayne county, is the junction 
point of the ^Missouri Southern with the Iron 
Mountain. It was named in honor of Col. 
W. T. Leeper. a northern soldier in the Civil 
war. At one time it was the seat of extensive 
saw mills, but these have disappeared. It 
is now supported by fanning and railroad in- 
terests. There are four stores, a hotel, 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



393 



churches, and other establishments, 
ulation is 360. 

Mill Spring 



The pop- 



]\Iill Spring, a few miles south of Leeper 
on tlie Iron Mountain, was once an important 
lumber manufacturing town. The mills have 
closed down and the town is supported only 
by the farming country. It is near a large 
and beautiful spring from which it takes its 
name. The spring was once used to furnish 
power for the mill. The population is now 
given as 360. 

WiLLIAMSVILLE 

Williamsville, an important town in Wayne 
county, is situated at the junction of the Iron 



Mountain main line with the Williamsville, 
Greenville and St. Louis Railroad, and also 
on the Hoxie branch of the Frisco. Its trans- 
portation facilities are such as to make it a 
good town in time, as the country develops 
in a farming way. For years it was sup- 
ported by mills which used up the large for- 
est of pine timber. Later the iron industry 
became important and large reduction works 
were built for handling the iron ore. These 
have not yet proved permanent and the town 
depends largel.y upon its railroad and farm- 
ing interest. There are five stores, a mill, 
two hotels, churches and the Williamsville 
State Bank with a capital of $10,000, which 
was chartered in 1905. 



SECTION VII 



Educational Institutions 



CHAPTER XXXI 



EARLY SCHOOLS 



Work of the Subscription Schools • — Academies at Ste. Genevieve, Jackson, Potosi 
New Madrid, Perryville, Point Pleasant, Cape Girardeau, Bloomfield, Poplar Bluff 
AND Charleston. 



Up to 1804 when Louisiana became a part 
of the territory of the United States there had 
been but few attempts made to provide schools. 
We have seen that occasional schools were con- 
ducted in Ste. Genevieve and in the Ramsay 
settlement in Cape Girardeau district and 
perhaps in a few other places. These schools, 
however, were very inefficient. They were 
conducted for only a very short period of 
time, usually only two or three months, and 
were taught by whatever persons seemed able 
to spare the time. The course of study in- 
cluded only the merest rudiments of educa- 
tion and each school was conducted entirely 
separate and distinct from all the others. 
There seems to have been no effort made to 
preserve a record of the work done by students 
and when school was begun in any year no 
attention was given to what had been accom- 
plished before. 

With the transfer to the United States and 
consequent inflow of settlers from the states 
east of the river more attention came to be 
paid to the matter of education. It was nat- 
ural that this should be the case. These set- 
tlers had lived where schools were held in 
high esteem and where efforts were being 
made to provide systems of education. They 



accordingly made every effort to establish 
schools as far as that was possible. 

The history of the development of educa- 
tion from this time is concerned with two 
movements: The first of these was a con- 
tinuation of the method formerly in use, that 
is, to provide schools independent of the state. 
Alongside of this there was a movement to 
form a system of public education which 
seems to have come into the state from Vir- 
ginia and perhaps owes its existence more to 
Thomas Jefferson than to any other one man. 
Tlie movement for state education found ex- 
pression in the act of purchase itself and all 
through the history of the state we fuid that 
people are giving their attention to the mat- 
ter of building up the public schools. In spite 
of many attempts, however, and much work 
accomplished, it is hardly possible to speak of 
an organized system of public schools before 
the period of the Civil war. In fact, it was 
not until 1874 that really adequate provision 
came to be made for public education. Be- 
fore that time the public schools existed side 
by side with private schools and were in most 
places of far less importance in the educa- 
tional history of the country than the latter. 



397 



398 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Work op the Subscription Schools 

It is iuteuded here to give an aceoimt of 
the attempts to provide schools independent 
of the state and later to discuss the growth 
of the public schools system itself. As has 
been said, a few schools had been conducted 
in scattering settlements before the transfer 
to the United States. These schools were 
taught by teachers who were paid by subscrip- 
tion, or else by some priest or mm of the 
church. 

Private schools in Southeast Missouri of au 
elementary character were usually either sub- 
scription schools or else the elementary de- 
partment of an academy. There were two 
kinds of academies, those chartered by the 
state and those which existed without a char- 
ter. 

What we have termed subscription schools 
were probably the most common form of the 
early elementary schools. They were taught 
usually by men who claimed certain attain- 
ments in learning and for a longer or shorter 
period devoted themselves to instruction. 
These teachers were professional teachers m 
that they supported themselves in part by 
teaching but most of them turned their atten- 
tion during the greater part of the year to 
other pursuits. These schools were usually 
conducted in the winter time when it was im- 
possible to do much of anything else while 
in other seasons of the year both teacher and 
pupils were otherwise engaged. There were 
two principal methods of organizing and con- 
ducting such schools. Either a teacher pro- 
vided room in some dwelling house and se- 
cured, by personal canvass, a sufficient num- 
ber of subscribers to make it worth while to 
conduct the school (the patrons having no or- 
ganization of their own), or else, and more 
commonly, those families in the commiuiity 



which desired to send children to school 
banded themselves together, appointed one of 
their number as trustee and provided a place 
for conducting the school. This trustee was 
empowered by the voluntary association 
which he represented, to employ a teacher 
;ind to exercise a degree of supervision over 
his actions. This was the most common plan 
and it is perhaps not too much to say that 
in many parts of Southeast Missouri the 
schools thus organized and conducted were the 
most important factors in educational work 
during all the period preceding the war. Even 
after the war this plan was stiU used in 
many places. The writer well remembers that 
his first .school days were spent in such a 
school. The house had been built by volim- 
tary association of neighbors who appointed 
one of their number as a trustee. He hired 
the teacher and when necessary discharged 
him. The house itself was well built and for 
the time, excellently seated and furnished. 
This was at a period long after the war. 

The state exercised no control over these 
schools and of course contributed nothing to 
their support. No license to teach was re- 
quired of those who conducted them, and ac- 
cordingly the only requirements to be met by 
the would-be teacher were such as were es- 
tablished in the community itself. These re- 
quirements varied in the different communi- 
ties, and from time to time. Quite naturally, 
however, they were not usually high. In 
many cases, especially in the early days, those 
who taught were almost wholly incompetent. 
They possessed but the merest smattering of 
knowledge and in some cases the moral stand- 
ards set for them were very low. In another 
chapter we have quoted from Peck as to the 
character of some who conducted schools. 
Such conditions were inevitable, however. It 
was entirely beyond the limited means of the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



399 



community to pay sufScient salary to attract 
men of education and ability as teachers, even 
had there existed the ability to set up stand- 
ards by which to judge the work of the school. 

In the more populous and wealthy com- 
mimities were to be found schools of a much 
better character conducted by men of learning 
and enthusiasm. Many of the educated min- 
isters of the country like Peck and Flint 
taught schools such as we have described. 
Their work was of high grade and through 
their efforts there gradually grew up stand- 
ards by which the work of the schools was 
measured. Jackson early became famous for 
its good schools and had among its earl.y teach- 
ers were Henry Sanford, Edward Criddle, 
Mrs. John Scripps, Mrs. Wathen, Mrs. 
Rhoda Ranuey and Dr. Barr. 

The most famous and perhaps the best of 
the early schools was that known as the 
Asylum, conducted near Ste. Genevieve. It 
was opened in 1815 b,y Joseph Hertich. Her- 
tieh was a native of Switzerland and brought 
with him to this coimtry the ideas of Pe.sta- 
lozzi. He seems to have been a born teacher 
and his school soon became famous on account 
of the superior grade of teaching which he 
did. A large number of his pupils afterward 
became famous. Among them were General 
A. C. Dodge of the United States army, his 
brother, Henry Dodge, afterward a member of 
the United States senate, and Lewis F. Linn, 
the famous senator from Missouri. It is 
doubtful if any other school in Southeast Mis- 
souri since that time has had so large a num- 
ber of boys who afterward reached eminence 
in one station or another. 

These subscription schools improved as the 
years passed and the country grew in wealth 
and population, making possible better sal- 
aries. The establishment of academies, sem- 



inaries and colleges, in Southeast Missouri, to- 
gether with the more liberal salaries, made it 
possible for men who wished to teach to pre- 
pare theuLselves for the work. Thei-e was, 
however, still great room for improvement. 
In many of the communities of this part of 
the state, as well as in other sections, we find 
schools conducted by men of very little edu- 
cation. Schools were conducted for but a 
short time and had onl.y a very limited course 
of study. There is appended here a copy of 
an agreement drawn up between a teacher and 
the patrons regarding the conduct of school. 
It is inserted as showing some of the manner 
in which these schools were arranged for, and 
also as casting light on the conditions of edu- 
cation in some parts of the state. 

A true copy a Shool article Commenced on the 
14th of July 1847 in Greenville Township Wayne 
County Mo. by Thomas Taylor for six months. — 

1st. I Thomas Taylor promise to teach they Chil- 
dren of this Neighborhood to the number of Twenty 
five if that many can be made up, or will commence 
with twenty to teach six months at the rate of Two 
dollars and fifty cents per scholar per quarter or 
three months. I will teach spelling, reading, waiting, 
the rudiments of arithmetic, then the single rule of 
three, double rule of three Practice, Tare and tret, 
simple Interest and compound Interest, also teach 
the vernacular Language, teach five days in each 
week and if any time is lost by Thomas Taylor by 
sickness or otherwise to be made up before the Ex- 
peration of Teaching. 

2nd. We the undersigned employers to this ar- 
ticle promise to pay to Thomas Taylor the above 
sum per scholar on or before the experation of teach- 
ing. I will receive Cash, Pork, Beefhides, Deerskins, 
Mink skins, Raccoon .skins or any fur if good, also 
woolen Jeans Cloth, shirting cloth or Young Cattle 
one year not over, a young Beef Steer or Cow. The 
defirent articles as above to be delivered me at Mr. 
Eli Cowans an on or before the experation. the 
Schoolhouse to be Comfortably fixed with a good 
roof writing Tables or Benches, also seats Benches 
to sit on. Fuel furnished when needed. 



400 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 

Employers Names No. of scholars Remarks standards imposed from above would have 

Samuel Sutheriin 2 been mucli superior in many ways. It is 

E. w. Cowan 2 doubtful, however, if such schools had been 

Conrad Shearheart 2 conducted whether they would have met the 

Coraehus Mabrey 2 /. . 

isam Sutheriin 1 Deeds 01 the commimities m which they ex- 
James Kirkpatrick 5 isted as well as did the crude and inefficient 

Andrew H. Forister 1 schools developed by the people themselves. 

Wm. Lee 1 Out of these schools there has grown a system 

Eerbley Lee 1 ^^ education which is justly the pride of Mis- 

\V illiam Hawes 2 . _,, ^ ^ . , , . . , 

T , T-. /*u ti , 1 souri. That system is a growth, it was not 

John Days (three months) 1 • "= ' 

Samuel Baker 1 manufactured and imposed upon the people, 

but is the expression of their own feeling 

School Regulations ..^^^^ ^j^^ ^^.^^j.j.i^g ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^■^. ^^^.^ ^^^^^ ^i^^g 

1st They scholars to come to school at half past the line of education. 

7 o Clock in the morning or as soon after as cir- gj^-jp ]-,y gj^jg ^y^^^^ ^j^ggg subscription schools 

cumstances will permit. ^j^p^.^ ^.^^^ developed in certain commimities, 

2nJ They will come with clean hands and face , , , . , , , -nTi .i 

, . „, , , cluirch or parochial schools. Wherever there 

hair Combed. ' 

3rd Whenassembled at the school house there "ere strong organizations of Catholics or 

will be no Discoursing of laughing, but every scholar Lutherans there were always to be found these 

to attend to their lessons and study schools. They were attached to the church in 

4th When at play they will play without hurt- ^^^^ ^^.^^. ^^^^^gU^ ^ separate building was 

ing one another. Climbing trees throwing stones or ■ t ^' i^ ^t ' i ^i i ^ j 

. . ^ , ■„ u uuv. J irovided for them, and they were conducted 

going into Avater will be prohibited ' 

5th It is hoped that every scholar will be Guided b' a priest of the church or by One of the 

by these Rules. nuns. These schools are still to be found in 

Signed T Taylor, tutor. fhis part of the state. In all the Catholic 

communities are separate parochial schools 
In judging these subscription schools it conducted under the direct supervision of the 
must be kept in mind that they were wholly church itself. The largest of these schools, 
vohmtary schools. They were defective and as well as the oldest, is that at Ste. Gene- 
failed in large part to accomplish the work vieve, which has an enrollment of more than 
which ought to have been done. Their terms three hundred pupils every year, 
were short, their equipment inadequate, and Academies 
there existed no standards for those who 

taught in them ; and yet they were the out- The early settlers in 'Missouri were not con- 
growth of a local feeling favorable to educa- tent with the establishment of subscription 
tion. This part of the state was working out schools for elementary education, they also 
its educational problems for itself, everj' com- began the development of schools of secondary 
munity independent of every other com- character as well. The south, from which Mis- 
munity and of the state. People devoted souri received a large number of immigrants 
time and money to the solution of the prob- at the period when Missouri was being popu- 
lem of education. Other schools organized lated, held to what has been denominated the 
on a different plan, better equipped with academy idea; that is to say that education 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



401 



was not necessarily provided by the state for 
the masses of the people but that provision 
should be made by private munificence for the 
erection and maintenance of academies where 
were educated the children of the well-to-do. 
This idea was of course a development of the 
English notion concerning education. The 
academies that sprung up over the South and 
in the North also were feeble copies of the 
great English public schools which were of 
course not public schools at all, but schools in 
which the children of the rich and of the noble 
were educated. This had developed in the 
South side by side with the idea of public 
education. We find the public schools spoken 
of somewhat contemptuously at times as the 
free schools. "When serious attention began 
to be given to education in Missouri the earli- 
est attempts were to foiuid academies. These 
academies were secondary schools according to 
the plans on which they were organized, but 
they all had attached to them a department 
for elementary instruction. It is estimated 
that within the whole state there were char- 
tered at least 110 academies before the year 
1875. 

The first academy chartered in southeast 
Missouri was that at Ste. Genevieve. In 1808 
the governor and other territorial officers 
granted to certain citizens of Ste. Genevieve 
a charter for the establishment of an academy. 
Certain restrictions were placed upon the 
trustees. They were to make no religious test 
in the employment of teachers, they were not 
to have theology taught, and they were to 
provide free instrviction to children of the 
very poor and of Indians. A stone building 
for the use of the school was begun at this 
time but not completed until later. No 
school was conducted under the charter until 
Bishop DuBourg opened a school in 1818. 

In 18.54 the old building which had been 

Vol. 1—2 6 



begun and only partly completed for the 
academy was finished by General Firmin A. 
Rozier, the school was conducted imder his 
direction and was in a flourishing condition 
until it was suspended on accoimt of the war ; 
it was not reopened after the war. This 
building was remodeled and occupied by 
General Rozier as a residence. In 1837 the 
Loretto Sisters established a school for girls 
called the school of Our Lady of Mount Car- 
mel, this school was conducted in the building 
known as the Detehemendy house. In 1858 
the Sisters of St. Joseph opened a school 
known as the St. Francois de Sales Academy ; 
it was conducted in a frame building until 
1872 when a large four-story brick structure 
was erected. 

In 1817 the territorial assembly chartered 
an academy at Potosi and another at Jack- 
son. The trustees of the school at Potosi were 
authorized to conduct a public lottery for its 
support. 

From this time until 1875 academies 
flourished. Some account of the more im- 
portant and famous ones is given here. 

The first school house in Jackson was a 
small log building erected upon the site of 
the present school lot, soon after the estab- 
lishment of the town. The commissioners 
conveyed this lot in accordance with the 
special act of the territorial assembly of 
January 30, 1817, to Joseph McFerron, Zenas 
Priest, Thomas Neale, Joseph Seawell and 
Thomas Stewart as trustees. In 1820 a char- 
ter of incorporation was granted to the Jack- 
son Academy with David Armour, Joseph 
Frizzell, Thomas Neale, V. B. DeLashmutt 
and William Surrell as trustees; nothing was 
done, however, concerning this school further 
than the simple act of incorporation. There 
were a number of private schools conducted ; 
the first grammar school was taught by Henry 



402 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Sanford, other teachers were ilrs. Juhu 
Scrips, ]\Irs. Edward Griddle, Mr. Wathen 
and Miss Rlioda Rauney. The Jacksou Acad- 
emy was incorporated again in 1839, the 
trustees being P. R. Garret, Edward Griddle, 
Nathan Vauhorn, John Martin, Johnson 
Ranney, Charles W. Welling and N. W. Wat- 
kins. The academy opened with J. G. Gardi- 
ner as principal and Miss Elmira Gregory 
assistant; Mr. Gardiner was a very skillful 
teacher and the school became one of the lead- 
ing schools in this part of the state; he was 
succeeded, after five or six years, by Rev. D. 
E. Y. Rice. The academy was operated until 
the war ; at that time it was transferred to the 
Methodist church but owing to some bitter 
feeling the act of transfer was not confirmed 
and after the close of the war the buildings 
and grounds were transferred to the trustees 
of the public school. 

The Potosi Academy was rechartered De- 
cember 24, 1824. Like the other institutions 
of its kind it was empowered to take and hold 
property and to establish and conduct a 
school. No religious restrictions were made 
in employment of teachers and all students 
who offered themselves were to be received. 
The first body of trustees of this academy had 
among its members men who were very in- 
fluential in the early history of Missouri. 
These trustees were William H. Ashley, 
Lionel Browne, John Rice Jones, Moses Aus- 
tin, David Wheeler, Moses Bates, Benjamin 
Elliott, James Austin, William Perry, John 
Mclllvaine, Andrew Scott, John Hawkins and 
Abraham Brunke. 

An academy was chartered at New Madrid 
January 11, 1841. It did not differ in the 
scope of it.s powers, its purposes or the limita- 
tions thrown about it, from the other acad- 
emies in the state ; its trustees were Robert 
G. Watson, Henry Toney, Richard Jones 



Waters, Alphonso Delorederi, Richard Bark- 
ley, Robert D. Dawson and Frederick C. 
Butler. 

February 25, 1845, the general assembly in- 
corporated an academy to be conducted at 
I'erryville, with the following trustees : James 
Rice, Reuben Shelby, Ferdinand Rozier, 
James A. Rutledge, Edward M. Holden, 
Hiram Block, Dr. Wheeler, Albert G. Aber- 
nathv, William McCombs and John Layton. 

Three da,vs after the incorporation of the 
academy at Perryville a similar institution 
was incorporated to be conducted at Point 
Pleasant, in New Madrid coiinty; its trustees 
were Urban C. Spencer, John Woodward, H. 

D. ]\Iaulsby, Thomas S. Bancroft, Godfrey 
LeSieur and John Martin. 

In 1830 the people of Gape Girardeau 
elected George Henderson, Abner Vansant, 
Ezra J. Dutch, Alfred P. Ellis and Levi L. 
Lightner as trustees to purchase a lot and 
build a school house. They bought the lot at 
the corner of Fountain and Merriweather 
streets, now occupied by the Lorimier school, 
and on this lot erected a small brick building. 
In Februarv, 1843, a school known as Gape 
Girardeau academy was incorporated, with 
Hiram L. Sloan, P. H. Davis, W. S. Watson, 

E. B. Cassilly, I. R. Wathen, Thomas J. Rod- 
ney and B. M. Horrell as trustees. In 1849 
the school known as the Washington Female 
seminary was incorporated ; its trustees were 
George Trask, Edward Dobbins, Noah Handy, 
John B. Martin, John D. Cook, Wilson Brown 
and Samuel A. Hill. Both these institutions 
were maintained until the Civil war. Among 
the principal teachers in them were Lyman 
B. Andrews, L. II, Andrews, and J. J. Gar- 
diner. They both occupied the old building 
known as the Ellis Hotel. 

The first schools in Bloomfield were taught 
in the Methodist church. In 1853 the Bloom- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



403 



field Educational Society was organized with 
S. G. Kitchen, Orson Bartlett, Henry Miller, 
D. B. Aliller and Michael A. "Wilson as trus- 
tees. They proceeded to erect a two-story 
frame building and conducted a seminary 
luitil the war. After the close of the war 
t ho only schools in the town, for a time, were 
some private schools taught at the seminary 
building. 

The first school in Poplar Bluff was ostaD- 
lished in 1869 by the Butler County Educa- 
tional Society, a corporate body, with Green 
L. Poplin, J. W. Baldwin, James Tolds, J. M. 
Henderson, J. M. Spence, B. F. Turner, J. S. 
Ferguson and G. T. Bartlett as trustees. The 
school which was conducted was known as 
the Black river Seminary; the first principal 



was H. McKinnon, and was conducted in a 
two-story frame building erected for school 
purposes. This seminary was succeeded by 
the public schools. 

In 1870 the Charleston Classical Academy 
was opened in Charleston. It was the enter- 
prise of a number of leading citizens of the 
town that led to the formation of a company 
and the foundation of the academy. A large 
brick building was erected for the .school, 
which was under the supervision of Justin 
Williams. The academy, however, did not 
prosper. The feeling among the people was 
in favor of public schools by this time, so the 
academy was closed, and the building was 
rented to the public school. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



Foundation of Public System — The State Commission — Sale op Lands — Laws of 1853 — • 
Provisions op 1874 — Growth op the System — Southeast Missouri Teachers' Associa- 
tion — First Schools in Various Counties. 



Jefferson's idea that the state, in order to 
presence itself, must provide for the educa- 
tion of all of its children was brought to Mis- 
souri by immigrants from Virginia. It found 
expression in the act which provided for the 
transfer of Louisiana to the United States. 
In that act it was said that the government of 
the United States would care for the educa- 
tion of the people. When the dissatisfied 
settlers in the district of Louisiana assembled 
at St. Louis soon after the transfer and drew 
up a memorial of grievances to Congress, one 
of the things included in that memorial was 
a request that Congress should provide means 
of support for the public schools. The estab- 
lishment of the academy at Ste. Genevieve in 
1808 by the governor and territorial judges, 
while not a provision for public education, 
expressed in part the desire of the people for 
schools which should be, to a certain extent 
at least, under public supervision. 

Foundation op Public System 

In 1812 the Congress of the United States 
created Missouri a special territory of the 
second class and in the act it was said "that 
schools and the means of education shall be 
encouraged and provided for from the public 
lands of the LTnited States within the terri- 



tory as Congress may direct." Missouri re- 
mained a territory for eight years after this 
time but there was very little accomplished 
in the way of provision for the support of 
schools; some things, however, were done 
looking in the direction of public education. 
In 1817 the territorial legislature incor- 
porated the city of St. Louis as a special 
school district with seven trustees to manage 
affairs, and to this special school district Con- 
gress donated some valuable tracts of land 
which lay within and near the town and was 
known as United States common lands. This 
donation should have been of very great value 
in supporting the schools, but the lands were 
badly managed so that the income derived 
from them was very small. 

When the Missouri Compromise was framed 
in 1820 and the state was authorized to frame 
a constitution it was declared in the act of 
Congress that schools should be forever en- 
couraged in the new state and the legislature 
of the state was directed to take steps to pre- 
serve from waste or damage such lands as 
have been or should hereafter be granted for 
the use of schools. A further provision of 
this act was "one or more schools shall be 
established in each congressional township as 



•104 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



405 



soon as necessary and the children of the poor 
shall be taught free." 

When Missouri was finally admitted into 
the Union in 1821, the act of admission set 
aside every sixteenth section of land within 
the state, together with seventy-two sections 
of saline land for school purposes. The lands 
thus granted amounted to 1,254,200 acres and 
it was directed that the land was to be sold 
and the proceeds invested for the use of the 
schools. This was a princely donation and 
coupled with the direction to establish town- 
ship schools seems to have been enough to put 
a system of education in actual operation 
within the state. Several things prevented 
this, however, one of them was the inherent 
difificulty in creating a system of schools at a 
single stroke together with the fact that the 
lands, although vast in extent, were at that 
time not very valuable. The lands thus 
granted, however, have since become exceed- 
ingly valuable, but at that time it was prac- 
tically impassible to sell them at even a 
nominal price. 

These things prevented any rapid progress 
among the schools for a number of years. In 
1825 the state legislature made the first con- 
tribution to the school law of the state. The 
act was designed to carry out the provision 
in the congressional act of the admission and 
provided that each congressional township 
should form a school district to be imder the 
control of the county court in school matters. 
A further provision set aside all rents from 
school lands and all fines, penalties and for- 
feitures as a school fund. 

In this same period extending from 1820 
to 1833 the legislature established about fifty 
schools similar in character to the one estab- 
lished in the city of St. Louis. The support 
of these schools, however, was a very great 
problem and a difficult matter owing to the 



circumstances which we have mentioned. In 
almost everj' ease they had to depend upon 
private donations and tuition fees. 

The State Commission 

In the year 1833 a great forward step was 
taken in the matter of public education within 
the state. On the 26th day of January of 
that year the legislature passed an act author- 
izing the governor to appoint a commission of 
three persons whose duty it was to study pub- 
lic education and to draw up a plan for 
public schools. This was during the ad- 
ministration of Governor Daniel Dimklin of 
Washington county, and he appointed as .such 
commission Joseph Hertich, John J. Lowery 
and Abel R. Corbin. Hertich was the famous 
teacher of the private school called the Asy- 
lum, near Ste. Genevieve, and was perhaps as 
well informed on matters pertaining to ele- 
mentary education than any other man in 
the state. This commission made a report in 
1834 to the governor and through his efforts 
it was adopted by the general assembly in 
1835. This report, as adopted by the assem- 
bl}^, provided for a system of schools. Among 
its provisions were the creation of a board 
of commissioners for literary purposes ; it was 
to consist of the governor, secretary of state, 
auditor, treasurer, and attorney general. 
This was really the first state board of edu- 
cation, though it was not known by that name. 
It was further provided that schools should 
continue at least six months in each year and 
that school expenses should be paid from the 
school funds of each county, these funds to 
be the sums derived from the rent of the 
school lands and from fines and forfeitures, 
and the people of the county were authorized 
to vote, by two-thirds majority, a tax of three 
and one-third cents on each one hundred dol- 
lars for school purposes. The schools were to 



406 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



be under the official direction of a board of 
three trustees in each district, who were em- 
powered to employ teachers, appoint visitors, 
and make other necessary arrangements for 
the school. The report also arranged a cur- 
riculum for the schools aud directed that 
reading, writing and arithmetic, geogra- 
phy. English grammar aud other branches 
should be taught as the funds might justify. 
Theology was excepted and excluded in posi- 
tive terms from the list of si;bjects which 
might be taught in these schools. 

Sale of Lands 

In 1837 the general assembly provided that 
the funds derived from the sale of the saline 
lands and the fund known as the United 
States revenue fund, should be invested in 
stock of the Missouri State Bank. The in- 
come from this stock was set aside for school 
piirposes, but it was directed by the legisla- 
ture that it should not be distributed among 
the schools until the amoimt invested 
amoimted to $500,000. This amount was 
reached in 1842 and the first distribution of 
the fund among the schools was made in that 
years. Sixty cents for each pupil was dis- 
tributed among the thirteen counties of the 
state at that time. 

In spite of these things which had been 
accomplished in the matter of education the 
people of the state were still concerned over 
the question and the legislature still gave 
attention and time to public schools. In 1839 
it was enacted that a common school fund 
should be constituted and permission to sell 
the sixteenth section of the state lands was 
again given. Out of this provision of the 
law have grown the permanent school funds 
of the state. It was further provided that 
there should be chosen a state superintendent 
of schools who was to be elected by the senate 



and house of representatives for a term of 
two years. One of the duties of this state 
superintendent was the distribution of the 
state school moneys among the several coun- 
ties of the state which maintained public 
schools. 

Laws of 1853 

These were the important provisions which 
laid the foundation for a public school system 
in the state, but they have been added to and 
the whole of the school law revised in 1853. 
At that time the schools were imder the 
supervision of the state superintendent 
elected by the people and there was provided 
in each county a coimty commissioner of 
common schools. It was the duty of the latter 
ofiScer to license teachers and to visit the 
schools in his coimty. The unit for the 
schools was still the congressional township, 
which, however, could be divided into school 
districts by vote of the people, and each dis- 
trict was authorized to select three trustees 
who were empowered to employ the teachers 
and supervise the financial affairs of the dis- 
trict. 

It was provided, too, at this time, that 
twenty-five per cent of the general revenue of 
the state and the dividends from the fimds 
invested in the Bank of the State of Missouri 
were to be apportioned to the several counties 
on a ratio based on the enumeration of chil- 
dren of school age. It was also provided 
that orphans and children of indigent parents 
might attend school free. 

An effort was made at this time by the state 
superintendent to provide a imiform course 
of study for the schools ; the effort, however, 
was unsuccessful. At this time there were 
in the entire state about 2,500 school districts 
and 300,000 children of school age, of whom 
only 125,000 were enrolled in the schools. It 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



407 



lias been pointed out by competent students 
of the educational history of the state that 
the great defect in all of this legislation was 
the failure to provide for a direct tax on 
property for school purposes. Such a tax 
could be levied provided it received a two- 
tliirds vote in the entire county. This pro- 
vision made it practically impossible to levy 
such a tax. 

Provisions of 187-1 

Soon after the constitution was adopted for 
Missouri in 1865, it was foimd necessary to re- 
construct the school system which had fallen 
to pieces during the Civil war. An elaborate 
system was worked out and embodied in the 
constitution adopted in that year. This sys- 
tem, while commendable in many ways, had 
what was practically a fatal defect in that 
it did not put the responsibility for the con- 
duct of the schools and their support directly 
upon the people in the several districts. It 
was not until the year 1874 that the present 
system of Missouri schools was finally worked 
out. The legislature recognized the impor- 
tance of thrusting the responsibility of the 
schools upon the people themselves. The 
school district was made the unit and to 
the people in the district was committed the 
power to vote taxes and to carry on the 
schools. With some modifications this system 
survives to the pre.sent day. It has its de- 
fects and the time has possibly come when a 
larger unit than the present school district 
is both desirable and necessary. 

Growth of the System 

Since 1875, when the .system was outlined, 
there has been a very great change in the 
educational situation in Southeast Missouri. 
All territory has been organized into school 
districts and in practically every district a 



school house has been built and a school is 
maintained for at least six months in every 
year. The people no longer depend upon 
subscription schools, the wealth of the entire 
community is taxed to support a school open 
to all the children of the district. The 
teachers are no longer selected in a haphazard 
way, but are required to secure a license to 
teach from the state before being permitted 
to give instruction in the public schools. The 
first great work of this period was the organi- 
zation and development of a system of ele- 
mentary schools all over this section of the 
state ; the past fifteen years have seen the 
development of secondary education in a 
manner commensurate with the growth of 
elementary schools before that time. Up till 
about 1895, very little attention was paid in 
Southeast Missouri to public high schools; 
they were practically unknown here. Since 
that time high schools have been developed in 
all the larger towns, well equipped and pro- 
viding a good secondary education for those 
who attend them. Even the smaller towns 
are doing some high school work so that there 
is to be found scarcely a single community 
with a population of as many as 300 that does 
not carry on from one to three years of high 
school work. These high schools are exerting 
as great influence as almost any other single 
thing for the improvement of the graded 
schools. At the present time there are four- 
teen schools in Southeast Missouri which have 
been classified as first class, and there are 
thirty-six other schools doing high school 
work. 

In 1908 the general assembly passed two 
laws which are exerting a great influence upon 
tlie school .system. One of these provided that 
in every county there should be elected a 
county superintendent of schools, to whom 
was to be given general supervision of the 



408 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



schools. No other step in the history of the 
schools has exerted a greater influence for 
their uplift than the provision for super- 
vision. Along with this law providing for 
county superintendents, was passed a law 
known as the compulsory attendance law, re- 
quiring children between the ages of eight 
and fourteen to attend school, imless excused 
by reason of ill health or other necessities. 
This law, while defective in some ways, has 
undoubtedly exerted an influence favorable to 
more uniform attendance in the schools. 

As we have intimated, there is a feeling 
that we have outgrown the old form of organi- 
zation which makes the small district the unit 
of school work and certain provisions of 
amended school laws make it possible for dis- 
tricts to combine either for the support of an 
elementar.v and high school or simply for the 
purpose of supporting a central high school, 
the elementary schools in the district being 
retained as formerly. So far, this possibility 
of consolidating districts has not been made 
use of in Southeast Missouri; it seems, how- 
ever, that before long a number of districts 
will make use of this authority and unite for 
the support of better schools. 

One other thing in connection with the pub- 
lic school system that is worthy of note is 
the custom of graduating from the schools 
those students who complete eight years of 
common school work. It is believed that this 
graduation aids school attendance, and so far 
as it has been tried it bears out the promise 
which it made. In those counties where the 
graduating of eighth grade pupils is encour- 
aged and the exercises made interesting it 
becomes less and less difficult to keep the 
older students in the school. This movement 
seems to have been originated in Southeast 
JMissouri and this part of the state is keeping 



up with the rest of the state in this partic- 
ular matter. In 1910 there were graduated 
from the rural schools more than 1,000 pupils. 
It is a far cry from the old subscription 
schools of early territorial Missouri with their 
lack of equipment, short terms, inadequate 
courses of study and usually incompetent 
teachers giving the poorest and most meagre 
instruction to a handfvd of students, to the 
great educational system of Southeast Mis- 
souri as it is todaj'. In 1910, twenty counties 
in this part of the state kept in operation 
1.305 schools, in which more than 90,000 
pui^ils received instruction. These .schools 
were conducted for the most part in fairly 
good houses with rea.sonable amount of equip- 
ment and by teachers whose experience is 
something of a warrant for their ability to 
instruct. Once the possibilities of education 
were confined to the favored few whose 
wealth and social position enabled them to 
procure such education as the times afforded, 
but now the door of the schools has been 
opened to practically every child in this part 
of the state and he may procure, at the state's 
expen.se, not only a primary education but a 
good secondary education. Generous pro- 
vision has been made for giving academic 
and professional training. Many problems 
in education are yet unsolved and perhaps 
unsolvable, yet it is clearly evident that the 
progress in these matters in the one hun- 
dred years of school history has been little 
short of marvelous. What further develop- 
ments may be made it is not possible to pre- 
dict. There seems an evident determination, 
however, on the part of the people to pro- 
vide such a system of education as makes it 
possible for every child to be instructed not 
only in common schools but also in .secondary 
schools. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST BIISSOURI 



409 



Southeast Missouri Teachers' Association First Schools in Various Counties 



Two agencies should be mentioned here 
which have contributed much to the rapid 
growth of schools and educational sentiment. 
These are the State Normal School at Cape 
Girardeau, and the Southeast Missouri 
Teachers' Association. The history of the 
former is given in another place and only a 
few words may be said regarding the latter. 
It was hoped that a complete account of its 
early history might be given. Owing to the 
unfortunate loss of its early records this is 
impossible. The association was organized 
in 1874 and owes its existence to the initiative 
of Rev. N. B. Henry, at that time a teacher 
in this part of the state. From the first it 
has held annual meetings and by its insist- 
ence on standards, its inspirational meetings, 
its forum for the exchange of ideas, has pro- 
moted the best interests of education in this 
part of the state. Its thirty-seventh annual 
meeting was held in Farmington in Novem- 
ber, 1911. More than 400 teachers were in 
attendance; and in enthusiasm, value of its 
program, and general uplift to those in attend- 
ance it equaled if it did not surpass any pre- 
vious meeting. This session was presided 
over by Supt. W. H. Hargrove of Bloomfield. 

It is readil}^ seen from a study of the 
actual schools that the various acts of the 
general assembly favoring education at pub- 
lic expense failed to establish actual schools. 
The great drawback through all these j'ears 
was the lack of funds. Private schools and 
academies supplied about all the facilities for 
education given to the youth of this part of 
the state. In some sections these were want- 
ing so that no chance for schooling was af- 
forded. 



Butler county seems to have had only a 
few scattered subscription schools until the 
establishment of the Black River Seminary, 
and the public schools system was not really 
put into operation till 1875. 

In Carter coimty there were a few private 
schools before 1874. In that year it was re- 
ported to the state superintendent of public 
schools that there were in the county 531 
children of school age, 99 of whom were in 
school; at the same time there were said to 
be 25 teachers who were working at an aver- 
age salary, for male teachers, of $16 a month 
and for female teachers for .$10 a month. 
The report further disclosed the fact that 
there were three school houses in the entire 
county having a total valuation of $265, or 
tin average of $53 each. 

The public school sy.stem of Cape Girard- 
eau, which has now come to be recognized as 
the equal of any in the state, owes its exist- 
ence in its present form to the action of the 
city taken on the 24th of January, 1867. At 
that time there was a law in ^Missouri by 
which anj' city or town might organize for 
school purposes with certain special privi- 
leges. In order to avail themselves of the 
opportimity offered by this law a number of 
the leading citizens of Cape Girardeau issued 
a call for an election to determine whether 
the city should organize its schools in accord- 
ance with the terms of this act. The propo- 
sition was carried unanimously and a board 
of education was chosen. It consisted of 
George H. Cramer, H. G. Wilson, M. Ditt- 
linger, G. G. Kimmell, N. C. Harrison and 
J. M. Cluley. The board employed F. M. 
Grove, who was then county school commis- 



410 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



sioner, as the principal of the school, and 
Mrs. E. Wooden and H. Cluley as assistants. 
The first term was opened April 1, 1867, in 
the basement of the Presbyterian church. In 
the following September another room was 
rented on Good Hope street and four assist- 
ant teachers were employed ; in the next year 
the number was increased to eight. The 
superintendent at that time was William C. 
Provines. who held the position until 1870, 
when he was succeeded by D. L. Morrison. 
The Lorimier school building was completed 
in September. 1872. It was erected by D. F. 
Tiedeman at a cost of $15,000. This building 
was occupied by the public school and for a 
time by the normal school after the organi- 
zation of the latter. The superintendents, in 
addition to those mentioned, have been J. B. 
Scott, Mrs. Hope, J. Q. A. Kimmell, W. T. 
Carrington, James H. Van Amburg, A. V. 
Hamilton, T. E. Joyce, E. E. McCuUough, 
H. S. McCleary, C. T. Goodale, P. L. Mac- 
Chesney. A. W. Lawson, John Laidlaw and 
G. H. Reavis. At the present time there are 
four schools besides the colored school. There 
has recently been organized a high school. 

Private schools and the Arcadia high 
schools supplied the educational needs of Iron 
county prior to 1866. In that year an effort 
was begmi to establish public schools. 

The first school in Jefferson county was 
established in 1806 by Benjamin Thompson 
on Sandy Creek. School lands were sold in 
the county by the year 1821, but not in suffi- 
cient quantities to provide any real school 
funds. The townships were not organized 
into school districts imtil 1841, and the pub- 
lic schools were not really effective before 
the war. 

The early schools of Madison county were 
all of the subscription variety except some 
parochial schools, one for girls and one for 



boys, carried on by the Catholic church. It 
is said that the system of public schools was 
not really organized so as to be effective until 
1880. 

The earliest school in jMississippi county 
was taught on Mathews Prairie. It was 
called Indian Grove school. The first teacher 
was Hartford Hayes. Other teachers con- 
nected with this school were John C. Thomas 
and James L. Moore. The public school sys- 
tem was organized in 1871. 

St. Prancois county had one of the first 
schools in this section. It was taught by 
ilrs. Sarah Murphy, in the Murphy settle- 
ment, about 1800. It was of course a private 
school conducted by this noble woman be- 
cause she saw the great need of some school- 
ing for the children of the community. The 
first public school in the county was orga- 
nized at Parmington in 1870. At this time 
a two-story building was erected for the 
school. 

Public schools in Jackson were established 
in 1867. The board of trustees was com- 
posed of Charles Welling, president ; Jacob 
Kneibert, Jacob Tobler, James W. Cannon, 
Charles M. E. Slack and C. H. Priedriehs. 
The board employed James Alderson as the 
principal. The following year A. W. Milster 
was chosen principal, with Margaret A. 
Goode and Rev. Frederick Kies assistants. 
The academy building was used for the 
school until 1882 when the present brick 
building was erected. Among the early prin- 
cipals and superintendents were Rev. James 
Reid. A. S. Coker, A. R. Byrd, James A. 
Brooks and T. M. Wilson. 

The public schools in Ste. Genevieve were 
not organized until 1856, though ten years 
previously a board of directors of common 
schools, consisting of Elroy S. LeCompte, 
Felix Valle, Francois C. Rozier, Eugene 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



411 



Guibord and lehabod Sergeant, had been ap- 
pointed. When the school was first opened 
in 1856, it occupied what was known as the 
old Fort building. The first house was 
erected in 1860 and was afterward occupied by 
the coloi'ed schools. The present scho'ol house 
in Ste. Genevieve was erected in 1874, at a 
cost of $6,000. In the early days there was 
only one teacher, but the schools were graded 
in part soon after the war. 

The public school system of Bloomfield was 
organized in 1871. The first board of direc- 
tors was composed of H. H. Bedford, Samuel 
IMontgomery. George S. Pollard, William 
Litton, John E. Liles and John L. Buck. The 
first teacher employed in the public school 
was B. B. Allen. The school was taught in 
the seminary building until 1886, when a 
frame house was erected, which has since 



then been superseded by a substantial bi'ick 
structure. The present system of schools is 
recognized as being a very good one. 

The next public school organized in Stod- 
dard was that at Dexter. This was in 1874. 
Out of this early school has grown the fine 
system of the present day. 

One of the first public schools in this part 
of the state was organized in Liberty town- 
ship, Washington county, in 1854. The pub- 
lic schools .system was reorganized about 1870. 
The other counties in tlie district had similar 
experiences with their schools. It is not now 
possible to give the date of the organization 
of the first public school in all of them, but 
in no case does it precede those we have 
given and in all of them the date of the real 
foundation of the system is about 1870. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING 



St. Mary's Seminary — St. Vincent's College — Will Mayfield College — Elmwood Sem- 
inary — Parmington College — ^Marvin Collegiate Institute — Carleton College — Ar- 
cadia College — The State Normal School at Cape Girardeau. 



Efforts were made from time to time to 
provide educational institutioas in the south- 
east equipped to do college work. These at- 
tempts were at best but partly successful in 
most instances. It was inevitable that such 
should be the case. The backward condition 
of the elementary and secondary schools 
made it difficult to secure sufficient students 
to support a college and there was exper- 
ienced great difficulty in securing fuuds for 
these schools from other sources. Some of 
the schools succeeded. In spite of discour- 
agement and obstacles those connected with 
them persevered and wrought work of the 
utmost value to this section. 

St. Mary's Seminary 

The earliest institution for higher learn- 
ing actually put on foot here, is St. ilary's 
Seminary at Perryville, in Perry county. 
This was an enterprise of the Catholic church 
and had behind it the wealth and compact 
organization of that church. Out of this ef- 
fort grew the St. Vincent's College at Cape 
Girardeau, which for many years, was the 
great college of this part of the state, and 
St. ]\Iary's Seminary to this day is a great 
and flourishing theological school. We have 



already given somethmg of the early history 
and struggle of this seminary under Bishop 
Dubourg, its foimder. 

As we have noted, the seminary was open 
for the reception of students in 1818. At 
that time there was only a single log cabin, 
and Father Rosati has preserved for us, in his 
diarj', a picture of the activities that went 
on within this single room. In one corner of 
it there was a kitchen, another part a laim- 
dry, in still another corner a sleeping apart- 
ment, while another part was given over to 
the students for their use in study and reci- 
tation. However, the seminary was not long 
confined to a single building. The necessity 
for such a school and the evident earnestness 
and abilit.v of the men in charge of its work, 
resulted in the gathering of funds and the 
erection of other buildings. The second 
one of these was a large two-story log struc- 
ture in which the seminary found much more 
convenient and comfortable quarters. From 
time to time the equipment in buildings was 
added to as need was foimd in the growth of 
the institution itself. Here were educated 
not only those men who were being trained 
for the priesthood but others who desired to 
pursue a college education under the direc- 



412 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



413 



tion of the church. The first students, as we 
have seen, were brought from Italy, coming 
with Bishop Dubourg, but other students 
were attracted to the institution and it soon 
found that all that could be accommodated 
were ready for the mission. 

The first students of the college from Mis- 
souri were tlie sons of Joseph Pratte and 
Frederick Rozier, of Ste. Genevieve. Others 
came at various times from Kaskasliia, Ca- 
hokia, St. Louis, and Louisiana. Within a 
very short time the attendance had reached 
eighty students and in 1833 it was one hun- 
dred and thirty. The course of study covered 
a period of six years and included Latin, 
Greek, history, mathematics, chemistry, nat- 
ural philosophy, astronomy, geology, Eng- 
lish, French, German, Italian and Spanish. 
Christian doctrine and music were also taught 
and the last year of the course was devoted 
to the study of mental philosophy, embracing 
logic, metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, 
natural theology and ethics. This was the 
course required of college .students, and in 
addition to it the theological students, who 
were candidates for the priesthood, were re- 
quired to pursue a three years' course in 
theology, scripture, canon-law, ecclesiastical 
history and other subjects fitted for the 
training of priests. 

These courses of study were maintained at 
St. Mary's from its opening in 1818 until 
1844. At that date St. Vincent's college was 
founded at Cape Girardeau and the classical 
or collegiate departments of St. Mary's were 
transferred there. 

St. Mary's was supported in a very large 
party by the fee for board and tuition. This 
varied from two to three hundred dollars for 
each student during the year of ten months. 
The equipment for the college in laboratories 
and libraries was in part donated and in 



pai't purchased b.y money given for the pur- 
pose. The library soon amoiuited to about 
20,000 volumes and the laboratory equipment 
was good considering the time. 

The professors and students were accus- 
tomed to do missionary work in the surround- 
ing countrj% and it was a member of the 
faculty. Father John Timon, as we have 
seen, who began work in Cape Girardeau. 

Since the transfer of the collegiate depart- 
ment of St. Vincent's, St. Mary's has been 
conducted as a seminary for the education of 
priests. It has a large and well-equipped 
plant, in striking contrast to its first humble 
buildings, and is a well-conducted and power- 
ful institution. 

St. Vincent's College 

St. Vincent's had its beginning in a day 
school which was opened October 22, 1838, 
by Father Odin. He and another priest and 
a lay-brother conducted the school for two 
years. Sessions were held in buildings used 
for the church. In 1840, Father Odin was 
succeeded by Rev. Michael Domenech. At 
that time the day school was in a flourishing 
condition and Father Domenech determined 
to turn it into a college. The site for the col- 
lege had already been purchased, being in- 
cluded in the tract of forty acres bought from 
Robert Daugherty. The stone for the build- 
ing was quarried in 1842 and other prepar- 
ations made for its erection, which was begun 
in the spring of 1843. 

On the 27th day of February, 1843, the 
general assembly incorporated St. Vincent's 
College under the title of the president and 
faculty of St. Vincent's College. The in- 
corporators, all of whom were priests of the 
Congregation of the Mission, were Revs. John 
Timon. John Brandt, H. Figari, Joseph Pa- 
ciuin, J. F. McGerry and John Odin. The 



414 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



college was granted the authority to confer 
degrees and literary honors such as were 
customarily granted by schools and colleges. 
The corner-stone of the building was laid 
by Rev. John Timon, who had originated the 
work in Cape Girardeau, and who was after- 
ward bishop of Buffalo, N. Y. The site of 
the building is a beautiful one, standing back 
five hundred feet from the river bank on a 
gently rising slope of one hundred feet above 
low water mark. The building itself is of 



soon added Messrs. Amat, Peneo, O'Reilly, 
Knowd, Tierman, Burlando, McGinnes, 
Chandy, Verrina, Burke and Pasqual. Presi- 
dent Figari resigned in October, 1844, and 
was succeeded by Rev. Thaddeus Amat. In 
November, 1845, President Amat was made 
president of St. Mary's Seminary, and Rev. 
A. Penco became president o/ St. Vincent's. 
He was very popular as president, and held 
the position for six years. He was succeeded 
by Rev. R. Hennessy, this was in 1851, and 




I 1 Si iiUltiiHn^?^-=?i 




St. Vincent's College 



stone and brick, one hundred feet long and 
forty feet wide and three stories high. To 
this building there were added, in 1853, the 
south wing, of the same size as the original 
building. 

In May, 1844, the collegiate department of 
St. Mary's was transferred to St. Vincent's. 
The first faculty of the college were: Rev. 
H. Figari, president; Rev. JI. Barbier, vice- 
president; Rev. J. F. McGerry, prefect of 
discipline ; Rev. H. Cercos, procurator, and 
Rev. J. Richini. To this faculty there were 



President Hennessy died in 1853. The next 
president was Rev. II. ilasnan, who served 
one year, and was followed by Rev. S. V. 
Ryan. Rev. Thomas J. Smith became the 
next president, on the resignation of Father 
Ryan in 1858. During the years 1858 and 
1859, the archbishop of St. Louis, Rev. P. R. 
Kenrick, and the bishops of the province of 
St. Louis requested the Vincentian Fathers 
to open a seminary for the exclusive use of 
students for the priesthood. The proposition 
was made to the trustees of St. Vincent's 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



415 



College aud accepted by them, and aceord- 
inglj', in 1859, the college opened as a strictly 
ecclesiastical seminarj-. This brought about 
a change in the presidency, and Father Smith 
was succeeded by Father James ]\IcGill. Not 
mucli change was made in the curriculum of 
studies, except the addition of senior courses 
of philosophy and theology. The course was 
practically the same as that maintained at 
St. Mary's; it covered a space of six years 
and was concerned with practically the same 
studies. Gi'eat stress was laid upon the 
teaching of languages, both ancient and 
modern, and the commencement programs 
contained exercises, both original and 
selected, in Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, 
French, German and English. 

Some of the men who were connected with 
St. Vincent's in these early years won for 
themselves high standing, both as scholars 
and teachers. One of these was the Rev. 
James Knowd. For more than twenty years 
he was professor of higher mathematics at 
St. Vincent's. He was not only .skilled in 
mathematics, but also in instruction. The 
mathematical course extended during the en- 
tire six years of the college work. Professor 
Knowd was a correspondent for the Smith- 
sonian Institution at Washington, and before 
the establishment of a weather bureau was 
accustomed to keep and transmit to the 
Smithsonian, weather observations. 

Another man who won distinction was 
Rev. John F. McGerry, professor of nat- 
ural science. He was especially interested 
in botany and gathered together in the gar- 
dens and greenhouses of the college a most 
remarkable collection of flowers and rare 
plants. These gardens were one of the show 
places of the town and were visited by a 
great many persons. 

The students of the college came from 



many places in the west. The first students 
were those transferred from St. Clary's 
Seminary. They were about seventy-five in 
number and the average attendance was be- 
tween one hundred and one hundred and 
fifty ; the greater part of these students com- 
ing from Louisiana and from the towns of St. 
Louis and Ste. Genevieve. 

Not a great many students were graduated 
for the examinations required of the appli- 
cant for graduation were very rigid. The 
first graduate was Angelo Navarro, of San 
Antonio. He received his degree July 29th, 
1847. At the commencement of 1849, Charles 
Rozier, of Ste. Genevieve, and J. A. Leveque, 
of Baton Rouge, La., were graduated. 

The founding and maintenance of the 
college in its early years was a matter of 
very great difficulty. The great flood of 1844, 
shortly after the transfer of the students to 
the college, proved a severe trial. A part of 
the support of the institution was expected 
to come from the college farm, which lay 
south of town, and which at the time of the 
flood was covered with a crop of wheat and 
corn and vegetables. The high waters, how- 
ever, covered the farm to a depth of eight to 
ten feet and entirely destroyed the crops. 
The fences, too, were swept away, and most 
of the livestock was dro\vned. The college 
itself was too high above the river to be 
directly injured, but one effect of the flood 
after it had receded was an epidemic of sick- 
ness which broke out among the students. 
]\Iore than a hundred persons were sick at the 
same time, and there were two deaths, both 
members of the faculty, Revs. H. Raschini 
and H. Cercos. 

Two memorable calamities befell the col- 
lege in these years. In the winter of 1843- 
1844, a steamboat, called the Sea Bird, was 
caught in the floating ice and tied up by her 



416 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



officers below the ledge of rocks in front of 
the college. She was loaded with 1,500 kegs 
of powder. On the night of February -Ith, 
the boat was discovered to be on fire, and at 
about midnight the captain of the boat 
aroused the people in the college and warned 
them of the danger which confronted them. 
They dressed as hurriedly as possible and 
ran out of the buildings and away from the 
river toward the west. The last man had 
hardly left the building when a terriffic ex- 
plosion was heard. No one was hurt, but all 
were pretty badly shaken by the force of the 
explosion. The building itself was consider- 
ably damaged ; every pane of glass was 
broken, the doors were torn from their hinges 
and broken into splinters, and every foot of 
plastering from ceiling and walls was torn 
down ; the roof was lifted several inches, but 
settled back into place with but little injury. 
The windows and doors were closed with 
sheets and blankets iintil new ones could be 
secured from St. Louis. The plastering was 
not replaced until the following summer. 

The second calamity which befell the col- 
lege occurred on the 27th of November. 1850. 
On that date a tornado of terrific force struck 
the building. All the outhouses, tailor shop, 
shoemaker shop, clothes room, baker .shop 
and barns were literally torn to pieces and 
blowTi awa\- with the storm. The roof of the 
college itself was cleared away and not a 
particle of it was ever found. The walls, of 
the southwest corner of the main building 
and both gables were blown down. No one 
was killed except an old colored man who 
lived in the house in the garden, though 
several persons were slightly injured. The 
students were sent away and the college 
closed for four months, during which time the 
necessary repairs were made. 

On the 15th of June, 1861, at a meeting 



of the faculty, it was decided that it was for 
the best interests of the college to suspend its 
operations owing to the war. A resolution 
was passed that the examinations should take 
place immediately and that the students 
should cpiit the college as soon as possible. 
This action of the faculty was taken because 
of the great state of excitement then existing 
in Southeast Missouri. There were companies 
of soldiers drilling on the streets of Cape 
Girardeau and there were rumors that the 
town would be the .scene of a battle between 
the forces of the north and the south. There 
was strong feeling even among the citizens 
of the town and it seemed that any attempt 
to carry on the work of the college would ex- 
pose its students to danger. 

The examinations were held and the usual 
commencement exercises were dispensed with. 
Following the examinations the students re- 
turned at once to their homes, most of them 
entering the armies of the north or south. 
About twenty .students, however, remained at 
the colle'ge, and most of the faculty. On the 
25th of July it was determined by the faculty 
to send the students who still remained, in 
charge of the procurator, Rev. F. Guidry, to 
the college farm. This action was taken be- 
cause of the rumor that the city was to be 
attacked by the Confederate troops. The 
students remained at the farm until August 
10th. On this date they were recalled, for 
it had been decided that it was for the best 
interests of the college to open session in 
September as usual. There had been talk of 
the college buildings being taken by the 
United States government as a military hos- 
pital. The college authorities very naturally 
opposed this and it seemed their opposition 
would be most effective if the college were 
in operation. 

The session began September 1st, 1861, 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



417 



most of the students in theology and phi- 
losophy returned, but not very many of the 
college students. At this time Rev. James 
McGill was president and other members of 
the faculty were : Rev. Joseph Alizeri, Rev. 
James Ivnowd, Rev. J. F. McGerry, Rev. 
Felix Guidry, Rev. William Ryan, Rev. A. J. 
Ryan, Rev. T. D. 'Keef e, Rev. P. M. Regan, 
Rev. J. T. Landry and Rev. T. M. O'Don- 
oughue. 

One member of the faculty, however, did 
not long remain. This was Rev. Abram J. 
Ryan. He resigned his place in college and 
became a chaplain in the Confederate army. 
Here he devoted himself to his work as chap- 
lain and to writing poems which have made 
his name famous. Father Ryan was one of 
the most noted men ever connected with the 
faculty of St. Vincent's. 

The college continued its operations 
throughout the war; the attendance was not 
large but the faculty managed to keep the 
institution open and the buildings occupied. 
After the war the faculty were called upon 
to take the test oath imder the Drake con- 
stitution and upon their unanimous refusal 
they were arrested and taken to Jackson. 
Their trial was postponed from time to time, 
however, to await the decision of another case. 
The other case was finally determined by the 
supreme court of the United States, which 
held that the provisions in the Drake consti- 
tution requiring the taking of the test oath 
were unconstitutional. This put an end to the 
ease against the members of the faculty. 

The college continued its work after the 
war but found itself handicapped by a con- 
siderable debt that had accumulated and also 
by the necessity of drawing students from 
different sections of the country than for- 
merly. Before the war more than fifty per 
cent came from Louisiana; after the war, 

Vol. 1—27 



however, very few Louisiana students were 
in attendance. In 1866 Rev. Joseph Alizeri 
was president and Rev. M. Dyer was vice- 
president. 

Owing to the destruction of one of the 
buildings of St. Mary's seminary at Perry- 
ville, the college students at St. Mary's were 
transferred to St. Vincent 's. This indicated a 
change in the character of St. Vincent's col- 
lege, which, since 1859, had been purely eccle- 
siastical. Although the theological depart- 
ment was still continued, classical courses 
were begun and also commercial courses be- 
gan to receive attention. From this time 
until 1893 these three courses of study, theo- 
logical, classical and commercial, were carried 
on side by side in St. Vincent's; each course 
was independent of the other. 

The college coui"se continued to be six 
years in duration and led to the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts; two years further study 
entitled a student to the degree of blaster of 
Arts. The curriculum was much the same as 
that established at the founding of the college 
in 1844. The same is true of the theological 
course, which included those subjects which 
have come to be recognized as standards of 
those preparing for the priesthood. 

In 1868 Anthony Verrina became president 
of the college. He was followed in 1875 by 
Rev. J. W. Hickey. President Hickey re- 
signed in 1884. Among his successors have 
been: Rev. P. McHale, 1884-1886 ; Rev. P. V. 
Byrne, 1886-1889; Rev. F. V. Nugent, 1889- 
1S93; Rev. J. J. Murray, 1893-1894; Rev. G. 
H. Dockery, 1894-1896; Rev. J. Linn, 1896- 
1898; Rev. E. M. Hopkins, 1898-1900; Rev. 
J. A. Layton, 1900-1901. 

Rev. J. F. McGerry, who has been referred 
to as one of the most distinguished able mem- 
bers of the faculty, died in 1873. He had 
been a member of the college faculty for 



418 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



thirty j'ears ; in fact his services began at the 
founding of the institution. At tlie time of 
his death he was eighty years old and had 
been a teacher for more than fifty years. He 
was held in the highest esteem by the trustees 
of the college, by the members of the faculty 
and by the students. 

In 1871 plans were made for a new build- 
ing to be erected west of the study hall. The 
structure was to be 100 feet by 40 feet and 
three stories high. The first story was to be 
a gymnasium; second, an exhibition hall, and 
third as a chapel. 

Since 1902 the college has not had an 
active existence. There have been several 
members of the faculty always in attendance 
at the college and usually some students have 
taken the courses, especially those in theolog- 
ical training, but no effort has been made to 
extend the equipment or to gather a large 
number of students. This has been due in 
part to the fact that the Congregation of the 
Mission, under whose control the college ex- 
ists, have concentrated their efforts to the 
iipbuilding of institutions in other places. It 
is the intention at the present time to dispose 
of the whole college plant and to purchase 
property elsewhere. The decision to sell the 
historic buildings and holdings of the college 
was arrived at because of the fact that the 
situation is no longer suitable for school pur- 
poses. In one way it is a most beautiful site, 
lying as it does, on the bank of the river and 
affording a most delightful view, but in an- 
other wa.y the situation is no longer desirable 
for school purposes; it is on the railroad, and 
lies at the edge of the factory district of the 
town ; the buildings, while ample, are old and 
no longer meet the requirements of school 
work. It is to be hoped, however, that ar- 
rangements may be perfected by which this 
college, one of the oldest west of the Missis- 



sippi river, maj' be retained in Cape Girar- 
deau and may once more secure that position 
of influence and importance which it once 
held. The institution at present is in charge 
of the Rev. Father Thomas Levan. 

Will Mayfield College 

This institution, now situated at Marble 
Hill in Bollinger county, was organized Feb- 
ruary 10, 1878, by Dr. W. H. Mayfield and Dr. 
H. J. Smith. At that time it was kno\vn as the 
Mayfield-Smith Academy, and was located at 
Smithville in Bollinger county. No effort was 
made at first to erect a building for the school 
and it was carried on in rented rooms; there 
were no endowments and the expenses were 
met by tuition fees principally and in part by 
gifts. There were 22 students at the first ses- 
sion. In 1879 W'Ork was begun for a building, 
but the work was discontinued and in 1880 the 
school was removed to Marble Hill. At that 
time Rev. A. ]\I. Johnson became connected 
with the school and began the work of raising 
funds for the construction of a building. The 
Baptists to whom he appealed had come to feel 
the need of an educational institution such as 
he planned and they contributed liberally to 
the institution. A good building of brick was 
erected upon commanding situation on the 
top of a hill in Marble Hill and the work of 
the school in its new location began. Since 
that time it has prospered. A dormitory 
building has been erected, the grounds which 
are naturally beautiful have been improved, 
and the courses of instruction strengthened. 
The present head of the school, Mr. J. H. 
Hendricks, is succeeding in carrying on the 
institution with reall.y remarkable success. 
Much of the credit of the school's prosperity 
belongs to Rev. W. A. Davault, who has been 
connected with it for many years and has 
been luitiring in his devotion to it. The school 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



419 



is supported largely by tuition fees and vol- 
untary gifts. 

Elmwood Seminary 

Elmwood Seminary, under the control of 
the Presbyterian church in Farniington, was 
established through the work of Rev. James 
A. Creightou, at one time supply of the Farm- 
ington Presbyterian church. "While engaged 
in the duties of this position he became im- 
pressed with the importance of an institution 
in Southeast Missouri under the control of 
the church for the education of women. He 
accordingly prepared plans for the institu- 
tion and submitted them to the Presbyteries 
of Potosi and St. Louis in April, 1886. The 
plans were approved by the two Presbyteries 
and Mr. Creighton began the work of secur- 
ing property and buildings for the location 
of the school. He was successful in securing 
the property in Parmington known as the 
Cayce place, and the school was opened in 
September, 1886, in the old residence on this 
place. It was conducted in this building for 
several .years, but it became evident that if 
the school was to succeed to a very great ex- 
tent a new building must be erected suited to 
school purposes. The work was imdertaken 
in September, 1889, and the building com- 
pleted in June, 1890. 

This building is 45x80 feet in size and four 
stories in height, including the basement. 
Together with the heating, lighting and fur- 
nishing it cost about $20,000, all of which was 
contributed, with the exception of .$500, by 
the people of Parmington. 

The new seminary which was called Elm- 
wood, was placed in charge of Rev. A. W. 
Wilson, who was not only a minister, but also 
an experienced teacher, and was fortunate at 
the time in having two daughters to assist 
him in the work of instruction. Circum- 



stances, however, compelled him to resign the 
position after some years of successful work 
and he was succeeded by Miss SaUie H. Holli- 
day, under whose direction the school had a 
very prosperous period of growth. Presidents 
of the institution since that time have been 
Miss Helen Montgomery, Miss Maude Mont- 
gomery, and Miss Lula May Winn, who is now 
at the head of the school. The attendance 
averages about 120 and the school is known for 
the close attention given to its students and 
the thoroughness of its work. It fills a dis- 
tinct place in the educational system of the 
southeast. 

Pabmington College 

For a time an institution known as Parm- 
ington College was conducted in Parmington 
by E. P. Jennings. It was established in Sep- 
tember, 1886, and was imder the control of 
the Franklin Association of Baptist churches. 
The school was conducted in a two-story 
brick building which stood on the lot now 
occupied by the new high school building. 
This building had been erected in 1883 by J. 
S. Gashwiler who erected it and conducted a 
school until 1886. This Parmington College 
had a precarious existence for several years. 
It usually had an enrollment of 75 or 100 
students but was never in a prosperous con- 
dition. The building was destroyed by fire 
about 1894, was later rebuilt and again was 
destroyed by fire, and the school finally closed 
about the year 1900. 

IMabvin Collegiate Institute 

jMarvin Collegiate Institute, an educational 
institution imder the control of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. South, was organized in 
1867 at Caledonia in Washington coimty. 
For many years the institute, which was then 
called Bellevue Collegiate Institute, was oper- 



420 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ated at Caledonia and had a successful exist- 
ence. As public high schools, however, came 
to be common through this part of the state 
it was felt that the buildings and equipment 
at Caledonia were not sufficient to enable this 
school to compete with the high schools. 
There was an agitation for a change of loca- 
tion. It was felt that since Caledonia was 
not located on a railroad the school would 
always be handicapped on that account. 
Frederiektown offered a building to cost 
$25,000 and ten acres of land on condition 
that the school be established at that place. 
This offer was accepted in 1894 and in Sep- 
tember, 1895, the school was transferred to 
the new building at Frederiektown. Since 
that time the school has been successfully car- 
ried on. It is not organized as a college and 
confers no degrees, though it does do a cer- 
tain amount of college work. The president 
of the school now is Rev. C. M. Gray. The 
building is a substantial brick structure, well 
suited to the purposes for which it was erected, 
and in addition to this main structure there is 
a dormitory for girls. 

Carleton College 

This institution was founded by Miss E. A. 
Carleton in April, 1854, mider the name of 
Carleton Institute. From 1854 until 1878 it 
was conducted in the country eight miles 
north of Farniington. In 1859 the institution 
was incorporated by the general assembly 
under the title of Carleton Institute and was 
given authority to conduct a school and to 
grant degrees. The institution was successful 
from the beginning, Miss Carleton herself 
being a successful teacher and organizer. In 
1878 the school was removed to Farmington 
and installed in its new building December 
2nd. This building stands on an attractive 
site comprising about 16 acres lying just east 



of the town. The building itself is a four- 
story brick of about 30 rooms. It was suffi- 
cient to house the school until 1884, when an 
addition 57 feet long and four stories high 
was made to the main building, which is 
called the Henry Annex in honor of Henry 
Carleton, and contains a chapel, library, 
museum, laboratory and other rooms. 

Arcadlv College 

In 1849 a school was established at Ar- 
cadia and called the Arcadia high school. It 
soon acquired a reputation for good work 
and was well patronized. It was later char- 
tered by the legislatui-e as Arcadia college. 
In 1870 a large four-story brick building was 
erected and the school grew rapidly. It came 
under the control of the Methodist Episcopal 
church for a number of years, but was not 
self-supporting. An effort was made at one 
time to sell the buildings and plant to the 
state for the establishment of third normal 
school afterward located at Cape Girardeau. 
This attempt failed and the college was finally 
transferred to the Ursuline Sisters who have 
conducted it .since 1878 as the Ursuline acad- 
emy. It is pleasantly situated, has a good li- 
brary of about 1,200 volumes, and is a pros- 
perous institution. 

State Normal School 

The institution which more than any other 
has influenced education in Southeast Missouri 
is the Rlissouri State Normal school, third dis- 
trict, at Cape Girardeau. It was the third 
of the Normal schools established in the state 
Kirksville was established in 1869, Warrens- 
burg in 1871, and the act of the legislature 
which created the third Normal school was 
approved March 22, 1873. It may thus be 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



421 



seen that the three Normal schools are the re- 
sult of the same forces and the same agitation 
for improvement of teaching. 

Tliis agitation was the result, in large part, 
of tlie work of Joseph Baldwin, the founder 
and first president of the Kirksville Normal 
school. While we may not withhold from 



After the organization of the Normal 
schools at Warrensburg and Kirksville it 
was plainly evident that a third school was 
needed to supply that great section of the 
state lying south of the Missouri river and 
east of Jefferson City. Accordingly the legis- 
lature provided for the establishment of such 




State Nuejial School 



President Baldwin the just credit which be- 
longs to him for his work in establishing 
Normal schools in the state, it is very evident 
that the demand for improved teaching 
would have eventually" led to the organization 
of schools for the training of teachers. The 
necessity for such training is too great for a 
public school system to become very effective 
without the organization of schools devoted 
especially to this work. 



a school to be located within the bounds of 
Southeast Missouri. Under the provisions of 
this act the first step to be taken in the organi- 
zation of the school was the creation of a 
board of regents, which was to consist of the 
state superintendent of schools, the secretary 
of state and the attorney general, who were 
to hold a place on the board ex-officio, and 
four members to be appointed by the governor 
of the state. Shortly after the approval of the 



422 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



act a board of regents was appointed. It was 
composed of John IMonteith, state superin- 
tendent of public schools; E. F. Weigel, secre- 
tary of state; H. C. Ewing, attorney general, 
ex-ofBcio members, and George W. Farrar, of 
Iron county; Jacob H. Burrough, of Cape 
Girardeau ; T. J. 0. jMorrison, of New Madrid 
county, and Charles C. Rozier, of Ste. Gene- 
vieve county. The board was organized by 
the selection of John Monteith as chairman 
and E. F. Weigel as secretary. 

These officers of the board were elected at 
its first meeting in Jefferson City September 
30th, 1873. This meeting of the board had 
been called for the purpose of organization 
and for the reception of bids for the location 
of the new school. On the following day, 
October 1st, the board opened and received 
bids from those communities in the state 
which desired the location of the normal. 
Byrd township in Cape Girardeau coionty, 
the city of Cape Girardeau and Iron county 
were the only bidders. Byrd to\\Tiship 
offered $50,000 in bonds, $14,450 in cash and 
about 240 acres of land. The bonds, however, 
were conditioned on the passage of an en- 
abling act by the legislature. The city of 
Cape Girardeau's bid included $50,000 in 
bonds, $6,885 in notes and cash, and lands 
worth about $10,000. Iron countj' offered the 
plant of Arcadia College upon which a valua- 
tion of $75,000 was placed, and nearly 7,000 
acres of land. 

After these bids were opened the board 
heard statements from various interested 
persons concerning the bids and then by a 
vote declared that the offer from Byrd town- 
ship of Cape Girardeau county should be 
considered no bid, since imder the provision 
of the law creating this school the board 
could not consider bonds which the township 
had no authority to issue. 



This narrowed the question to a decision 
between Cape Girardeau and Iron county. At 
subsequent meetings of the board held in the 
city of Cape Girardeau and at Arcadia in 
Iron coiuity, hearings were held on the ques- 
tion of these two bids. Many citizens of Cape 
Girardeau, prominent among them being 
Louis Houck and A. D. Leech, appeared be- 
fore the board urging the selection of Cape 
Girardeau and offering to purchase the 
bonds at various prices. At the meeting held 
in Arcadia some persons appeared and urged 
the location of the school there, but a pro- 
test was received from other citizens of the 
county urging that the school should not be 
brought to Arcadia. The matter was decided 
at a meeting held October 28th, 1873, when, 
bj' a vote of four to three. Cape Girardeau 
was selected as the site of the school. 

Having determined that the school should 
be located at Cape Girardeau, the board took 
up the question of the particular site in the 
town. Two offers were made, one by Mr. 
Fagan of the hill known as Port A, the other 
by Mr. Lansmann, of the hill known as Fort 
B. The board surve^^ed both these sites and 
listened to various persons urging one place 
or the other, and finally selected Fort B as 
the most suitable place for the school. 

At its meeting in St. Louis on October 28th, 
1873, the board determined to appoint an ex- 
ecutive committee with fuU power to take 
such steps to establish the school and to em- 
ploy teachers as might be found necessary. 
The state board of education and Mr. Jacob 
Burrough of Cape Girardeau, were appointed 
as such committee. It was later determined 
to accept an offer made by the public school 
of Cape Girardeau to turn over to the Normal 
school a part of the public school building 
and to begin a session there. The board em- 
ployed Mr. L. H. Cheney as principal and 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



423 



fixed his salary at the sum of $2,000 per 
annum. JMrs. Cheney was made au assistant, 
while Mr. Burrough and Professor Cheney 
were empowered to select such other assist- 
ants as were found necessary. The tuition or 
incidental fee was fixed at $3.00 for each of 
three terms during the year. 

The board advertised for plans for the erec- 
tion of a school building and at a meeting in 
St. Louis on January 14th, it opened these 
plans and selected the one submitted by C. B. 
Clarke, of St. Louis. At subsequent meet- 
ings the board received from Architect Clarke 
the plans and specifications for the building 
and advertised for bids for its construction. 
The sum of $39,000 was fixed as the maximum 
amount which would be spent on the build- 
ing. The bids were opened at Jefferson City 
on March 25th, 1874, but all of them were re- 
jected, for all were above the sum of $39,000. 
The board then determined to make such 
changes in the plans for the building as would 
bring the cost within the fixed sum, exclusive 
of the heating, seating and architect's fees. 
After this was done arrangements were made 
for the erection of the building and Jacob 
Burrough, Principal Cheney, and Otto Buehr- 
mann were appointed as a building commit- 
tee to supervise the erection of the building. 
Work on the building was finished in the 
spring of 1875 and was occupied by the school 
that year. 

This building, which at the time of its 
erection was the finest single building of its 
kind in the state, was of the modified Gothic 
style of architecture. It was 163 feet long and 
72 feet wide and three stories in height. It 
contained ten recitation rooms with other 
necessary rooms and an auditorium on the 
first floor, capable of seating about five hun- 
dred. It was rather ornate in appearance, 
having a number of towers and spires upon it 



and was only fairly well adapted to the pur- 
pose for which it was intended. This build- 
ing was the home of the school until it was 
destroyed by fire in 1902. 

Before the completion of the building, ar- 
rangements had been made for opening the 
school in the fall of 1873 in a portion of the 
public school building. Mr. L. H. Cheney, 
an experienced and able teacher, had been 
employed a principal of the Normal and in- 
structor in professional training. Associated 
with him was his wife, Mrs. Frances A. 
Cheney, a woman of great ability and force of 
character and an experienced and successful 
teacher. Under Principal Cheney's guidance 
the first year of school was successful. There 
were enrolled 57 students, 28 of them being 
women and 29 men. 

The equipment of the school was very lim- 
ited, in fact for the first year it was prac- 
tically nothing at all. It was the intention, 
however, of Mr. Cheney and the board to 
equip the school as rapidly as possible with 
the necessary things for successful teaching. 

The faculty for the next year was com- 
posed of Principal Cheney, R. P. Rider, who 
taught language and mathematics; Mrs. 
Cheney, instructor in history and geography ; 
G. T. Lemmon, instructor in natural history 
and drawing; and L. C. Schleich, instructor 
in German. The session this year was held in 
the public school building until near its close 
when the school was transferred to the newly 
completed Normal building. This year the 
attendance reached 164, showing a consider- 
able and gratifying growth and bearing testi- 
mony to the fact that such a school was needed 
and filled a vacant place in the educational 
system. 

Near the close of this school year of 1874-75, 
the school was transferred to the new build- 
ing. There was great rejoicing on the part of 



424 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



all connected with the school at the change. 
The board of regents had provided for some 
equipment for instruction in science and had 
begun the work of accumulating a library. 
It must not be supposed, however, that the 
surroundings were, even in the new building, 
such as are to be seen today. Fort B, the 
site of the building, was a bare hill, cut off 
in nearly every direction by deep gullies so 
that there was little of the beauty of situation 
that it to be seen today. The gullies were so 
deep and the ground so rough that it was 
found necessary to build a bridge as an ap- 
proach to the building. The mud was deep in 
many places and there was an absence of 
shade and grass that was very trying for 
some years. In spite of these handicaps and 
unfavorable conditions the school prospered 
under the guidance of Principal Cheney. 

Great sacrifices were made at times by those 
connected with the institution in order to ad- 
vance it and to carry on its work. Not infre- 
quently the members of the faculty in the 
early days were called upon to travel over the 
district attending meetings of the teachers 
and soliciting students. Travel in Southeast 
Missouri in those days was not altogether 
pleasurable. There were very few railroads 
and the bulk of the travel was by wagon and 
over roads that were far from good. 

The school, at its organization, did not 
possess a practice or model school, though 
it was the intention of the regents that such 
a school should be organized as soon as found 
possible. It was not within their power to 
provide such a school until the beginning of 
the session in 1876. At that time arrange- 
ments were perfected for the organization of 
a school in which students might teach under 
competent supervisors. This feature of the 
Normal school was stressed in its advertise- 
ments as offering an opportimity for students 



to do actual work in teaching and thus to be- 
come prepared for its duties. It was not 
fornid practicable, however, to continue a 
practice school longer than the close of the 
session of 1878-79. From that time on for a 
number of years the school had no oppor- 
tunity for giving actual training in teaching 
to its students. An attempt was made from 
time to time to supply this deficiency by call- 
ing on the members of the senior class to take 
charge of certain of the elementary classes 
under the eye of a member of the faculty. It 
is useless to say this plan was not found to 
be of any great value though it was con- 
tinued for a number of .years. 

At the close of the year 1873-74, the first 
year of the school, a public exercise was held 
in Turner's hall, June 25, 1874. That pro- 
gram is reproduced here, as it will probably 
be of interest to the alumni and others in- 
terested in the institution. 

Music. 

Chorus — Vacation Song. 

Oration — No Man Should Live for Himself 
Alone, Alex. H. Miller. 

Essay — The Power of Trifles, Belle Green. 

Music. 

Duet — In the Starlight. Ida Burrough and 
Jlary Ross. 

Essay — Cape Girardeau in 1900, Mollie 
Holmes. 

Oration — Paddle Your Own Canoe, Charles 
K. Hayden. 

Music. 

Instrumental Duet, Emma and Ida Bur- 
rough. 

Essay — Ancient America. Julia Moon. 

Essay — Celebrated Rivers, Elizabeth Hines. 

Essay — School Days, Geo. Kenrick. 

Music. 

Chorus — Gladsome Song. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



425 



Essay — Mary, Queen of Scots, Ida Bur- 
rough. 

Oration — Education and the Educator, 
Ashley S. Coker. 

Music. 

Duet — Beautiful Venice, Ellen "Wra.y and 
Mollie Holmes. 

Address, by Prof. Oren Root, Jr., of Glas- 
gow. 

Music. 

Chorus— What Shall the Harvest Be ? 

A catalogue issued in 1874, which was the 
first, sets out the courses of study which were 
to be pursued. The division into elementary 
course and advanced course, which still ob- 
tains in the school, was begun at this time. 
The elementary course was divided into five 
classes known as sub-junior class, junior class, 
middle class, sub-senior class, and senior class. 
The studies pursued by the sub-junior class 
were arithmetic, geography, botany, reading, 
composition, penmanship, chemistry, drawing 
and vocal music. In the jiuiior class most of 
these subjects were continued with the addi- 
tion of United States history, natural phi- 
losophy, and grammar. In the middle class, 
algebra, physiology, zoology and the constitu- 
tion of the United States were taken iip. 
These subjects were continued during the 
sub-senior year and in addition physical geog- 
raphy, analysis of words, school law of 
MissoiTri, and geometry were studied. The 
senior class of the elementary course studied 
geometry, natural philosophy, school economy, 
methods in teaching, composition and draw- 
ing, or bookkeeping, and vocal music. 

The advanced course was also organized in 
four classes known as class D, class C, class 
B, and class A. In class D the students were 
occupied with algebra, Latin or German, gen- 



eral history, natural philosophy, composition, 
drawing, and music. In class C these studies 
were continued except that geometry was sub- 
stituted for algebra, one term of English lit- 
erature for general history, and chemistry 
for natural philosophy. In class B, the 
mathematical subject studied was trigonom- 
etry, in science it was geology, while work in 
Latin or German and English literature to- 
gether with minor subjects was continued. 
In class A, students studied analytical geom- 
etry, logic, and astronomy and continued 
their work in Latin or German and in minor 
subjects. 

Arrangements were made also for a sub- 
Normal class and the courses were so arranged 
that students were admitted to the advanced 
course after completing the studies of the sub- 
senior class of the elementary course. 

A study of this curriciilum shows that very 
little attention was given to the study of 
pedagogy and there was little opportimity 
provided for election. It was held by those 
in authority in the Normal school of that day, 
that students should be required to take cer- 
tain specified subjects. It was before the 
day of election in school studies. 

In the spring of 1875 the first students 
completed the elementary course. They were : 
Ida Burrough, Ada Jaquitli, Martha R. Moon, 
John T. Harris, Jefferson W. Limbaugh, Will- 
iam Ragland, and William A. Ranney. 

The first graduate from the advanced 
course was Miss Emma E. Cowdon. She was 
granted a diploma in 1877. In 1878 the ad- 
vanced class had thi'ee members : Eugene T. 
McNeely, Theodore H. Polaek, and Miss 
Ellen Wilson. 

The school grew steadilj- under the admin- 
istration of Principal Cheney and he con- 
tinued in charge luitil his untimely death in 



426 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



1877. He was killed by an explosion and 
was buried in the old Lorimier cemetery in 
Cape Girardean. 

For the year 1877-78 the board chose as 
principal Mr. C. H. Duteher, an experienced 
teacher and former member of the faculty of 
the Warrensburg State Normal school. Mrs. 
Cheney remained in the faculty as instructor 
of geography and history. Associated with 
these were DeWitt Roberts, instructor of 
mathematics; Lillie E. Skaats, instructor in 
rhetoric, German and drawing, and Martha 
R. Moon, instructor in arithmetic and pen- 
manship. It was announced that members 
of the senior class would act as assistants. 
Principal Duteher was an active and ener- 
getic man and associated with himself several 
men who had great influence in moulding the 
character of the school. The attendance con- 
tinued to increase and the courses of study 
were enlarged so that the school experienced 
a healthy growth. Among the men who were 
later associated with Mr. Duteher and who 
had great influence, were Nelson B. Henry, 
teacher of English language and literature, 
and A. E. Douglas, a teacher of Latin and 
assistant in the English department. 

In 1881 Principal Duteher resigned his po- 
sition to accept a position in the Warrens- 
burg State Normal and was succeeded by 
Richard C. Norton. The title of the head of 
the school was changed at this time from 
principal to president, a title which is still 
in use. 

Mr. Norton came to the Cape Girardeaxi 
Normal from "Warrensburg and had had ex- 
perience as a teacher in many different po- 
sitions. He remained with the school until 
the fall of 1893, serving as its president for 
twelve years. It is not too much to say that 
President Norton exerted a remarkable in- 
fl.uence in shaping the character of the school 



and putting it on a firm basis in the thought 
and affection of the people of Southeast Mis- 
souri. During his administration the attend- 
ance increased from 225 in 1881-82, to 392 in 
1891-92. This attendance of 392 was the high 
water mark in what we call the old Normal 
school, meaning by the term that part of the 
school's history before the destruction of the 
old building bj' fire. 

President Norton gathered around him a 
group of men and women who were well 
suited to the work of the school and who 
exerted a great influence upon its growth. 
The head of the department of science was W. 
D. Vandiver who was afterward president of 
the school. John S. McGee was professor of 
mathematics. He was also president at a later 
time. The English department was in charge 
of James Underwood Barnard, one of the 
ablest and strongest of the group. Mr. Barn- 
ard was afterward a member of the facvdty of 
the University of Mississippi, later head of 
one of the great public schools of Kansas City, 
where he died in 1909. Besides these there 
%\ere others whose names and work became fa- 
miliar to many himdreds of students. L. G. 
ilcConachie was for a time in the history 
department. He later became a member of 
the faculty of "Wisconsin University and a 
writer on the science of government. Mrs. 
S. F. Fuhri was a member of the English de- 
partment, as was Miss Nellie Gordon. It was 
during President Norton's administration 
that Miss "Winifred Johnson began that con- 
nection with the school which was to continue 
for so many years and to do much to make 
the school popular. The department of music 
was in charge of Otto Eckhardt, long a mem- 
ber of the faculty and known to all the stud- 
ents for his untiring interest in their various 
activities. 

It must be remembered in considering the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



427 



work of the school iu these early years that 
while it was established as a state institution 
and supported by state appropriation, it 
lacked one of the advantages which the State 
Normal schools now possess. There was no 
provision in the act establishing Normal 
schools within Missouri making the elemen- 
tary certificate or the Normal diploma a 
teacher's certificate. The students who com- 
pleted either of the two courses were required 
to pass an examination just as was done in the 
case of other persons before being granted 
license to teach. Arrangements were made 
with Dr. R. D. Shannon during his term as 
state superintendent for the conducting of 
examinations of students who completed 
courses of instruction. It was not, however, 
until 1887 that provision was made in the law 
by which the Normal certificate and Normal 
diploma became licenses to teach, one for 
a term of two years and the other for life. 
It is plainly evident that such a provision was 
a distinct inducement to stiidents to attend a 
Normal school, provided they expected to be- 
come teachers. Coupled with this provision 
was another which made as one of the condi- 
tions of entering, the taking of au obligation 
to become a teacher in the public schools of 
Missouri. 

President Norton severed his connection 
with the school by resignation in the spring 
of 1893. His successor was Willard D. Van- 
diver who had been for several years the pro- 
fessor of physics and chemistry. Under Mr. 
Vandiver's administration the school pro- 
gressed, but he remained for only four years, 
being succeeded at the end of his term by 
Professor J. S. McGhee. Professor McGhee 
had been connected with the school since 
1880, being the head of the department of 
mathematics. He, too, held the position for 
two years. In 1899 the board elected as pres- 



ident Mr. W. S. Dearmont, at the time of his 
election superintendent of schools at Kirk- 
wood. President Dearmont is a graduate of 
the University of Missouri and had had a most 
successful experience as a teacher and as sup- 
erintendent. He entered upon the work of his 
position with great enthusiasm and soon came 
to have an understanding of the situation that 
enabled him to lay plans which have resvilted 
in the growth of the institution. 

On the night of April 2nd, 1902, the build- 
ing was destroyed by fire. The origin of the 
fire is not knowTi, but the loss was total, there 
being practically nothing saved from it. 
There were fears expressed that the destruc- 
tion of the old building would result in very 
great injiiry to the school and there were sug- 
gestions also that the school should be re- 
moved from Cape Girardeau. Prior to the de- 
struction of the building, the board of regents 
had determined to erect another building to 
be used as a science and training school build- 
ing. The general assembly had appropriated 
$20,000 for this purpose at its meeting in 1901 
pud the board of regents had let the contract 
for its erection on September 9th, 1901. 

After the destruction of the old building 
of the school there was no cessation of the 
work, provision being made for the holding of 
the school in the court house and iu the 
churches of the town until Science Hall was 
completed. On its completion the school oc- 
cupied it as the sole building. The old build- 
ing had been insi;red and the funds paid by 
the insurance company were used by the 
board to erect a new stone building, which is 
now known as the Training School building. 
This was completed September 1st, 1903, and 
with Science Hall, offered comfortable and 
commodious quarters for the school. 

Perhaps the greatest service which Presi- 
dent Dearmont has rendered to the school 



428 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



was made possible by his clear insight into 
the opportunities presented by the destruction 
of the old building. Under his leadership a 
determined effort was made to secure from the 
general assembly an appropriation large 
enough to build a Normal school plant which 
would be capable of housing the school for 
many years. After strenuous efforts had been 
made the genei-al assembly for 1903 appro- 
priated the sum of $200,000 for the erection of 
the new main building. There was added to 
this in 1905 the sum of $186,000 to complete 
and furnish the new building and to erect a 
power house and manual training building. 
The new building, known as Academic Hall, 
was completed and occupied by the school in 
February, 1906. The building was dedicated 
with appropriate exercises on May 2-4th of that 
j'ear. 

This dedication was one of the most im- 
pressive events in the history of the school. 
Addresses were delivered by former Gov- 
ernor Dockery, by Hon. Louis Houck, presi- 
dent of the board of regents, by President 
Dearmont of the school, and by President E. 
B. Craighead, of Tulane University. Invita- 
tions had been sent out to former members 
of the faculty, many of whom attended. One 
of the pleasant features of the occasion was 
the presence of C. H. Dutcher, the second 
principal of the school. To him, President 
Dearmont resigned for the day his office, and 
delivered to him, on the rosti'um of the school, 
the gavel of the presiding officer. 

Since the completion of the main building 
there has been erected a power plant and 
manual training building, both of which have 
been fully equipped. The manual training is 
one of the best and most carefully arranged 
in the country. It is fully equipped for teach- 
ing all branches of the manual arts. 

No account of the Normal school plant 



would be complete without mentioning the 
two dormitories. These are not j'et the prop- 
erty of the state. Thej' were built by the 
Normal Dormitory Company, a private cor- 
poration which rents them to the state. It is 
highly probable that they will become the 
property of the state before the close of the 
J ear 1912. 

All the buildings of which we have spoken, 
six in number, are built of Cape Girardeau 
limestone. They are the most substantial 
character, all of them well planned and com- 
fortably furnished. Academic Hall, the main 
building, is perhaps the best single school 
building in the state. It is 260 feet long with 
a depth of 186 feet. It contains, in addition 
to the class rooms, gymnasiums, art room, 
music rooms, library, offices, society halls and 
ladies' parlor. 

The equipment for teaching science is 
ample. Laboratories for physics, chemistry, 
botany, physical geography and physiology 
are to be found in Science Hall. Besides the 
school has a completely furnishment depart- 
ment of domestic science and domestic art. 

An examination of the present courses of 
study offered by the school reveals perhaps as 
great a growth and development as is evi- 
denced by the growth of the school's material 
equipment. We have set out previously the 
course of study as offered in the first catalogue 
issued by the school in 1874. 

In 1890 the school was still organized in six 
departments, as had been the case for several 
years previoiLs to that time. These depart- 
ments were : 1st, the professional department ; 
2nd, department of language; 3rd, depart- 
ment of mathematics ; 4th, department of 
geography and history ; 5th, department of 
natural science, and 6th, department of pen- 
manship and drawing. 

The professional department was organ- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



429 



ized to include work in the following sub- 
jects: School economy, methods of teaching, 
natural science, mental and moral philosophy, 
history and philosophy of education, logic, 
graded schools, institute work, etc., and prac- 
tical teaching. 

The language and literature department in- 
cluded work in English, comprising rhetoric 
and English and American literature, and two 
years in Latin. In addition to these, elocu- 
tion was taught in each year of the course. 

The mathematical department gave instruc- 
tion in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trig- 
onometry, surveying, and astronomy. The 
work in surveying included some practical 
work with the compass and the course in 
astronomy was accompanied by experimental 
observations through a telescope. 

The department of natural science and nat- 
ural history did work in physical geography, 
physics, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, bot- 
any, zoology, physiology, and history of 
science. The equipment for teaching these 
sciences at that time was limited, though 
judged by the standards of the time, it was 
not wholly inadequate. 

The department of geography and history 
gave instruction in descriptive geography. 
United States history, general history, and 
civil government. There was also a brief 
course in English history. 

In the art department penmanship was 
taught, also drawing, bookkeeping, and vocal 
music. 

A comparison of these with the courses 
offered at the present time indicates the ex- 
pansion in this direction. The Normal school 
of today is a teacher's college and is organ- 
ized into three great departments ; one, the 
elementary professional department, the com- 
pletion of which gives to the student the ele- 
mentary certificate good for a period of two 



J ears; the advanced professional department, 
which leads to the Normal diploma, and the 
college department, organized after the usual 
form of colleges and leading to one of three 
degrees. Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of 
Science, or Bachelor of Education. 

In addition to this the school is divided 
into departments according to subjects. The . 
department of education, which offers courses 
in pedagogy, in the teaching of common 
branches, in psychology, principles of teach- 
ing, school management, history of education, 
kindergarten teaching, primary teaching, 
supervision of country schools, plaj^ ground 
and school hygiene, and theory and practice 
of physical training. 

The department of philosophy offers 
courses in sociology, especially psychology, 
logic, history of philosophy, ethics, theory of 
school organization, control and philosophy of 
the elementary school curriculum. 

The department of languages offers courses 
in Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish, 
and English. 

The department of history offers courses in 
history of Europe and America. 

The department of mathematics gives in- 
struction in mathematics including analytical 
geometry and calculus. 

The department of physics and chemistry 
is equipped for teaching these sciences after 
the most approved method, having good 
laboratories for both. 

The department of biologj' and of geog- 
raphy are well prepared for instruction in 
these subjects. 

One of the large departments in the school 
is that of agriculture and industrial train- 
ing. It is organized to give instruction in 
agriculture, manual training, in domestic 
science and domestic art. 

There is also a department of physical 



430 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



training, one of art, and one of music. All 
these departments have thoroughly organized 
courses and are fully equipped to earrj' on 
the work in their various subjects. 

The present condition of the Normal school 
as attested by its buildings and groimds, 
which are now valued at more than $600,000, 
by its faculty of forty-four teachers, by its 
attendance of students, which for the school 
year 1911-1912 was 1,001, is most encourag- 
ing to the friends of public education in 
Southeast Missouri. 

During the thirty-nine years of the school's 
history it has graduated more than 600 stud- 
ents and has enrolled more than 14,000. Its 
students are foimd in the greater number of 
teaching positions throughout this part of the 
state and are exerting constantly a wider and 
deeper influence upon the course of education 
here. 

Within a short time after the organization 
of the school, literary societies were formed 
by the students. The first of these, which 
seemed to have been organized in 1875, were 
the Union Literary, the Humboldt and the 
Arion. They were imder faculty supervision, 
but were conducted almost entirely by the 
students themselves, ilembership was open 
to both boys and girls and the programs were 
of a general literary character. For a good 
many years the societies were advertised in 
the catalogue as one of the means of general 
culture. 

In 1876 the three old societies were disor- 
ganized and two new ones were formed ; these 
were the Adelphi and the Zenonian. They 
were patterned after the former societies and 
continued to be the only ones of the school 
until 1879 when a third society called the 
Philomathean was organized. In 1888 a 
fourth society called the Van Guard came 
into existence. These societies held their 



meetings usually in the afternoon and 
there was no special place provided for 
their meetings; they usually occupied some 
one or other of the various class rooms of the 
school and they seem to have exerted no 
great influence on student life. 

In 1892 it was determined by the students 
to organize societies on a slightly different 
pattern. The initiative in the movement was 
taken by the members of the class of 1893. 
It was felt by many of the students that so- 
cieties would prosper more greatly if only 
men or only women were admitted to mem- 
bership. Accordingly, there was organized as 
the first of the new societies, the Webster. 
One reason for the change was that it might 
be made possible for evening meetings to be 
held; it was felt that the society would have 
a more distinct character and a greater influ- 
ence if it became possible to hold meetings in 
the evening. After the organization of the 
Webster Society its meetings for a time were 
held on Saturday evenings in a room rented 
in the ilasonic Temple, which had just been 
completed. In the same year the first of the 
girls' societies, the Sorosis, was organized. 
The following year the Bentons came into ex- 
istence and a little later the Clio was formed. 

Even after the organization of the new 
societies it was found necessary, during the 
greater part of the time, to hold their meet- 
ings in the class rooms of the Normal school. 
In 1894 there were built for the use of the 
societies, four halls. They were in the form 
of additions to the chapel, were well fur- 
nished, and well suited to the purpose for 
which they were intended. They were occu- 
pied imtil the destruction of the building in 
1902. On the completion of Academic Hall, 
rooms were set aside for the use of these so- 
cieties, which they still continue to occupy. 

It was not until after the organization of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



431 



the present societies that inter-society con- 
tests were held. They have now become a 
feature of society work. 

In addition to these societies there exists 
an organization of the students somewhat 
broader in character, known as the Oratorical 
Association. Its membership is made up of 
representatives of the four societies and has 
control of the various contests between the so- 
cieties and also with other schools. Under 
its auspices are held declamatory, oratorical 
and debating contests in the school, and inter- 
school debates and the oratorical contests with 
other Normal schools. Since the participa- 
tion of the school in these contests it has won 
an enviable place. 

Besides the literary societies already men- 
tioned, there are several other student organi- 
zations connected with the school which add 
much to the value of school life. One of these 
is the Toimg Women's Christian Association, 
which was organized for the first time in 1890, 
and since that time has been one of the 
features of student life. It holds weekly 
meetings of a devotional character and also 
advances the social interests of its members 
and other students in the school. At the 
present time a student secretary is employed, 
who gives to the work of the association a 
considerable part of her time. 

The Yoimg Men's Christian Association 
was organized in the school in 1900 ; since 
that time it has had a steady growth and now 
has a member.ship of more than a hundred. 
As is the case with the Y. "W. C. A., the asso- 
ciation holds weekly devotional meetings and 
also looks after the social life of students as 
far as possible. The association at present 
conducts a number of Bible study classes in 
the school and also in the various Sunday 
schools of the town and has a committee on 
self help whose officers are directed to aid 



students who are making their way in the 
school. 

Another one of the student organizations 
is the band. This was organized in 1906, 
under the direction of H. L. Albert, who was 
the first director. It has a membership of 
thirty and is one of the features of student 
life that adds very much to the pleasure and 
interest of the school. 

One of the activities of students which de- 
serves notice is the publication of a paper. 
A number of papers have been published at 
different times, but none of them have been 
placed upon a firm financial basis until the 
beginning of the publication of the Capaha 
Arrow during the school year of 1910-11. It 
is now in its second year and receives suffi- 
cient patronage in the way of subscriptions 
and advertising to warrant the continuance of 
its publication. The Arrow gives oppor- 
tunity for the expression of the student views 
and for experience in journalism that is quite 
valuable. 

A German society known as the Schiller 
"\'ei'ein has existed among the students for 
several years. It gives an occasional pro- 
gram, all its exercises being contributed in 
German. 

Besides the oi'ganizations mentioned there 
exist a number of others having in view the 
promotion of different objects; all of them 
adding something to the life of the school and 
furnishing a part for training in organization 
and management that is much needed and 
appreciated. 

Library 

Early in the history of the school the board 
determined that it was essential to its work 
to equip a library. The first record which ap- 
pears of its action along this line is authority 
granted to the executive committee to buy a 



432 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



set of the American Encyclopedia. A little 
later we tiud the sum of $300 was set aside to 
be used iu the purchase of books and labor- 
atory' apparatus. The collection of books con- 
tinued to grow until in 1876 there were 1,200 
volumes belonging to the school. The cata- 
logue of 1892 sets out that the school has 
two libraries, one a general collection of 1,100 
volumes of literature and the other a reference 
library' containing 700 volumes. Under the 
old organization of the school the library was 
far from being as useful as it might have 
been made. The reference library was usually 
open for the use of students, but the general 
collection was usually closed. It was kept in 
a locked room and was really a circulating 
library which was opened for issuing books 
only once a week. By the time of the fire in 
1902, there had been gathered about 3,000 
volumes. With very few exceptions these 
volumes were all destroyed; the only ones 
being preserved were those which happened 
to be out of the building on the night of the 
fire. The school proceeded to buy about 1,000 
volumes of a general character and these 
formed the library imtil the school moved into 
the new Academic building in 1906. The 
general assembly made some liberal appro- 
priations for the purchase of books and the 
library has grown to now about 9,000 vol- 
umes and 7,000 unbound pamphlets. 

Not only has the library grown in the 
actual number of books but has become thor- 
oughly' organized and catalogued so that it is 
accessible to the students at all times. 

Enrollment 

The enrollment of the school, as we have 
seen, has grown steadily from fifty-seven in 
its first year to 1,001 in the year 1911-12. 
This large enrollment and the large number 
of students who have been sent out as grad- 



uates from the various courses indicates the 
place which the school occupies in the educa- 
tional system of Southeast Missouri. The 
greater number of its more than six himdred 
full graduates have taught in the public 
schools of Southeast Missouri for longer or 
shorter periods. There is scarcely a school 
in this section of the state that has not em- 
I-'loj'ed at some time a former student of the 
Normal, and many of the best teaching posi- 
tions are now filled, and have been for years, 
by students of this school. Its educational 
ideals and standards have been communicated 
to most of the communities in this district. 
It is not too much to say that its work more 
than any other influence has contributed to 
the improvement of the educational situation 
in this part of the state. 

The present f aeultj' : Washington Strother 
Dearmont, A. M., Litt. D., president and pro- 
fessor of education. 

Winifred Johnson, A. B., professor of his- 
tory. 

Benjamin Franklin Johnson, A. M., pro- 
fessor of mathematics. 

Henry Stephen Moore, A. B., professor of 
American hi.stoi'y and economics. 

Benjamin Glime Shackelford, A. M., pro- 
fessor of physics and chemistry. 

Edwin Andrew Hayden, B. S., Ph. D., pro- 
fessor of philosophy and education. 

Robert Sidney Douglass, A. B., LL. B., 
professor of European history. 

Homer Lawson Roberts, professor of 
biology. 

Joseph Anthonj' Vaeth, A. B., professor of 
modern languages. 

Arthur Winn Vaughan, B. S., professor of 
public speaking. 

Edgar Augustus Cockefair, M. S., profes- 
sor of agriculture. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



433 



lleury Prank Sehulte, A. B., pi-ofessor of 
physical training. 

Ewell Martin Carter, B. S., in Ed., field 
and extension woriier. 

Frederic Hugo Doeden, A. B., A. M., pro- 
fessor of education and superintendent of 
training school. 

James Arthur Dunn, A. B., A. M., profes- 
sor of Latin and Greek. 

IMaud Montgomery, A. M., professor of 
modern languages. 

Myrtle Knepper, A. M., assistant profes- 
sor of mathematics. 

Jeptha Riggs, A. M., assistant professor of 
English. 

Eleanor Tyler, A. B., instructor in Latin. 

Arthur Clay Magill, B. Pd., assistant pro- 
fessor in chemistry. 

Elizabeth Parker Hiint, Ph. B., instructor 
in public speaking. 

Arthur Louis McCarthy, A. B., assistant 
professor of mathematics. 

Charles Lamb, director of manual training. 

James Monroe Sitze, B. Pd., instructor in 
stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, pen- 
manship. 

Nora Naeter, director of piano and violin. 

Mary Louise Booth, assistant in manual 
training. 

Emily Pitman "Wilburn, B. L., instructor 
in di-awing. 

]Mabel Flint, instructor in public school 
music. 

Lora Alza Harvey, instructor in voice. 

jMary Geraldine Allen, B. S., instructor in 
physical training. 

Mary Turner Chapin, instructor in domes- 
tic science. 

. Ida May Shilling, B. S., instructor in do- 
mestic art. 

Joe Mathews, B. Pd., assistant in piano. 

Martha Catherine Shea, A. B., critic teach- 



er and instructor in method in upper grades. 

Estaline Wilson, critic teacher and in- 
structor in method in upper grades. 

Emma Jane Howarth, A. B., critic teacher 
and instructor in method in intermediate 
grades. 

Rachel Elizabeth Gregg, B. S., critic 
teacher and instructor in method in primary 
grades. 

Elma Williams Ealy, B. Pd., critic teacher 
and instructor in method in kindergarten. 

Bertha Edith Rector, B. Pd., training 
school assistant in primary grades. 

Sara Jane Weber, B. Ph., training school 
assistant in upper grades. 

Olga Anna Huters, B. Pd., regents' scholar 
and assistant in modern languages. 

Sadie Trezevant Kent, B. Pd., librarian. 

Christine Isabella Wheeler, secretarj- and 
stenographer. 

Edward Felix Vaeth, bookkeeper and reg- 
istrar. 

ilary Mildred Steel, preceptress. 

Board of Regents 

The board of regents has been fortunate to 
have had the service of a number of men able 
and devoted to its interests: T. J. 0. Morri- 
son, Jacob Burrough and Charles C. Rozier, 
members of the first board of regents, ren- 
dered valued service in the beginning of the 
school 's work ; of these, perhaps the man 
whose influence was felt most in the life of 
the school was T. J. 0. Morrison. Besides 
these there have been a number of others 
whose services deserve recognition; two of 
these stand out with especial prominence in 
considering the history of the school. In 1881 
Leon J. Albert of Cape Girardeau, became 
connected with the school as a member of the 
board of regents and has continued his con- 
nection with it since that time. During these 



434 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



years he was faithful in attendance at the 
meetings of the board, was a member during 
a great part of the time of the executive com- 
mittee, and gave to the school the best service 
which his great financial ability and experi- 
ence made possible. 

Perhaps the man most closely associated in 
the minds of most people with the work of 
the Normal school is Hon. Louis Houck, who 
became a member of the board of regents in 
1886 and is still a member and has been for 
24 years the president of the board. In fact, 
Mr. Houck 's interest in and connection with 
the school began long before he became a 
member of the board. It was due in part to 
his active and intelligent interest that Cape 
Girardeau was selected as the site for the 
school and during all the years of the school's 
existence he has had an interest in its wel- 
fare. Since his connection with the board of 
regents, and especially since he became its 
president, he has devoted to the work of the 
school much of his time and thought. Few 
weeks have passed in recent years in which 
Mr. Houck has not devoted some hours to 
the consideration of the needs and wants of 
the school. It was his presence on the ground, 
and his wide experience in affairs that made 
possible the erection of the present school 
plant at a cost, very generally considered, ex- 
tremely low. Mr. Houck has given personal 
attention to the work of the school and it is 
not too much to say that to him perhaps more 
than to any other one person the school owes 
its success. No doubt the generous dealings 
of the legislature with the school has come in 
part, at least, because of Mr. Houck 's connec- 
tion with it. His wide acquaintance with 
men of affairs has inspired confidence in the 
wisdom and ability with which the school 
would be conducted. 

The present board is composed of Hon. 



Louis Houck, president, C. D. Matthews, Jr., 
vice president, Leon J. Albert, secretary, Hina 
C. Schult, Moses Whybark, Edward A. Ro- 
zier and William P. Evans, ex- officio, R. B. 
Oliver of Cape Girardeau is the board's treas- 
urer and the executive committee is composed 
of Louis Houck, Moses Whybark and Leon J. 
Albert. 

Former Presidents 

Principal C. H. Dutcher was born Febru- 
ary 17, 1841, in Pike county, Illinois, his 
parents being natives of New York. He was 
reared on the farm and after completing the 
course of study in the coimtry schools he 
spent a year at Christian luiiversity at Can- 
ton and then became a student at Kentucky 
university, where he was graduated in June, 
1864, with the degree Bachelor of Arts. Dur- 
ing part of his college life he served as a 
volunteer nurse in the hospital organized in 
the buildings of the uuiversitj'. After his 
graduation he taught school at Danville, Ken- 
tuckj', and then at other points in that state. 
In 1872-73 he was principal of the city schools 
of Kirksville, ilissouri, and in the latter year 
was elected a member of the faculty of the 
Kirksville State Normal school, teaching Latin 
and science; he held this position imtil 1877, 
when he became principal of the State Normal 
school at Cape Girardeau. As we have seen, 
his administration, which was conservative 
and businesslike, enabled the school to be- 
come thoroughly established. He held the 
principalship for three years and then en- 
gaged for a time in banking. In 1881 he 
became a teacher in the State Normal school 
at Warrensburg, holding the position until 
1892, when he re-signed. Mr. Dutcher is a 
member of the Christian church and a man 
of highest character and ideals. He was not 
only a successful administrator and execu- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



435 



tive, but also an able and successful teacher. 
Under him the school prospered and won a 
place in the educational system of the state. 

President Richard Chapman Norton, LL. 
D., was born in Ohio in 1840. He was edu- 
cated in the public schools and Hiram college, 
where one of his teachers was James A. Gar- 
field, afterwards president of the United 
States. After Mr. Norton was graduated in 
the year 1861, he immediately enlisted in the 
army and served throughout the war. In 1866 
he came to Missouri and was for a time con- 
nected with a railroad as a surveyor and en- 
gineer. He then accepted a position as super- 
intendent of public schools in Trenton, Mis- 
souri, a position which he held for two years. 
He then became a member of the faculty and 
vice president of the State Normal school at 
Warrensburg, remaining tTiere until he came 
to Cape Girardeau in 1880. After his resigna- 
tion from the presidency of this school he was 
for a time connected with the Kirksville Nor- 
mal, then he retired to his home near Tren- 
ton, and spent the last years of his life quietly 
there. In all he was connected with the Nor- 
mal schools of the state for nearly a quarter 
of a century and few men impressed them- 
selves more upon the young men and women 
with whom they came in contact. 

Mr. Norton exercised a remarkable influence 
over students, especially yoimg men. His in- 
fluence had for its secret an uprightness of 
character and unfailing earnestness of pur- 
pose which were the foimdations of a noble 
and successful life. Everj^ student knew that 
in him could be found a wise and faithful 
coimselor and friend. He was called "Uncle 
Dick" by the students and this was an ex- 
pression of the real affection in which he was 
held. 

On the resignation of President Norton in 
1893 the board selected as his successor Wil- 



lard D. Vandiver, a native of Virginia. Mr. 
Vandiver had been engaged in school work 
for many years. He was graduated from 
Central College in 1877 and was immediately 
elected professor of mathematics in Bellevue 
Collegiate Institute at Caledonia. After three 
years' connection with the institution he be- 
came its president. His administration was 
very successful and he attracted the attention 
of school authorities on account of his suc- 
cess in this institution. In 1889 he was made 
professor of science in the Normal school. 
Here again he was successful in his work and 
on the presidency of the school becoming 
vacant, he was elected to that position. Mr. 
"Vandiver remained at the head of the institu- 
tion for only four years. His administration 
was marked by great progress in the school. 
He terminated his connection with it to ac- 
cept a position as a member of Congress for 
the 14th congressional district as a Democrat. 
Since that time he has been active in political 
life, serving three terms in Congre.ss and then 
being appointed insurance commissioner of 
the state of Missouri. He is now connected 
with an insurance company of St. Louis. 

John S. McGee, who was president from 
1897 to 1899, was a native Missourian. He 
was born in 1849 and spent most of his early 
life in Wayne county. He was educated in 
an academy at Greenville and in the State 
Noi-mal school at Kirksville. After his grad- 
uation from the latter he was elected to the 
principalship of the public schools at Pierce 
City, a position he filled for two years. In 
1879 he became professor of mathematics in 
the State Normal school at Cape Girardeau- 
Here he made a place for himself in the life 
of the school and became known as one of the 
strong men of the faculty. On the resigna- 
tion of President Vandiver in 1897, Mr. Mc- 
Gee was chosen as the head of the school. He 



436 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



gave to the duties of this office the same care- 
ful thought and untiring effort which had 
distinguished his work as a teacher. He re- 
tired from the position in 1899 and devoted 
himself to other pursuits. He became inter- 
ested in real estate in Cape Girardeau and ac- 
quired a competence. His death, which oc- 
curred in 1903, brought sadness to many 
men and women who had found in him not 
only a wise and capable teacher, but also a 
sympathetic and helpful friend. 

Place op the Normal School 

Two ideas are held regarding the position 
of the Normal school in the system of public 
education. One of these, and perhaps the 
older idea, is that it should be a school de- 
voted solely to the preparation of teachers, 
especiall.y for the elementary schools. Those 
who hold to this idea would limit the Normal 
schools in equipment and buildings and 
would also limit their courses of study to in- 
clude about as much of academic work as is 
given in a high school, and in addition to 
this certain pedagogical training. 

The other idea is that a Normal school 
should have for its first duty the preparation 
of teachers, but not only teachers for the 
elementary schools, but also teachers for all 
grades of school maintained in the system; 
and that in addition to its work in the prep- 
aration of teachers, the plant and equip- 
ment of the Normal school should be used, as 
far as is consistent with its principal pur- 
pose and mission, to bi'ing within the reach 
of all the people of the district a gen- 
eral college education. Those who hold to 



this idea as the purpose and aim of the Nor- 
mal school maintain the position that the 
buildings and equipment and faculty of 
these schools should be of the best, that so 
far as is consistent with the maintenance of 
a school system the Normal schools should 
be colleges in which instruction is given not 
only in pedagogical subjects, but in all the 
subjects requisite to a liberal educfition. 
This view is justified by the consideration 
that teachers need a broader and more 
thorough education than is to be had in the 
high schools and that the preparation of effi- 
cient teachei's demands and requires Normal 
schools to widen their courses of study and to 
bring to their students the inspiration and 
help that comes from contact with higher 
education. It is felt too that not only does 
this consideration justify the maintenance of 
a college curriculum, but it is also justified 
by the further fact that to fail to make of 
the Normal schools a college is in reality to 
mi.ss an opportunity and in thus far to waste 
the funds invested in the Normal school. 
There seems no reason why regular college 
work may not be carried on by the Normal 
school faculty not only without interference 
with pedagogical work of the institution but 
even with an actual strengthening of that 
special work. 

It is this second view of the wider function 
of the purpose of the Normal schools that is 
maintained by the Normal school at Cape 
Girardeau. It is taking a foremost position 
among the Normal schools of the entire 
country on this question, and its courses now 
include not only purely pedagogical material, 
liut also thoroughly organized college work. 



SECTION VllI 



Present Coiidltioiis 



CHAPTER XXXIV 



SOCIAL LIFE AND INDUSTRIES 



Isolation of Many Communities — Deprivations Suffered — Houses — Food — Dress — 
Household Implements — Schools and Churches — Amusements — Unity op Feeling — 
Treatment of Disease — Versatility of the Pioneer — Development of Character — 
Farming — Mining — Manufacturing. 



There are many persons now living, whose 
recollection goes back into the period which 
we are now considering. They have a just 
appreciation of the situation and circum- 
stances imder which the inhabitants of this 
part of the state lived up to this time. To 
those of the younger generation, however, it 
is a very difficult matter to reconstruct con- 
ditions of life that prevailed in many parts 
of Southeast Missouri. It is especially true 
of those towns and villages which were sit- 
uated at a distance from the river. They 
presented, in many respects, a scene of pi-imi- 
tive life that is almost beyond the compre- 
hension of those who did not actually live 
that life. When we consider that such towns 
as Greenville in "Wayne county. Poplar Bluff 
in Butler county, Kennett in Dunklin county, 
and Frederiektown in Madison coimty, were 
situated at great distances from the river; 
that there were no railroads reaching them, 
and that the roads which formed the sole 
means of travel for their inhabitants were, 
in many cases and at many times, almost im- 
passable, we see something of the hard con- 
ditions of life in many of these places. It is 
true that in all of them stores were opened 
with considerable stocks of goods, and that 



communication was kept up more or less reg- 
ularly with the towns on the river, but in 
spite of this fact, these and similarly situated 
places were in a state of what seems today 
very great isolation. 

There are great numbers of people who 
can remember when their homes were at a 
distance of twenty-five to one hundred miles 
from the nearest town, and when the annual, 
or semi-annual visit to the town was the 
occasion of the only real shopping expedition 
that the women of the family made dur- 
ing the entire year. All the manufac- 
tured articles, with the exception of the 
simplest, including cloth, tools, household 
implements, and furniture, such supplies of 
food as were not grown on the place itself, 
were brought from these distant towns in 
wagon or on horse-back over indifferent roads. 

This situation led to some customs which 
seem peculiar to those of the present day. 
The pi'ices of many things were inordinately 
high, as compared with the prices now. This 
was true of such a small tiling as the match, 
and it was no unusual thing for the house- 
hold to be entirely without matches, and to 
depend upon the flint and steel, or upon a 



439 



440 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



supply of fire borrowed from some neighbor 
to rekindle that which had gone out from 
carelessness. On many shelves, or mantles, 
there stood in these days a vessel containing 
rolls of paper called lamp-lighters, which 
were held in the fire that blazed on the 
hearth, and then used to light the candle or 
the lamp. Other articles of the most fre- 
quent use, and seemingly entirely indispen- 
sable, were rarely seen inside the houses of 
many people in this period. 

The houses of the settlers were, in the early 
part of the period we are considering, built 
very largely of logs. The same house plan 
followed in Virginia and the Carolinas and 
brought westward by the American settlers 
was still in use. By 1850, however, there 
were in operation saw-mills, enabling the 
more enterprising of the inhabitants to con- 
struct frame houses and, accordingly, we find 
that from this time on, frame houses became 
more and more common. These houses built 
during this period, while simple in plan, and 
free from much ornamentation, were usually 
built of the quality of lumber which it is now 
no longer possible to secure. Timber was the 
cheapest commodity on the market, and 
where a saw-mill was available at all, it was 
possible to secure at a very low cost, lumber 
sawed from the finest and straightest of trees. 

These houses, whether frame or logs, were 
still heated by the fire-place. There were a 
few stoves, for during this period the open 
iron stove known as the ' ' Franklin ' ' made its 
appearance in Southeast ^Missouri, and found 
favor in some places, but the great depend- 
ance was upon the open fire-place. The 
chimneys were built in some coimties of stone, 
but in most cases they were still of what was 
known as the "stick and dirt" type. Brick 
was coming to be iLsed for the same purposes 



in places, and there were occasional brick 
houses being erected, though they were as yet 
by no means common. 

The food of the people was simple, but 
abundant. In more remote settlements game 
was still to be found in very great abundance, 
and supplied, in considerable measure, food 
for the family. Wild turkey and venison, 
rnd some of the countless varieties of wild 
fowl, bacon, and less frequently beef, were 
the staple meats. Bread made from flour was 
used more and more extensively, but during 
all of this period the bread that was most 
commonly used by the American settlers was 
corn bread. There was as yet no general use 
of many varieties of vegetables or fruits. 
Orchards were planted in places, and kitchen 
gardens were cultivated by some, but these 
were the exception and not the rule. De- 
pendence was placed on the plainer and more 
substantial items of diet which we have men- 
tioned. These remarks, of course, do not 
apply to the French settlements, for they re- 
tained that taste and .skill in cookery and 
tlie preparation of food which has always dis- 
tinguished the French. 

The dress of the American settlers during 
a great part of this period was still of the 
home-spun cloth, such as we have described 
in speaking of the dress of an earlier time. 
Toward the close of the period, as we have 
indicated, there came more and more into use 
clothing made from cloth imported into the 
coimtry. Even at this time, however, the 
cloths themselves were cut and made up in 
the home. Not many of the people wore 
clothes made by tailors or in great manufac- 
turing establishments. This was especially 
true of the clothing of the men. Of course 
in the larger towns, where something of a 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



441 



society prevailed, men of substance were ac- 
customed to have their clothes made in the 
cities by tailors, but this was by no means the 
usual thing in Southeast Missouri before the 
war. If the cloth itself were not woven in 
the home, it was bought and then turned into 
the various articles of dress. While there 
were many disadvantages in this situation, it 
had some advantages. One was the possi- 
bility of securing cloth that possessed un- 
usual wearing qualities. 

The household implements were primitive 
in character. Cooking, during the greater 
part of this period, was almost universally 
done on the open fire. The kitchen of the' 
house contained, instead of a range, a fire- 
place, and on this the women of the house 
cooked the food that was used. The frying- 
pan, the kettle, and the baking oven were the 
utensils used. Those who never tried the ex- 
perience cannot appreciate the trials of the 
housewife who prepared dinner for a large 
family in this way. It was before the day of 
the sewing machine, or at least the use of the 
machine was not common in this part of the 
state. Almo.st all sewing was done by hand. 
This took a great part of the time of the busy 
housewife, for she not only mended the clothes 
of the household, but also made them in the 
first instance. 

It has been set out in other chapters that 
during this period there was a constant 
growth in schools and in church organiza- 
tions. "While there was no such careful or- 
ganization of public schools as now exists, 
and no siich opportunities offered for educa- 
tion as the children of the present day enjoy, 
still there were few communities, even in the 
most remote counties, where schools were not 
conducted for at least a part of the year, and 



there were not many places where the pio- 
neer preacher did not penetrate, bringing 
with him the gospel. 

The amusements were not different from 
those of the present period. The dance and 
the social party, attendance upon meeting, 
picnics, barbecues, were the principal gather- 
ings attended by both sexes. The men found 
amusement in shooting at a mark with the 
rifie, in hunting and fishing, in such humble 
sports as marbles and pitching horseshoes. 
There were also certain athletic contests, and 
it was no uncommon thing for the men of 
the neighborhood to engage in wrestling and 
in the jumping match. This was before the 
day of baseball, but the men had a game, out 
of which baseball probably developed, which 
was called "town ball." 

One thing which marked the social life of 
the early settlers in outlying districts, and 
which has practically disappeared, was the 
unity of feeling. This was manifested in 
many ways. Most often it took the form of 
co-operative work. If a house was to be 
raised, or the logs on a piece of ground were 
to be "rolled," the work was not left to be 
done by the man interested, and those whom 
lie might employ, but the neighljors on every 
hand gathered in to assist him. The raising 
of a new house was the term applied to put- 
ting up the logs on the ordinary log struc- 
ture, and setting up the rafters for the roof. 
This was accomplished by a collection of men 
who spent the day in hard work and also in 
pleasant companionship. The men who came 
for this, or other work, were often accom- 
panied by their wives, who, while their hus- 
bands were busily engaged in the field or on 
the new house, assisted the hostess in the 
preparation of the bountiful dinner which 



442 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



was one of the main features of the day. 
This method of work extended also to such 
work as wheat threshing. This feeling of the 
imity of the neighborhood found expression, 
however, not only in this work together, but 
also in a certain care for the interests of 
each individual. The man who fell sick 
might be at a distance from a physician, and 
at a very much greater distance from a 
trained nurse, but he was certain to have the 
attention and help of those who lived about 
him. It was not an infrequent thing for a 
num who fell sick and whose crops thereby 
suffered to find that the kindly disposed of 
his neighbors had gathered together and 
worked his crop out for him. 

This feeling, which was found in almost 
every neighborhood. Went far toward amel- 
iorating the hard conditions in which men 
and women passed their lives. Unfortu- 
nately, this spirit has been lost in most com- 
munities in this part of the state. There 
exists but little trace of the friendly, neigh- 
borly spirit which found expression in the 
ways which we have mentioned. Today, the 
man who has extra work to do no longer looks 
to his neighbors and friends, but counts him- 
self fortunate if he is able to hire persons to 
work for him. 

We have seen in discussing the various set- 
tlements that thei'e were physicians living in 
many of them. In spite of this fact, how- 
ever, one of the great hardships endured by 
many people of this section of the state, was 
the absence of medical treatment and of the 
proper supply of medicines. It was not at 
all unusual for families to live at great dis- 
tances from the nearest physicians. This 
state of things, of course, caused much suffer- 
ing which might have been avoided, had it 
been possible to have secured a physician's 



service. It resulted, however, in the study 
of simple diseases and the making of simple 
remedies in practically every home. Some 
member of the family had to take upon him- 
self the responsibility for the simple treat- 
ment of diseases, and the housewife usually 
prepared a supply of home remedies. There 
were certain herbs and barks that were held in 
high esteem for the treatment of common 
complaints. 

In considering the situation of the people 
in this time, we must not forget that it was 
pot a day of division of labor, at least not in 
the rural communities. There were carpen- 
ters and blacksmiths and other mechanics in 
the larger to\\Tis, but just as was the case 
with the physicians, people who lived in the 
more remote counties were compelled to dis- 
pense with the services of these. This resulted 
in the all-aroi^md knowledge and in the ability 
to do a great many things which distin- 
guished men who lived along the frontier. 
Since it was often impossible to secure a car- 
penter or a blacksmith, and since carpenter 
work and blacksmithing had to be done, it 
fell out that men who needed the work 
learned to do it for themselves. There are 
now living in Southeast Missouri many men 
of the older generation who could turn their 
hands to various kinds of work. They could 
build a house or a fence or construct furni- 
ture. They could sharpen a plow or weld a 
broken rod, and do many other similar things, 
which we are accustomed to think of as being 
.solely within the province of the professional 
workman. This all-around skill which was 
developed from the very necessity of the 
case, was one of the compensations for the 
lack of schools and formal education. The 
boy in the remote commimity might be un- 
able to attend school more than a few weeks 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



443 



in the year, and the school which he attended 
was not equipped for doing a high grade of 
work, but he found in his home the stimulus 
for learning many useful things and the op- 
portunity and even necessity for practicing 
them. To use the carpenter's tools, or those 
cf the blacksmith, to be able to mend harness 
or shoes, or to turn his hand to do a number 
of other things, was supposed to be a part of 
the boy's education and preparation for life. 
And it must not be forgotten in estimating 
character and intellectual development of the 
man of this period, that such a training as 
this not only fits the hand and the eye for 
the performance of their tasks, but also has 
its effect in developing intellect and the for- 
mation of character. We have sometimes mis- 
judged the men of other generations, and of 
lesser opportunities, because we have consid- 
ered that the mind may be developed only by 
contact with books and schools. It is not true, 
of course, that all manner of labor has a 
great effect in the development of the mind, 
but it is true that the practice of the differ- 
ent trades and professions which we have 
mentioned, imder the circumstances of pioneer 
life, does have a very great effect in mental 
growth and development. Out of the seem- 
ingly unfavorable conditions, the elementary 
condition of the schools in Southeast Mis- 
souri during this period, there came many 
men who have real breadth of intellect and 
force of character, and may not be vmwor- 
thily compared to many who have had much 
greater advantages and nnieh better oppor- 
tunities. 

This life developed men of very great ini- 
tiative and wonderful power. It was during 
this period that the west attracted such great 
numbers of people by the discovery of gold 
in California. Thousands of Missourians, 



some of them from the southeast, made their 
way to the west and took part in all the 
stirring scenes of that time. These men, ow- 
ing to their early training and the character 
which it had developed, made their mark in 
every part of the new country. The Mis- 
sourian became a well known character and 
was regarded as one of the highest types of 
men in the west. It is a curious and inter- 
esting exercise to look through the records of 
western life and to see how many Missourians 
have filled important places and played great 
parts in the building up of the west. All 
along the coast, from Canada to Mexico, are 
to be found Missourians and their descend- 
ants. The characters which were developed 
in them by the pioneer life in the state fitted 
them excellently for the work of the coimtry. 

One of the most interesting aceoimts hav- 
ing to do with this period was written by 
Judge Robert Goah Watson of New Madrid 
county. Judge Watson, who came to New 
IMadrid very early in its history as a trader 
with the Indians, became one of its most 
prominent and influential citizens. He ac- 
cumulated considerable property through his 
trading enterprises and was a man who al- 
ways stood up for the best interests of his 
community. He wrote late in his life an ac- 
count setting out the experiences which he 
had in the new section of the country. It is 
an interesting bit of biography and it casts 
considerable light on the surroundings and 
life in New Madrid county. 

One of the things of which he speaks with 
special emphasis is the existence in the early 
days of imdesirable people. Not only were 
such gangs of robbers as the IMason and ]\Iur- 
rell band, if not tolerated, at least allowed to 
continue their operations for a good many 
years, but there were in addition to these 
open and notorioiis outlaws, a large number 



444 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of men who, for one reason or another, liad 
left their homes and who had vicious and 
evil habits that they brought to the new coun- 
try. They considered themselves to be out- 
side of the domain of law and order and to 
have a license to conduct themselves as they 
chose. It was exceedingly difficult to reduce 
them to orderly living. They formed a con- 
siderable part of the population and by their 
boldness they imposed themselves upon the 
quieter and better class. There were many 
crimes committed by them, more especially the 
crime of eovuiterfeiting and forgery. Judge 
Watson says that it became a matter of the 
greatest difficulty to determine whether a 
bill or cheek or a piece of money was really 
valuable or whether it was only a counter- 
feit or a forgery. 

This condition of affairs lasted until the 
better citizens of the county determined for 
the safety of the county, for the sake of their 
good names and self protection, to rid them- 
selves of these undesirable persons. Accord- 
ingly, they banded themselves together into 
an organization, not imlike the later vigilance 
committees of California. They served notice 
on those who were giving trouble that they 
would be summarily dealt with, that they 
need no longer expect to be tolerated or al- 
lowed to continue their nefarious practices. 
At first it seemed that resistance would be 
made and that blood would flow as a result 
of this action. The better citizens, however, 
stood firm for their rights and finally those 
whose presence was not desired slunk away 
and the country was left much better off' 
than it had been. 

Industries 
During these years the principal industries 
in the coimtry continued to be farming and 
mining. A great deal of farming land was 



opened, and the products of the soil in- 
creased in number and value. Agriculture 
was studied more carefully, and the great 
fertility of much of the soil enabled the grow- 
ing of large crops. The great majority of 
the population were directly dependent upon 
the produce of the soil. Tliis was true even 
in the mineral section, for while many pei'- 
sons worked at times in the mines, there was 
no great number, even in that district, who 
were not also directly interested in the culti- 
vation of the soil. The better lands of South- 
east .Missouri, which are to be found in the 
alluvial soil of the ^lississippi bottoms, be- 
gan to be opened up during this period. The 
building of the levee in Pemiscot county was 
an evidence of the growing appreciation of 
value of this soil. In Butler, Stoddard, 
Dunklm and Mississippi counties, there were 
large tracts of land being put into cultiva- 
tion during this period. It is impossible to 
give any accurate statistics as to the value 
of the produce of the soil, for the reason that 
no such statistics were gathered during part 
cf this time. It Mas not imtil the census of 
1S60 that the government began to make in- 
quirj' into the occupations of men and to take 
account of the things which they grew or 
manufactured. It was long before the or- 
ganization of the bureau of labor or of the 
labor department of the .state government, 
and no particular attention was paid to the 
gathering or preservation of statistics having 
to do with these matters. The growth of the 
population, however, enables us to decide that 
production was increasing rapidly because the 
country was self-supporting. It grew prac- 
tically everything necessary for the life of the 
people. 

The crops were not greatly different from 
those that are now grown, though hardly so 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



445 



varied in character. Corn and wheat were 
the staples, and connected with these was the 
cattle growing industry. The range had not 
disappeared as yet, and it was still possible 
to raise stock profitably at very little cost. 
It was during this period that cotton made 
its appearance in the eoimties in the extreme 
southeast. 

One handicap under which farmers labored 
was the lack of transportation facilities. Ex- 
cept for those situated on the river, it was a 
matter of the very greatest difficulty to trans- 
port their surplus products to market, and 
we may not be surprised that the growth of 
the country away from the river, in spite of 
all its natural advantages, was slow until the 
era of railroad construction began. A study 
of the statistics of population set out in the 
table accompanying another chapter, shows 
very conclusively the influence of river trans- 
portation in the development of the country. 
If these figures are compared with similar 
figures publi-shed in another chapter the in- 
fluence of railroads in the develojament of the 
interior is very plainly seen. 

Farming, however, was not the only, 
though it was the most important, industry 
followed by the people of the section. There 
were considerable numbers of men engaged 
in buying and selling. ]\Iore and more the 
people came to depend upon the imported 
goods, especially clothing and dry goods. 
During the earlier jDart of this period, the 
home was the factory where there was manu- 
factured all that was needed for the comfort 
of its members. This, however, was changed 
by the close of the period which we are con- 
sidering. The development of steamboat 
transportation and the consequent ease and 
cheapness with which goods might be trans- 
ported, enabled those who lived in the eoim- 
ties bordering the river, to secure manufac- 



tured goods at a fraction of their former cost, 
and they came more and more to be dependent 
upon articles so secured. This habit, or fash- 
ion, of using things imported from other 
parts of the country spread slowly but surely, 
to those settlements and towns lying away 
from the river. To supply the wants of these 
people there was a considerable number of 
persons engaged in merchandising. In con- 
trast to the settlements made prior to this 
period we find that one of the first houses in 
every town w'as occupied by one enterprising 
tiader with a considerable stock of goods. 

The wheat raised on these farms was cut 
by hand. It was before the day of farming 
machinery. The first implement used in 
wheat cutting was the sickle. This was a 
curved blade with handle, which wfas held in 
the right hand while the left hand grasped 
the heads of the wheat. These were then cut 
oS at the top of the stalk and carried from 
the field. Sometimes the scythe was used, 
and later the cradle was invented. The cradle 
consisted of a long, heavy scythe blade, to 
which was attached a number of wooden 
fingers, each as long as the blade, and project- 
ing above it. "When the wheat was cut, the 
cradle caught the stalks, and these were then 
removed by the person using the implement. 
The handfuls of grain thus gathered were 
placed together to form a bundle or sheaf. 
The instrument appears awkward and of little 
use, judging by the standards of today, but 
it was used for many years and harvested 
great crops of wheat. 

The scythe was also used to cut whatever 
hay was growTi on the farm. This, too, was 
work requiring time, and seems today to have 
been inadequate for the purpose for which 
it was used. 

Other farming machinery and implements 
were of like character. The wooden plow was 



446 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



still in use in some places. The first improve- 
ment over the wooden plow in general use 
was the steel point, then the whole of the 
point and mold board were made of steel. 
Of course, the wooden implement, or even the 
one with steel point was vastly inferior to 
the modern plow, and work accomplished by 
it not to compare in quality with that done 
today. The modern cultivator and disc har- 
row were as unknown as the self-binder. 

The wheat wliich was thus harvested by 
hand, was threshed, usually, by the flail, or 
by being trampled upon by cattle. After it 
was dry it was placed on the floor of the 
barn, or on a specially prepared piece of 
ground, and then beaten upon with sticks. 
in order to shatter the grains from the head. 
When this was done the straw was raked 
away, and then the wheat was winnowed. 
This was accomplished by taking it up in 
.shovels and throwing it into the air, so that 
the chaff was blown away by the wind. 

This wheat was ground into flour at the 
little mills which made their appearance at a 
number of places in this section. Practically 
all of them at first were water mills, and 
were to be foiuid only in those counties in 
the Ozarks. The people who lived in the allu- 
vial section were compelled to take their wheat 
for great distances to these mills. 

Corn was ground both by water mills, such 
as are used for the grinding of wheat, and 
g.lso at mills operated by other power, usually 
horse power. These horse-power mills some- 
times consisted of a great, flat wheel set at 
an angle on which horses and sometimes 
cattle were tied. Their walking set the wheel 
in motion, and this was geared to the ma- 
chinery of the mill. Corn was not infre- 
quently ground also in hand mills owned by 
many families. 



The mining interests were large during this 
period though they did not develop as rap- 
idly as they did later. The lack of capital to 
provide proper machinery as well as inade- 
ciuate transportation facilities prevented the 
development of the region to the extent pos- 
sible in a later period. Some of the richest 
had regions were not yet discovered. The 
great Flat river district was not yet devel- 
oped in full, and the very rich deposits at 
Doe Rim had not yet been touched. The 
first furnace at Bonne Terre, afterward the 
site of the greatest mine in the entire south- 
east, was not erected imtil about 1856, and 
the production was very limited until near 
the close of the war, when the St. Joseph 
Lead Co. was organized and began to push 
the work of development. The older mines 
v/ere still worked, but they did not produce 
anything like the inunense quantities of lead 
later taken from them. 

IManufacturing began to have importance 
toward the close of this period. Perhaps the 
most important manufactured product during 
these years was flour. Water mills were 
erected at various places in the comities of 
the upland and wheat was brought to them 
from all over the district to be groimd. 
Toward the close of the period the first steam 
mill in the section was erected at Cape Girar- 
deau. During this period, also, the demand 
for lumber caused the building of saw mills. 
Previously when lumber was desired, it was 
sawed from the log by hand. The first saw 
mills were water mills or else were driven 
by horse power. 

Another manufactured article was brick. 
At Cape Girardeavi. Jackson, Perryville, 
rVedericlcto-\^T3, and the towns in the hills 
houses began to be built of brick. Clay ex- 
isted in many places suitable for brick-mak- 
ing and this industry began to develop. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



447 



There were distilleries in places, and much 
whiskey was made. Tan yards were common 
also. Lime began to be manufactured. The 
manufacture of pig lead and of shot had 
long been carried on in the mineral region 
and grew in quantity during this period. 

To a certain extent every farm house was 
a factory where many articles of domestic 



use were made. Cloth was woven, thread 
spim, clothing made, furniture and many 
household implements and tools were con- 
structed. All these processes of manufacture 
whether carried on in the home or the fac- 
tory added to the independence and fostered 
the development of the country. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

RELIGIOUS HISTORY— Continued 

Catholics — Methodists: Quarterly Meetings, Circuits and Districts — Baptists: As- 
sociations — Evangelical Lutherans — Protestant Episcopal Churches — Congregation- 
alists — German Evangelical and German Methodist Churches — New School Presby- 
terians — Cumberland Presbyterian Churches — Christians (Disciples op Christ) — 
Southeast Missouri Presbyterian Churches — Presbyterlanism in 1854-64 — 1864-1874 — 
Division in Presbytery — Decade from 1884 to 1894 — History Since 1894. 



In a former chapter we have discussed the 
beginning of religions work within the 
bounds of Southeast Missouri by those re- 
ligious denominations which entered this part 
of the state prior to its admission to the Un- 
ion. We now have to continue the story 
of the development of the work in these 
churches, and the beginning of the work of 
other denominations which entered the state 
in the period we have under consideration. 

Our attention is given first of all to the 
development of the work of the Catholic 
church, the oldest of the religious organiza- 
tions within the state. It will be recalled 
that Bishop Dubourg, who was appointed to 
the diocese of New Orleans, which included 
Upper Louisiana, in 1815, brought with him 
on his return from Rome, a number of zeal- 
ous, earnest priests and students, who came 
to take up and carry on the work of the 
church in this state. The most famous of 
these who accompanied the bishop were Fa- 
tlier De Andreis and Father Rosati, both of 
whom, as was the bishop himself, were mem- 
bers of the Congregation of the Mission. Fa- 
ther De Andreis became vicar general of the 



diocese with headquarters in St. Louis, and 
assisted in the organization of St. Mary's 
Seminary at Perryville. Later, the work of 
cariying on this seminary was entrusted to 
Father Rosati. Among the men associated 
with these whom we have mentioned, in their 
work of evangelization, were : Father J. il. 
Odin and Father John Timon. Father Odin 
became the first bishop of Galveston and later 
archbishop of New Orleans. Father Timon, 
who was ordained in 1825, was assigned to 
the work in Perr.y and Cape Girardeau coun- 
ties. He often preached in the courthouse 
at Jackson, and it was through his efforts 
that a mission was established in the town 
of Cape Girardeau. When this mission had 
been established, and it became necessary to 
purchase property on which to erect build- 
ings to carry on the work, a tract of laud just 
soutli of the town was purchased from a man 
named Daugherty ; it was bought in the name 
of the Vineentian Fathers. It is the tract of 
on which St. Vincent's church and St. Vin- 
cent's College in Cape Girardeau now stand. 
At first the services were held in Daugherty 's 
house, later a store-house was purchased and 



448 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



449 



modified so as to be suitable for the celebra- 
tion of religious services. The mission be- 
came a regularlj' organized parish in 1836, 
at which time Father Odin was installed as 
the priest in charge. It was but a short time 
until plans were made for the erection of a 
suitable church building. This was com- 
pleted and dedicated July 19, 1852. It stands 
facing the river and is a commodius brick 
structure, in the Gothic style of architecture, 
and is still in use. It has been remodeled and 
thoroughly overhauled at various times, so 
as to keep it in condition for the use of the 
congregation. 

The settlement of St. I\Iiehaels, in Madison 
county near the present site of Frederick- 
town, was a distinctly Catholic settlement. 
It was made in 1802, and about the year 1820 
a church building was erected on the site of 
the new village. It was simply a missionary 
station and no regular jiarish priest was at- 
tached to it. After the removal of the town 
fi'om St. Michaels to the pi-esent site of Fred- 
eriektown, the church which was built of 
stone was taken down and moved to a new 
town ; this was in 1827. After the removal, a 
regular parish was organized and Father 
Francois Cellini was appointed to take charge 
of the work. He was one of the men who had 
come with Bishop Dubourg from Italy in 
1817. He was a man of unusual attainments 
and ability. Before coming to America he 
had served as a surgeon in the Italian army 
and had been knighted on account of his ser- 
vices in that capacity. Wlien he became par- 
ish priest in Fredericktown he continued the 
practice of his former profession among his 
parishioners, and he possessed such skill as 
a surgeon that he was often called upon to 
practice in different parts of the country. 
He also engaged in the manufacture and sale 
of certain proprietary medicines known as 

Vol. 1—29 



Cellini's Balm and Cellini's Bitters. Father 
Cellini was succeeded in 1842 by P. D. Sa- 
velli, who remained until 1845. At this time, 
Father Tucker, a. native of Perry county, was 
appointed parish priest. He organized a 
movement for the erection of a brick church 
and a new residence for the priest. These 
were completed in 1858. He remained in 
charge of the parish until his death in 1880. 

In 1838, there was erected at Perryville, a 
church known as St. Mary's church. This 
was in connection with St. Mary's College, 
and the priests in charge of the church have 
ordinarily been members of the faculty of 
the college. This church building is of stone 
and is a very beautiful and commodious struc- 
ture. 

The first church in Washington county was 
built at Old Mines about 1825. It was built 
b3' the Catholics and was a log building. 
This was torn down in 1830, and a brick 
structure erected. The church in Potosi was 
organized in 1828, and the present church 
building was erected in 1862. 

In 1845 a Catholic church was organized 
in Benton, and a house erected to be vised as 
a church. The lot on which the church was 
placed was given by a gentleman named 
Meyers. In 1850 this church was bumed. 

In 1848 a log church was built at New 
Hamburg which was superseded in 1857 by 
a handsome stone structure. This church was 
destroyed by fire during the war, but was 
replaced by a more costly and beautiful one. 

In 1856 a Catholic church was organized 
at Leopold, in Bollinger county. The priest 
who conducted the organization was John 
Van Lluytelaar: the members of the church 
were J. G. Sonderen, J. Scharenbourg, John 
and Jacob Holweg, Armond Jansen, Herman 
Elfraut, W. Wardraeker, J. W. Tuling, T. 
Meyer, A. Rickhoff, Clement Beel and John 



450 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Derbraak. The first church building was of 
logs, but it was soon replaced by a large 
frame building. 

The second Catholic church in Cape Gir- 
ardeau was the German church. It had been 
the desire of the German families in the town 
to have a separate organization and in 1858 
J. Meyer and J. Goetz were appointed as a 
committee to consult with Archbishop Ken- 
rick as to the advisability of establishing a 
separate congregation for German speaking 
Catholics. All that was accomplished at the 
time was the purchase of a lot b.y ten men 
who were interested in the establishment of 
the new church. Nothing more was done 
toward the organization until after the close 
of the war. The delay probably would not 
have taken place, had it not been for the dif- 
ficulties that arose at that time, occasioned 
by the war itself. 

In 1867 Father Rainerius Diekneite began 
an agitation for building of the church. The 
priest of St. Vincent's at that time was Fa- 
ther L. C. Meyer. He gave to the subject of 
building all the weight of his influence, and 
a new building committee was appointed, 
composed of J. Lansman, Charles Fuerth. J. 
Schwepker, H. Sander and J. Goetz. This 
committee purchased a lot on Frederick 
street for $650, and the work of erecting the 
building was begun March 25, 1868. The 
building cost $14,000. A schoolhouse for the 
parochial school was l>uilt in 1882, and the 
priest's residence in 1885. The school has 
been conducted by Sisters of the Order of St. 
Francis. The pastors of this parish have 
been Rev. J. Herde, Rev. Gells, Rev. W. Hins- 
sen, Rev. J. Schmidt, Rev. S. Kleiser, Rev. W. 
Sonnonschein, Rev. Francis Willmer, and 
Rev. E. Pruente. Father Pruente has been 
in charge of the parish since December 30, 
1881, and his labors have been unusually suc- 



cessful. The church now has a large member- 
ship. 

The church of St. Augustine was organ- 
ized at Kelso in 1878. The members of the 
organization had formerly belonged to the 
church at New Hamburg. Immediately after 
the organization, a frame building was erected 
and used for a number of years, then super- 
seded by the present brick structure. 

The St. John's church at Leopold has more 
than 600 communicants, and has maintained 
a school since 1872. 

In 1870 a church was built at Farmington 
and a congregation of about twenty families 
organized by Henry Milsepen, who was the 
German vicar-general. For a time there was 
no resident priest, the first one being Rev. 
John Daley. He had charge of the church 
at French Village also. For a period of 
about ten years Farmington and Iron Jloun- 
tain parishes were united under the care of 
the same priest. About 1885 the church at 
Farmington had grown so as to require the 
services of a priest for all the time. The 
church has a good brick building and a school 
building also. 

The first Catholic church at Bonne Terre 
was built by Father Daley, the land having 
been given by members of the Whilebon fam- 
ily. The church was not conveniently lo- 
cated, however, being at a distance from the 
town. In 1881 the Desloge Lead Company 
gave a lot, upon which a brick building was 
erected, at a cost of $3,000. Rev. E. J. Demp- 
sey was the first resident priest, and the prin- 
cipal work of establishing the churcli was 
performed by Father M. C. Walsh. Through 
his exertions a fine school building was erected 
in 1885, and a priest's residence a few years 
later. Father Walsh was a native of Ireland, 
but came with his parents to America in in- 
fancy. His parents determined to fit him for 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



451 



the priesthood, and he was educated in St. 
Patrick's school, in St. Louis, and was later 
sent to St. ilary's Seminary, at Perryville. 
He was graduated from St. Vincent's Col- 
lege at Cape Girardeau in July, 1862, and 
was ordained to the priesthood. He spent 
the first years of his ministry in north Mis- 
souri, but from about 1881 he was active in 
a number of counties in Southeast Missouri. 
The great growth of Catholicism during this 
period is due in part to the' earnest efforts of 
Father Walsh. 

The German Catholic church of Perryville, 
known as St. Boniface, was established in 
1870, and the present In-ick building was 
erected shortly after that time. 

The church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 
at Pilot Knob, was established about the be- 
ginning of the war. There had been a settle- 
ment at Pilot Knob since the transfer to the 
United States, and beginning in 1846, Fa- 
ther Tucker, the parish priest at Frederick- 
town, had held occasional services in the 
homes of members at Pilot Knob. In 1861 
Mrs. Catherine Immer began the work of 
raising funds for a church building. The 
first contributor to this fund was Archbishop 
Kenrick, of St. Louis. The church was com- 
pleted early in the year 1864, and in that 
same year was injured by an explosion dur- 
ing the battle of Pilot Knob. Some of the 
early priests were Father Hennessey, after- 
wards Bishop of Wichita, Kansas, and L. C. 
Weinert. Father Weinert remained with the 
church for many years and was esteemed one 
of the ablest and most devoted pastors the 
church had. In 1881 a parochial school was 
established in connection with the church, 
and at this time a great-granddaughter of 
Joseph Pratte is a teacher in this school. It 
was to Joseph Pratte that the land on which 
the town now stands was originally granted 



by the Spanish government, which grant was 
afterwards confirmed by the United States 
in 1834. In 1882 the church purchased land 
and established a cemetery. It celebrated the 
fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of 
the church June 5, 1912. A number of for- 
mer priests took part in this celebration. 

Besides the churches already mentioned, 
there are the following Catholic churches in 
Southeast Missouri: St. Joseph's, at Union- 
town; St. Joseph's Chapel, at Arcadia; St. 
Philomena's, at Bloomsdale, in Ste. Gene- 
vieve county; the Church of the Nativity, in 
Bois Brule Bottom ; the Church of Our Lady, 
in Claryville; the Church of St. Lawrence, 
in Ste. Genevieve county; Ste. Anne's, at 
French Village, in St. Francois county; St. 
Joseph's, at Zell, in Ste. Genevieve county; 
St. Mary's, in Ste. Genevieve county; Sacred 
Heart, at Poplar Bluff ; the Immaculate Con- 
ception, Jackson; St. Mary's at Charleston; 
St. Francois de Sales, in Mississippi county; 
the Immaculate Conception, at New Madrid. 
Besides these there are organizations at Doni- 
phan, JIalden, Caruthersville, Glennonville, 
Bismarck, Bloomfield, De Soto, Dexter, East 
Prairie, Festus, Caruthersville, Greenville, 
Irondale, Iron Mountain, Maxville, the oldest 
church in Jefferson countj% organized in 
1850; Kimmswick, Old Mines, the oldest 
church in Washington county, Potosi, and 
Richwoods. 

Not only was the Catholic church the first 
in the territory of Southeast Missouri, it has 
always been one of the most powerful. Its 
compact organization, its wealth, and the zeal 
and devotion of its priesthood have given it 
a place among the people of this part of the 
state. This is especially true in the French 
settlements like Ste. Genevieve, New Madrid, 
and Cape Girardeau. Some of the German 
settlements as well are strongly Catholic. 



452 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Other German communities were settled by 
Lutherans and their intiuenee has continued 
paramount in these places. 

The Catholic church has given great at- 
tention to the matter of education. In this 
field it was the pioneer. St. Mary's Semi- 
nary at Perryville, is the oldest institution of 
learning in the entire state, and St. Vincent's 
College at Cape Girardeau the oldest college. 
Besides these the church has supported pa- 
rochial schools in all communities where the 
number of Catholics warrants it. A large 
and growing membership, virtual control of 
the religious situation in certain parts of the 
section, valuable property, and numbers of 
schools attest the position won for this church 
during the years of its history. 

Up to 1821 the Methodists had established 
one district called Cape Girardeau District, 
and the following circuits: Bellevue, Saline, 
St. Francois, Spring River, White River, 
Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. At that 
date Thomas Wright was the presiding elder 
of the district. The church grew slowly dur- 
ing the years. Some of the congregations 
were prosjDerous and sent out new organiza- 
tions, but some of them were almost at a stand 
for a number of years. No great advance was 
made until about the year 1835. By that year 
some new circuits had been added, among 
them : Farmington, Greenville and West 
Prairie. At that time Uriel Haw was Pre- 
siding Elder. A mission was established at 
Bloomfield in 1837, which in another year be- 
came a circuit of the church. In 1839 Jacob 
Lanius was the Presiding Elder. Cape Gi- 
rardeau circuit was supplied by Nelson 
Henry and Edward Allen, New Madrid by 
Uriel Haw and James G. T. Dunleavy, 
Bloomfield by N. B. Evans, Greenville by Ly- 



sander Wiley, Farmington by Slelville Will, 
and Ste. Genevieve by Samuel S. Colburn. 

About the year 1835 there began a move- 
ment for the building of church houses. At 
that time there were, perhaps, fewer than 
one-half dozen church buildings belonging to 
the Methodists in all of Southeast Missouri. 
One of the early buildings was Yorke Chapel ; 
this was in Perry county, about five miles 
from Perryville and was erected in 1825. It 
was afterward replaced by a stone building 
which is still standing. In 1835 a chapel, 
which was known as Mt. Zion, was built in the 
Virginia settlement four miles from Freder- 
ioktown. About the year 1830 a church was 
organized in Matthew's Prairie, in Mississippi 
county and a small log house was erected on 
the land of Elizabeth Smith. The names of 
the members of this church have been pre- 
served. Some of them were : Absolum Mc- 
Elmurry and wife, Elizabeth Smith, Elijah 
Bruce, Samuel Duncan and family, William 
Bush, Joseph ]\Ioore and wife, James Moore 
and wife, Charles Moore and wife, Richard 
and j\Iary Crenshaw, Uriel Haw and wife, 
and Isaac Vernon and wife. It will be seen 
that some of these were members of families 
still prominent in Mississippi county. Uriel 
Haw afterward became one of the prominent 
ministers of the church and served at various 
times as Presiding Elder of the Cape Girar- 
deau District. His grandson, Marvin T. 
Haw, is a minister of the Methodist church 
aud has been stationed at various places in 
Southeast Missouri. 

In 1838 this house was burned and two or 
three years later a church building was 
erected at Charleston. This was occupied un- 
til 1856, when it was torn down and a brick 
building put in its place. This, too, was 
burned in 1870 and was immediatelv rebuilt. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



453 



Some of the other early churches in Missis- 
sippi county were Kay's Chapel, Haw's 
Chapel and Rush Ridge Chapel. 

A church building was erected at Jackson 
about 18-11. The trustees of this church 
were: Greer W. Davis, David II. Davis, Ca- 
leb Green, Welton O'Bannou, John D. Cook, 
Hiram Gilliland and William T. Randol. 
The lot for the church was given by Greer 
W. Davis. 

The first Methodist church house in Cape 
Girai'deau was erected about 1842. It was 
blown down by a storm in 1851 and the next 
building was a small frame house on the 
corner opposite where the Episcopal church 
now stands. This house was destroyed by a 
snow storm in 1856, the weight of the snow 
crushing the structure. 

The first church building in Bloomfield 
erected by the Methodists was a small house 
put on a lot donated by the county, this was 
in 1842. Edmund Wood, Thomas Neale, 
Samuel Sifford, Thompson Couch and John 
Eaker were trustees of the church. 

In 1838 a church was built at Frederick- 
town, and occupied the site of the present 
church building. Some of the early members 
were: T. F. Tong, P. T. Overfield, Thomas 
Cooper, Wm. M. Newbei*ry and Andrew Rus- 
sell with tlieir families. 

Our information concerning the condition 
of the church at this period is derived in 
large part from a copious diary which was 
kept by Jacob Lanius, the Presiding Elder of 
the Cape Girardeau District in 1839 and 
'40. A perusal of this old diary indicates 
more plainly than anything else the difficulty 
under which the ministers of that early day 
labored. Some extracts from it are given 
("History of Southeast Missouri," Page 
536). 

"Thursday, November 14 — Started from 



my New Madrid quarterly meeting, and after 
a ride of thirty miles through steady rain 
reached Brother Caleb Grain's near Jackson. 
Here is a society of about twenty members in 
a tolerable state of prosperity only. The next 
day passed through Jackson, a little old vil- 
lage, and took breakfast at the house of 
Greer Davis, a member of the bar, and a re- 
spectable member of our church. Traveled 
thirty miles today and lodged at the house of 
old Mother Houts, near Benton, the county 
\seat of Scott county. Here the church once 
prospered but is now in moi-al rains. 

"16th and 17th — Held the first quarterly 
meeting for New Madrid circuit at Pleasant 
Plains meeting-house in Sandy Prairie. 
Brothers Haw and Dunleavy, the pastors of 
the circuit, and Henry and Owens attended 
as ministers in holy things. Two professed 
faith in Christ. This circuit has nearly 400 
members, but religion is at very low ebb. 
This is a land of swamps and earthquakes, so 
that you have no access to the circuit save by 
crossing a swamp. I crossed on a levee three 
miles long. The land is very fertile, but the 
country sickly. 

"23d and 24th— Pleld the fii-st quarterly 
meeting for Cape Girardeau Circuit at Mc- 
Kendree Chapel, three miles from Jackson. 
Some good omens. 

"30th — Held quarterly meeting for Farm- 
ington Circuit, which embraces my residence, 
in the town of Farmington. Here Methodism 
once flourished, but now lies in ruins. A 
class of only about twenty, no meeting-house, 
and under the necessity of occupying the 
Presbyterian church. Some deep feeling on 
Sabbath, but all the seed fell on 'stony 
ground. ' 

"December 14th — Held quarterly meeting 
for Ripley Mission at Brother Sharp's on 
Current River. Congregation small, only 



454 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



four families in two miles. Coiiutry as 
sparsely settled, prospect dark. 

"21st — Held quarterly meeting for Green- 
ville Circuit at old Father Dee's cabin, seven 
miles south of Greenville. On Sabbath we 
occupied Bowman's Chapel, near the dwell- 
ing, but the cold weather and smoke operated 
very niueli against us. However, when I 
called for mourners at night about one dozen 
came forward. 

"28th — Held quarterly meeting for Bloom- 
field mission in the town of Bloomfield. Here 
we occupied the courthouse, an unfinished 
edifice that does honor to the county. The 
meeting was pretty good, the love feast most 
excellent. The church numbers about twenty 
members and is doing pretty well. This mis- 
sion is also surrounded by swamps. In going 
to it I crossed a dismal swamp about three 
miles wide. 

"January 4, 1840 — Held quarterly meet- 
ing for Ste. Genevieve Circuit in the New 
Tennessee settlement in Ste. Genevieve 
county, at the house of John McFarland's 
family, an itinerant now a local of our 
church, one of the best of human kind. This 
meeting was a blessing to many in the 
church, but the wicked seemed little affected. 
I never preached much harder in my life, but 
all to no purpose, seemingl.v. This meeting 
closed my first round in the district. The dis- 
trict numbers about 1,200 members, the great 
mass of whom are measurably destitute of the 
power of godliness, though the most of them 
have the form, or a part of it at least, and are 
strictly moral. There is a want of vital relig- 
ion. The preachers have pruned the church 
since conference, and I hope God will follow 
this wholesome course with His blessing. 

"11th and 12th — Held a two days' meeting 
at Predericktown at which time the district 
stewards were expected to meet. . . . 



Second quarterlj' meeting for Cape Girardeau 
Circuit appointed for February 1, in the 
town of Cape Girardeau, but, the creeks being 
up, and the whole face of the country being 
covered with a sheet of ice, I was compelled 
to turn back, after having started, and so 
failed to reach the meeting, but I have since 
learned that the Lord was with them, and 
some good was done. A little revival of re- 
ligion began in Farmington during the holi- 
days, and as a result of it eight persons joined 
the church and three the Baptist church. 
Left home on Wednesday morning, and after 
traveling through mud and water almost im- 
passable succeeded in reaching the seat of 
New Madrid quarterly conference. The 
meeting was held in Lewis' Prairie, two and 
one-half miles from the old town of that 
name ; Brothers Haw and Dunleavy attended 
and assisted in the work. Thirteen were at 
the altar of prayer on Sabbath night, and 
eight united M'ith the church. This was the 
best meeting of the year, and we left the Ijest 
prospect that has appeared in the di.strict. 

"February 15th — This was the time for the 
Bloomfield quarterly meeting, but I failed to 
attend owing to ill health. I learn that the 
meeting was very good. Pour were admitted 
on trial, and the church was refreshed by the 
Spirit. 

"March 14th and 15th — Held the second 
quarterly meeting for Greenville Circuit at 
Brother Robert IMcCullough 's in Wayne 
county. Here I found a society of about 
twenty members and a little congregation. 
The class is in a pretty good condition at 
present, seem all alive and full of some kind 
of fire. I trust it is the right kind. Several 
came forward as mouniei's, and one old lady 
joined the class. Brothei-s M. Wiley and 
Christian Eaker afforded ministerial aid on 
the occasion. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



455 



"JIarch 21st and 22d— Held quarterly 
meeting for Ste. Genevieve Circuit at Yorke 
Chapel in the Abernathy settlement in Perry 
county, five miles from Perryville, the county 
seat. Here we have a society of seventy-three 
whites and more than thirty blacks, but alas, 
how cold and fonnal! Very few appeared to 
enjoy the life and power of religion. Only 
two additions to the church. The brethren 
here dwell in ceiled houses, while the house of 
God lies in i-uius, the foundation only having 
been laid. I hope before the close of the j^ear 
the church will be completed. 

"March 2Sth — Held the second quarterly 
meeting for Farmington Circuit at Freder- 
iektown, Brothers H. Baird and L. Wiley as- 
sisting as ministers; congregation respectable 
and attendance good in spite of unfavorable 
weather; six mourners one night, and three 
accessions to our ranks. This completes my 
second round. It was more interesting than 
the first. Have missed three quarterly meet- 
ings on account of the difficulty of traveling. 

"April 4th and 5th — Assisted Brother 
Wiley of Farmington Circuit with a two days' 
meeting at John White's among the Dutch 
(my countrymen) on Ca.stor. This meeting 
was the best this year, about twenty mourn- 
ers on Sabbath night, some of whom were con- 
verted and quite a number received into the 
church. 

"11th — Commenced the quarterly meeting 
for New Madrid Circuit in Benton, the county 
seat of Scott; the congregation small and 
careless, and the professors cold. This was 
once a numerous society, but removals and 
deaths have reduced almost to a unit. Satan 
seems to have his seat here and intemperance 
reigns. 

"18th and 19th — Held a two days' meeting 
in the town of Cape Girardeau, assisted by 
Brothers Henry, Dunleavy and Owens. Here 



we are much opposed by Catholics, and Prot- 
estants are struggling for existence; have no 
meeting house but are trying to build one. 

"25th and 26th — Held a two days' meeting 
in the town of Jackson. Here we are com- 
pelled to worship in the courthouse, but are 
erecting a convenient church. Large con- 
gregation on Sabbath. This is another hard 
place. But few Christians and many specu- 
lators in religious principles. 

' ' i\Iay 30th and 31st— Held the third quar- 
terly meeting for Cape Girardeau Circuit in 
Baker's settlement on Crooked Creek amongst 
my countrymen, the Dutch. Here we have a 
large society, but many members are in a 
lukewarm state. This region was once the 
kingdom of Bacchus. One passes an old still- 
house, and sometimes a new one every two 
miles. 

"June 20th and 21st— Held the third 
quarterly meeting for Ste. Genevieve Circuit 
in New Tennessee. One was received on trial. 
Arrangements are being made to build a stone 
chapel. It is much needed, for we worship 
in a dwelling-house or under a grove at 
present. 

"July 3d and 5th — Held the last quarterly 
meeting for the New ]\Iadrid Circuit, in Math- 
ews Prairie, Scott county. It was a camp- 
meeting. Owing to the premature coming of 
the sickly season only four families camped 
out of a class of sixty whites and forty blacks. 
On Sabbath the congregation was the largest 
I have addressed for two years, say 1,000 per- 
sons. A few professed faith. 

"11th and 13th — Held quarterly meeting 
for the Farmington Circuit at a new chapel 
called Mt. Zion, in the New Virginia settle- 
ment, four miles from Fredericktown. 

"September 30th — Have closed the last 
round of the district — the camp-meeting 
round. ]\Iuch good was done at some of these 



456 



IlISTOKY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



meetings, especially at that at Yorke Chapel, 
in Perry County. More than twenty united 
with the church there, axid quite a number 
were savingly converted." 

Work of the church moved on with wliat 
must have seemed to those engaged in 
it very great slowness, but there was a con- 
stant and steady growth in every part of 
this section of the state. New societies were 
organized, new circuits were established, and 
supplied with preachers and here and there 
over the district new houses of worship were 
built. At first these houses were small, 
sometimes of logs, ofteuer there were frame 
buildings, but we are able to see a constant im- 
provement in the character of the buildings 
themselves. More and more the people were 
impressed with the idea that the church house 
ought to be in keeping with the character of 
the community and was inevitably a reflec- 
tion of the conditions existing. 

One thing that halted to an extent the work 
of the Methodist church in Missouri was the 
controversy over slavery. This tierce and bit- 
ter stmiggle concerning the ownership of 
slaves was not confined to the political arena, 
it extended to the homes of the people and 
even into the church organizations. Perhaps 
no other church suffered more severely on ac- 
count of this contention than did the ]Meth- 
odists. When the General Conference met in 
New York in 1844 it passed a resolution 
known as the Pinley Resolution which sus- 
pended Bishop Andrew of Georgia from the 
exercise of his ofSce on the ground that he 
was an owner of slaves. He was not to be 
reinstated as a bishop of the church until he 
had disposed of these slaves. This resolution 
was adopted on the first day of June, and, on 
the 5th. the southern members of the General 
Conference presented a declaration in which 
it was said that they believed the continual 



agitation of slavery and abolition in the con- 
ferences of the church and especially the sus- 
pension of Bishop Andrew from his office 
would result in a state of things which would 
render the continuance of the jurisdiction of 
the General Conference over the conferences 
of the South inconsistent with the success of 
the ministrj- in the slave-holding states. 

This declaration, which was signed by all 
the members of the Southern, Conference and * 
by one member from the Illinois Conference, 
was referred to a committee with instructions 
to provide a plan for adjusting difficulties 
which had arisen over the subject of slavery, 
or, if that were found to be impossible, a plan 
for a friendly division of the church. After 
some deliberation this committee reported 
that it was impossible to settle the difficulties 
of the situation and recommended that the 
church should be divided. A conference of 
delegates from the organizations of the church 
in those states where slavery existed was held 
in Louisville, Ivy., May 1st, 1845. It was pre- 
sided over by Bishops Soule and Andrew and 
the final result of its work was a declaration 
that the Southern Conference should become 
a separate church under the name of the 
]Methodist Episcopal Church. South. 

The next meeting of the ^Missouri Confer- 
ence following the action at Louisville was 
held in Cohuubia. ilissouri. September 24, 
1845. Bishop Soule presided and he deliv- 
ered an address asking the Missouri Confer- 
ence to unite with the Southern Church. Af- 
ter a discussion and delay it was finally voted 
that the Missouri Conference should become 
a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. At this conference John K. Lacey 
was appointed Presiding Elder for the Cape 
Girardeau District. The appointment for the 
circuits were: Cape Girardeau, A. Peace; 
Crooked Creek, J. 0. Wood ; New ]\Iadrid, 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST illSSOUKI 



457 



J. H. Ileadlee; Charleston, L. P. Rowland; 
Bloomfield, E. E. Deddge; Greenville, H. N. 
Watts; Predericktown, N. B. Peterson; Ste. 
Genevieve, P. B. ilarkle ; Ripley, J. Eaker ; 
Black River, R. M. Stevenson. 

The enumeration of the circuits contained 
in the Cape Girardeau District at this time 
indicates the growth experienced bj' the 
church. In 1847 a new conference was or- 
ganized called the "St. Louis Conference," 
and a new district, Greenville District, was 
formed from the western part of the Cape 
Girardeau District. 

Prom this time until the breaking out of 
the Civil war, in 1S61, the church experi- 
enced a steady growth. It is hardly possible 
to give an entire list of the preachers who 
supplied the various circuits at that time. 
The Presiding Elders for Cape Girardeau ' 
District from 1852 to 1861 were : J. M. Kelly, 
J. H. Ileadlee, J. C. Berryman, Wesley 
Browning, H. S. Watts, J. McCarry. M. R. 
Anthony. The Presiding Elders of the 
Greenville District from 1852 to 1857 were : 
N. B. Peterson, J. R. Burk, J. L. Burchard. 
In 1857 there was a reorganization of the dis- 
tricts and the western district was called 
"Potosi." Its Presiding Elders were H. N. 
Watts and J. C. Thompson. 

The work of the church was very greatly 
interrupted by the Civil war. There were 
no regular appointments made in 1861, and 
there were no meetings of the St. Louis Con- 
ference during the war. Services continued 
to be held at Charleston. Bertrand, Big Lake 
and Rush Ridge. Many of the churches were 
destroyed and the organi/atidiis disliandcd 
under the stress of the war. 

In 1S65 Southeast ^Missouri was organized 
into the Iron Mountain District, and W. S. 
Woodward was appointed as the Presiding 
Elder. The appointments on the circuits for 



that year were as follows: Richwoods, G. C. 
Knowles; Predericktown, J. S. Prazier; 
Perryville, J. M. Proctor ; Jackson, not tilled ; 
Charleston, II. N. Watts ; New Madrid, L. W. 
Powell ; Greenville, S. A. Blakey ; Grand 
, Prairie, James Copeland ; Bloomfield, J. C. 
Thompson. 

In 1866 the old districts of Cape Girardeau 
and Greenville were restored, but in 1868 the 
name of the latter was changed to Potosi. In 
1871 the districts were named Iron Mountain 
and Charleston, and in 1873 a new district 
called Poplar Bluff was established. 

In 1887 Charleston District contained the 
following stations : Charleston, established in 
1872; membership, 253; value of church, $6,- 
000 ; C. M. Hensley, pastor. Cape Girardeau, 
membership, 132; value of church, $1,200; 
W. Mooney, pastor. Parmington, member- 
ship, 185; value of church. .$3,200: W. P. 
Wilson, pastor. New Madrid, membership, 
153; value of churches, $2,800; E. P. Seuter, 
pastor. Predericktown, membership, 216 ; 
value of churches, $3,400; J. AV. Robinson, 
pastor. Sikeston and Bertrand were for sev- 
eral years prior to 1887 under one charge. 
They had a membership of 348, and churches 
to the value of $3,300. Sikeston was a station 
under the care of V. J. Millis. The circuits 
within the Charleston District were as follows : 
Commerce, including Conniieree. ilacedonia. 
Head's schoolhouse. Campbell's schoolhouse 
and Lusk's chapel, S. A. ]\Iason, pastor; Jlor- 
ley, including Jlorley, Oran, Blodgett, Sandy 
Prairie and Cross Plains. S. H. Renfro, pas- 
tor; Point Plea.sant, including Point Pleas- 
ant, New Hope, Union, Ruddell's Point, 
^ilound and Beech Grove, supplied liy A. G. 
Horton ; Bertrand, .including Bertrand or- 
ganized in 1844 : East Prairie, organized in 
1865; Thrower's Chapel, organized in 1880, 
and Diehlstadt. orsanized in 1886, W. H. 



458 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^MISSOURI 



Blaloek, pastor; Belmont, including Haws 
chapel, Rush's Ridge, Concord and Locust 
Grove schoolhouse, supplied by R. G. Parks ; 
Caruthersville, S. Richmond, pastor ; Lutes- 
ville, including Lutesville, Glen Allen, 
Union, Eltenezer, Bethel, Point Pleasant, 
Eaker's chapel, Gravel Hill, Hickory Grove, 
Killian schoolhoiise, Sedgewickville and Trin- 
ity, S. C. Biffle, pastor; Jackson, including 
Jackson, Arlington, Rock Hill and McKen- 
dree, H. A. Smith, pastor; Oak Ridge, in- 
cluding Oak Ridge, Shiloh, New Salem, Sa- 
lem, IMillersville, Goshen, Shawneetown, Oak 
Hill, Neely's Landing and McLain's, J. K. 
ILathews, pastor; also three or four churches 
in Cape Girardeau county, supplied by local 
preachers; Yorke chapel, T. Lord, pastor: 
Farniington, J. A. Russell, pastor; Mar- 
quand, T. W. Glass, pastor, and New Pros- 
pect, supplied by ]\L M. Blaese. The total 
membership of Charleston district in 1887 
was 6,004. In 1880 it was 2,954. 

In the Poplar Bluff district there was but 
one station. Poplar Bluff, which for some 
time was united with the church at Dexter 
under the care of one pastor. It had been a 
station since 1884. W. E. Boggs was pastor. 
Among the circuits in the Poplar Bluff dis- 
trict were : Grand Prairie, including Bran- 
num, Liberty. Harkey's chapel and Cotton 
Plant. R. A. McClintock, pastor; Williams- 
ville. including Shiloh, organized about 1830 ; 
Walton's chapel, a branch of Shiloh, organ- 
ized in 1887; Preeland (in Carter county). 
Chapel Hill, organized about 187.3 ; Prospect, 
organized in 1885; Dee's chapel, organized 
in the "thirties;" Williamsville, organized 
about 1884, and Cool Springs, organized in 
1888, Geo. H. Adams, pastor; Piedmont, in- 
cluding Piedmont, organized about 1876; 
Des Arc. organized in 1882, and IMill Springs, 
Webster Full, pastor; Clarkton, including 



Maiden, organized in 1881 ; Clarkton, 
Knight's schoolhouse, Salem, Zion and 
Gravel Hill, J. A. Jenkins, pastor ; Arcadia, 
including the churches in Iron county, H. C. 
Fleenor, pastor ; Bloomfield, R. Walton, pas- 
tor, and Piketon, L. W. Pickens, pastor. The 
total membership in 1887 was 5,260. 

Since 1887 the growth of the church has 
been steady and rapid. It has kept pace with 
the growth of population. It is not possible 
to give in detail the changes in pastoral rela- 
tions during these years. The information is 
readily available in the published reports of 
the church. A summary of the present con- 
dition of the church, together with the names 
of the various organizations, the pastors and 
membership of each is given in the form of 
tables. From these it appears that in the 
territory of Southeast Missouri in 1911 there 
were forty-six stations and forty circuits, 
with a total membership of 21,307. These 
figures testify to a wonderful growth since 
McKendree chapel was established and even 
since the war. 

Under the present organization of the 
church most of the churches in Southeast 
Missouri are members of three districts of the 
St. Louis conference. These districts are 
Poplar Bluff. Farmington and Charleston. 
A few of the churches are in West Plains dis- 
trict of the same conference and some others 
in West Plains district. 

The tables given below show the location of 
church organization together with the minis- 
ter in charge and the meniliership of tlie 
church. 

The Presiding Elder of Charleston District 
is Rev. Robert L. Russell and the organiza- 
tions, pastors and membership in his territory 
are as follows : 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



459 



S. M. Clack, Anniston Ct., 4:^. 

J. C. Dentou, Benton, 117. 

H. W. King, Bertraud, 349. 

J. C. Thogmorton, Blodgett, 161. 

A. S. J. Baldridge. Caruthersville, 439. 

Del. Louggrear, Caruthersville Ct., 88. 

P. G. Thogmorton & J. F. Holland, J. P., 

Charleston, 604. 
Lenord Gray, Charleston Ct., 315. 
I. L. Holt, Cape Girardeau, 517. 
A. C. Stovmont, Chaffee, 264. 

0. S. Tallent, Commerce & IMacedouia, 215. 
T. G. Fallin, Cottonwood & Cooter, 418. 

R. D. Kennedy, Cairo, 153. 

S. A. Bennett, Deering. 

E. F. McDaniel, East Prairie, 262. 

H. H.I S. DuBois, Edna & Ulmo, 99. 

1. Q. llcCorkle, Hayti, 111. 
Clarence Burton, Jackson, 480. 
A. AV. Darter, Lilbourn Ct., 124. 

S. M. Roberts, Morley & Richwoods, 403. 

W. H. Jordan, New Madrid, 135. 

C. E. Harris, New Madrid Ct. 

Elmer T. Clark, Oran, 165. 

T. E. Smith, Parma, 103. 

J. T. Evitts, Portageville Ct., 125. 

0. J. Furguson, South Cape Girardeau, 41. 

A. U. Burris, Steel Ct., 221 

J. M. Bradley, Sikeston, 170. 

J. C. Montgomery, Vanduser Ct., 181. 

J. L. Wolvarton, Mathews, 267. 

Total, 7,258. 

Farmington district is presided over by 
Rev. Henry P. Crowe and there are twenty- 
five stations in this territory of the church 
as follows: 

"Wm. Court, Farmington, 371. 
C. N. Clark, Fredericktown, 530. 
J. R. BuUington, Potosi, 134. 
N. B. Henry, Bonne Terre, 353. 
J. P. Stubblefield, Flat River, 319. 
Elmer Peal, Lavins, 305. 
Arthur Ti'otter, Des Loge. 137. 



A. S. Coker, Arcadia, 112. 

L. D. Nichol, Esther, 199. 

Wm. Stewart, Bisniark & Hickory Grove, 277. 

R. Walton, Caledonia & Irondale, 170. 

J. N. Sitton, Leadwood & Frank Clay, 137. 

H. C. Hoy, Lutesville & Glen Allen, 260. 

D. il. Margrave, Oak Ridge Ct., 306. 
0. A. Bowers, ilarquand Circuit, 313. 

A. N. Walker, Whitewater Circuit, 226. 

H. A. Sliowmaker, Libertyville Circuit, 193. 

E. G. Brent, Mineral Point Circuit, 129. 

B. L. AVright, York Chapel Circuit, 113. 

F. A. Hearn, Neely's Landing Circuit, 232. 
R. S. Warren, Sedgewickville Ct., 259. 

S. C. Bockman, Fredericktown Ct., 193. 

B. W. Bynum, Belleview Ct., 205. 
M. M. Blaese, Marble Hill Ct., 284. 
J. A. Wood, Farmington Ct., 360. 
Total, 6,117. 

There are twenty-six stations in the Pop- 
lar Bluff district and the present presiding 
elder is Rev. J. R. II. Vaughan. 
J. T. Ricketts, Advance Ct., 101. 
F. M. Mayfleld, Bernie Ct., 181. 
R. M. Ownby, Bell City Ct., 367. 
Linus Eaker, Bloomfield Ct., 194. 
Thomas Lord, Campbell, 172. 
J. B. Wilburn, Clark-ton Ct., 261. 
J. D. Doherty, Cardwell Ct., 141. 
W. J. Heys, Dexter, 245. 
R. E. Foard, Doniphan, 233. 
L. L. Johnston, Doniphan Ct., 235. 

C. L. Fry, Essex & Sadler's Chapel, 131. 
S. C. Biffle, Greenville Ct., 309. 

J. W. Ham, Harkey's Chapel & Senath, 350. 

J. S. Newson, Holcomb Ct., 405. 

F. Eaker, Hornersville Ct., 320. 

W. J. Velvick, Kennett, 303. 

W. L. King, Lowndes & Coldwater, 366. 

E. T. Reid, Morehouse, 179. 

J. T. Self. Maiden, 394. 

J. L. Batton, Naylor Ct., 381. 



460 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



W. A. Tetley, Poplar Bluff, 307. 

C. L. Kirkendall. Poplar Bluff Ct., 198. 
A. R. Sander.s, Pine Ct., 272. 

E. Jones, Sherry Ct., 162. 
T. W. Glass, Williamsville Ct., 302. 
J. C. Reid, C. Francis, Zalma Ct., 220. 
Total, 6,822. 

De Soto district has for its Presiding Elder 
Rev. J. W. Worsnop. Of the organization in 
this district the following are within the ter- 
ritory covered in this history. 
E. J. Rinkel, De Soto, 208. 
J. P. McDonald, De Soto Circuit, 228. 
Geo. J. Evans, Festus, 317. 

D. R. Davis, Hematite Circuit, 101. 
J. R. Kincaid, Plattin Circuit, 256. 

West Plains district has for its Presiding 
Elder William A. Humphrey. The following 
organizations are considered here. 
H. L. Taylor, Ellington Circuit, 341. 
Geo. Jaycox, Lesterville Circuit, 90. 

The church has entered upon an era of 
great expansion in this part of the state. 
This is evidenced not only by the large in- 
crease in numbers, the greater influence pos- 
sessed by the church in all social and moral 
questions, but also by the remarkable im- 
provement in church buildings. In the last 
ten years the church has erected a number of 
buildings of great cost, well-planned and con- 
structed and adapted to the work of the 
church as it is now carried on. Cape Girar- 
deau, Jackson, Charleston and Sikeston, have 
recently erected churches each costing more 
than $40,000, and each of permanent and en- 
during materials. The church at Cape Girar- 
deau is built of native stone. It is of Gothic 
architecture, handsomely finished and fur- 
nished, has a large auditorium, Sunday 
school rooms, a kitchen and dining rooms, 



offices and all the equipment necessary to the 
work of a modern church. 

The church at Jackson is of brick and 
equally as well adapted for its purpose. The 
Charleston chui'ch is of stone, and is one of 
the best in this section. 

Perhaps the best building owned by the 
church in this part of the state is that at 
Sikeston finished and occupied in 1912. It 
is built of brick of the modified Romanesciue 
style, has a handsome auditorium with domed 
roof, is finished in handsome woods, and 
beautifully lighted and seated. The audito- 
rium contains one of the largest pipe-organs 
in the state. There are many rooms for Sun- 
day school purpose so arranged as to be 
thrown into the main portion of the church 
as occasion demands. 

Other churches of the St. Louis Conference, 
outside of St. Louis are almost equal to these. 
That at Dexter is of recent erection and is a 
handsome and dignified structure. 

In another chapter an account has been 
given of the educational work of the church 
in supporting Marvin Collegiate Institute at 
Fredericktown. In all that pertains to the 
welfare of society at large the church in 
Southeast Missouri takes an active and ef- 
ficient part. 

To the heroic pioneer jirtachers of the 
IMethodist church is due a large debt of grat- 
itude for the work which they accomplished 
in this part of the state. At a time when 
frontier conditions prevailed over the entire 
section these men faced the perils and hard- 
ship of the wilderness in discharge of the 
dut.v which rested upon them. Through the 
period of growth that preceded the Civil war, 
while the wilderness was being subdued, 
towns built, farms cleared, and the state en- 
tering on its marvellous career of prosperity 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



461 



and civilization, one of the strong forces that 
wrought for progress and advancement was 
the influence of these men. They preached 
and taught in every community, planted, not 
alone the seeds of Christianity, but also 
higher ideals of social service, of education 
and organization. During the trying period 
of the war and the years of bitterness and 
strife that succeeded it, when industry was 
paralyzed, organizations ended, when law- 
lessness prevailed, they still labored, and up- 
held the principles which had been planted 
by the fathers. They fostered education, 
and at early day when schools were few, 
money scarce and the difficulties great they 
established Bellevue Collegiate Institute, and 
in spite of every difficulty and discourage- 
ment, kept it alive and growing, and so 
shaped its course and work that it has devel- 
oped into the Marvin Collegiate Institute of 
our own day, a sj^lendid and vigorous school 
destined to become a powerful influence in 
the life of the church. To every other great 
movement the.v have lent aid and influence, 
so that their work is indelibly woven into the 
life of the state, and its power seen on every 
page of its history. 

In spite of all other activities their chief 
interest has been the work of the great 
church which they have built up here. The 
numbers, the power, the wealth of that in- 
stitution testifies to the success which they 
achieved. 

It is not possible to preserve the names of 
all these men nor to accord to them the credit 
they deserve for their great achievements. 
To Jesse Walker, perhaps, belongs the honor 
of first place among the preachers of the 
church, at least in point of time. He it was 
who first planted the seed of Methodism in 
this great territorj- and the story of his work, 
the long and dangerous miles he travelled, 



his devotion, the success of his labors will al- 
ways be a stirring chapter in the history of 
the church. H. S. Watts, famous as Rough 
and Ready, with his blunt honesty, his un- 
^failing courage, his ready wit, his unflinching 
devotion to his work, who wrought as circuit 
rider and presiding elder, will always be re- 
membered with pride by his church. U. L. 
Haw, whose long life of labor as minister and 
presiding elder did much for the church, 
contributed not alone his own life of active 
service but a family to continue his work. 
His son. Dr. James L. Haw, was one of the 
most- prominent laymen of tiie church inter- 
ested and devoted to its work. His son, Mar- 
vin T. Haw, the secretary of the St. Louis 
Conference continues the traditions of the 
family and his years of successful ministry 
recall the best days of his grandfather. 

The Henrys, father and son, gifted men, 
able to lead, eloquent of speech, scholarly, 
have had a powerful influence upon the de- 
velopment of the church and its work. 

J. C. Berryman, a prince of preachers, and 
a master organizer, will always be honored. 
T. M. Finney, Henry Hanesworth, were 
among a multitude of honored names. 

Methodist Episcopal Church 

Although the Missouri Conference at its 
meeting in 1845, voted by a large majority to 
unite with the Southern Church, some mem- 
bers of the Conference were opposed to this 
change aiid determined to abide in their re- 
lation to the older organization. Two of the 
men who made this decision were: Rev. An- 
thony Bewley and Rev. Nelson Henry. Some 
of the men who did not wish to unite with the 
Southern Church left the state and took up 
work in other places. Some, however, re- 
mained and these held a convention on 
Spring River, December 25, 1845. They 



462 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tried to arrauge plans for carrying on the 
work in Missouri and Arkansas. The only 
ministers left at that time were : George Sly, 
David Thompson, Joseph Doughty, Mark 
Robertson, Anthony Bewley and Nelson 
Henry. They were unable to accomplish very 
much, but in 1848 the Missouri Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal church was re- 
organized. It was divided into three dis- 
tricts, one of which included the most of 
Southeast Missouri and a large part of Ar- 
kansas. Nelson Henry was Presiding Elder 
of this district and under his direction a mis- 
sion was organized at Bloomfield. 

The first quarterly meeting in the district 
was held at the house of W. W. Norman, 
October 14, 1848. Nelson Henry was the Pre- 
siding Elder and John W. McKnight was the 
pastor of the church. Another quarterly 
meeting was held later at the house of Jonas 
Eaker in 1S"49. J. J. Buren was presiding 
elder and W. W. Norman was pastor of the 
church. This arrangement was kept up dur- 
ing the next few years. The circuit with 
Norman as its pastor, included practically 
all of Southeast ilissouri. In 1852 D. j\I. 
Smith was Presiding Elder and E. N. Lowe 
was the pastor. 

It is probable that the first church erected 
by the IMethodist Episcopal church after the 
division was the one at Bloomfield. It was 
built under the supervision of a committee 
consisting of W. W. Norman, H. C. Rich and 
J. C. Bottom : this was in 1853. The church 
carried on services not only at Bloomfield. but 
at Grand Prairie, Big Lake, Gravel Hill, 
Spring Creek, Dick's Creek, Poplar Creek 
and Mt. Zion. Some of the ministers who 
served the church during this period were: 
John :MeKnight. Richard Thornton, J. S. 
Gooch, Thomas Gdlding, Asa D. West, 
Hiram Lipe and Francis Beggs. 



It was unfortunate for the cause of relig- 
ion that this division occurred in the Meth- 
odist church. The activity of the old church 
in Southeast ^Missouri was productive of bit- 
ter feeling, and serious obstacles were placed 
in the way of those having the work in 
charge. On more than one occasion ministers 
were denounced and even attacked by the 
persons opposed to the abolition sentiment 
expressed by the ministers. Southeast Mis- 
souri, at this time, was very largely pro- 
slavery in sentiment, — in fact this was true 
of the greater part of the state, and the well 
known fact that the Methodist Episcopal 
church was opposed to the institution of 
slavery, operated to bring strong opposi- 
tion to the work of its ministers. This 
is shown very conclusively in the failure 
of the legislature to issue a charter to the 
school which the church purposed to estab- 
lish in Jackson. In 1854 a society in Jack- 
son, which was in charge of a school there, 
oft'ered BuilJiugs and grounds to the ^Missouri 
conference, provided the conference would 
guarantee the establishment of a good school. 
This offer was accepted by the church and the 
school was begun. In order that the school 
might be on a permanent basis, application 
was made to the legislature for a charter of 
incorporation, but the bill was defeated by a 
vote of sixty to thirty-six on the express 
ground, that the church was opposed to 
slavery. 

All the circuits in Southeast Missouri were 
attached to the St. Louis District, and Rev. 
Samuel Huffman was the Presiding Elder of 
this district from 1858 until the beginning of 
the war. There were regular circuits at that 
time at De Soto, where F. S. Beggs was the 
pastor in charge, at Jackson, where J. Linan 
was pastor, at Fredericktown. where J. E. 
Baker was pastor, and Bloomfield, which was 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



463 



under the charge of F. S. Beggs. The 
society at McKendree chapel, in Cape Girar- 
deau county, which was the oldest Methodist 
church in the state, remained faithful to the 
old organization and within this county there 
have been a considerable number of its ad- 
herents. 

In 1864 the Farmington circuit, embracing 
the counties of St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, 
and parts of Iron, Madison, Washington and 
Jefferaon, was reorganized, with Rev. N. J. 
Giddings as the Presiding Elder. This circuit 
was divided in 1866. One year later the 
church purchased a building at Farmington. 
formerly occupied by the Christians, and 
used it as a place of worship. In 1887 there 
were churches at Perryville, Cedar Fork, 
Cross Roads, St. Mary's and Independence. 

At the present time there are in Southeast 
Missouri the following church organizations, 
all of which are contained in the Farmington 
district which is a part of the St. Louis Con- 
ference, besides the names of the organiza- 
tions there are given the pastors of the dif- 
ferent places at the present time : Belgrade, 

C. W. Jennings; Bloomfield, 0. R. Sides; 
Bloomfield circuit, D. W. Fields; Bonne 
Terre, A. Tremayne; Chapin, V. L. ]\Iiller; 
Cornwall, M. W. Krieger; Courtois, J. H. 
Hicks; De Soto, Arthur A. Halter; De Soto 
circuit, Albert Maynard ; Doe Run, Jesse J. 
Pruitt ; Farmington, J. W. Borah ; Plat 
River, D. B. Barrett; Fruitland, A. H. 
Barnes; Irondale & Graniteville, Robert Tre- 
ganza ; Ironton, W. T. Street ; Lutesville, 

D. R. Cole; Mountain View, C. V. Bryan; 

Patten, ; Perryville, M. 0. Morris; 

Poplar Bluff, F. E. Duboys; Poplar Bluff 
eircuif, G. W. Davis ; Puxico, J. A. Kirkman. 



Baptists 

In 1821 the Bethel Association of the Bap- 
tist church had fourteen churches and a mem- 
bership of 417. Some of these churches were 
in Arkansas and they were later dismissed to 
form a new association in that territory. 

In 1825 Pendleton church was organized in 
a settlement six miles west of Farmington. 
The settlement was made up of immigrants 
from Pendleton district, South Carolina, and 
the church became a member of Bethel 
Association in 1826. At that time James Hol- 
bert was pastor, remaining as such until 1838 
when he was succeeded by Elder William 
Polk. 

Bethel Association held its meeting in 1827 
at Providence church in Fredericktown, Sep- 
tember 22 to 24th. The sermon was preached 
by Elder D. Orr; Wingate Jackson was the 
moderator and Simeon Frost, clerk. There 
were present messengers from nine churches: 
Providence, Bellevue, St. Francois, Hepzi- 
bah. New Hope, Pendleton, Crooked Creek, 
Little Flock and Liberty. The minutej of 
this association show that there had been 17 
baptisms during the year and tliat there was 
a total membership of 227. 

The meeting of the association in 1837 was 
with the Pendleton church in St. Francois 
county and in 1838 at Ilepzibah church in 
Ste. Genevieve county. In 1840 the meeting 
was held with Bethel church, in 1841 the as- 
sociation met with New Hope church in St. 
Francois county. At that time a church 
known as the Colony church in a settlement 
five miles east of Farmington was received as 
a member of the association. In 1859 the as- 
sociation met in New Hope church in St. 
Francois county. The sermon was preached 
by Elder William Polk who was also modera- 



464 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tor. There were three new churches re- 
ceived — Mount Zion, Locust Grove and 
White Oak Grove. At this time there were 
19 churches in the association with a total 
membership of 834. 

Bethel Association did a great work in or- 
ganizing new associations. In 1824 nine 
churches were dismissed to form the Cape 
Girardeau Association. In 1829 it dismissed 
four to form an association in Arkansas. 
Two were dismissed in 1831 for the Franklin 
Association and nine in 1859 to form the Cen- 
tral ]\Iissouri Association. Finally many of 
the churches in the association joined others, 
some churclies were led off to other doctrines 
and the association ceased to exist as an or- 
ganized body of Baptists. 

The Cape Girardeau Association of Bap- 
tists was organized at Hebron, Cape Girar- 
deau county, June 12th to 14th, 1824. The 
following churches took part in the forming 
of the association : Bethel with 41 members. 
Dry Creek with 28 members, Tywappity with 
11, Clear Creek in Illinois 66, Apple Creek 
15, Ebenezer 17, Big Prairie 19, Hebron 26, 
Shiloh in Illinois 28, Jackson 8, making a 
total membership in the association of 248. 

From 1824 to 1832 the meetings were held 
regularlj', a good spirit was manifest and 
much work accomplished. The association 
was a missionary association and was con- 
stantly raising funds and providing ways for 
missionary work. From 1832 to 1860 the as- 
sociation changed in character. In 1832 there 
were twenty chi;rches located in Cape Girar- 
deau, Scott, Mississippi and Perry counties. 
At the meeting in 1840, eight of the twenty 
churches comprising the association with- 
drew and formed what was called the New 
Cape Girardeau Association. It was com- 
posed of churches at Cape Girardeau, Mount 



Zion, Harmony, Mount Moriah, Pleasant 
Grove, Cypress, Pleasant Hill and Little 
River. The division in the association had 
arisen over the question of missions; twelve 
churches had adopted anti-mission principles, 
while the eiglit which formed the new asso- 
ciation, held to the former ideas of the im- 
portance of missionary work. This New Cape 
Girardeau Association, as it was called, had a 
prosperous history from 1840 to 1860. As in 
the case of all other denominations in this 
part of the state, the war brought to the Bap- 
tists very great difficulties and discourage- 
ments. Many of the ministers were driven 
away from home or else were compelled to 
give up preaching for a time. From 1864 to 
1867 there was only one minister in the terri- 
tory of the Cape Girardeau Association en- 
gaged in preaching. • This was the Rev. John 
H. Clark, who had been licensed to preach by 
the Cape Girardeau church in 1842 and con- 
tinued his active labors as a minister until 
his death in 1869. 

The Cape Girardeau Association met in 

1864 at Hubble Creek church. Only nine 
churches were represented. They reported 58 
members having been baptized during the 
previous year, but 48 of these were from one 
church. Pleasant Grove. The meeting of 

1865 was held under very great difficulties. 
The test oath was enforced and none of the 
ministers were willing to take it. Accord- 
ingly they had to preach in violation of the 
constitution of the state. There were nine- 
teen churches at this time on the list of the 
association, but only si.\ of the number sent 
messengers to the meeting. New ministers 
were added to the association from 1867 to 
1870. Among them were G. F. Brayton, J. G. 
Shearer, James Reed, J. S. Jordon, Jonas 
Hoffman, B. L. Bowman and J. T. Ford. 

In 1876 there were twenty churches in the 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



465 



association, but they dismissed some of these 
to form a uew association in Scott county. 
In 1878 the association was composed of 
twenty churches in the counties of Cape 
Girardeau, Scott, Mississippi, Perry and New 
Madrid. The total membership was 557. 
The ministers at that time were T. A. 
Bowman, John T. Ford, C. B. Ford, J. F. 
Godwin, Z. A. Hoppas, J. M. Warren and 
W. H. Welker. 

In 1881 the meeting, was lield at Gape 
Girardeau. Elder J. Hickman was modera- 
tor and T. A. Bowmau, clerk. There were at 
that time fourteen churches with a member- 
ship of -426. 

By successive divisions the Cape Girardeau 
Association has come to include only the terri- 
tory of Cape Girardeau and Perry counties. 
The meeting in 1911 was held at Crosstown 
in Perry county. 

In 1911 the Cape Girardeau Association re- 
ported sixteen churches having a, membership 
of 1,560. They were: Allenville, 24; Bur- 
fordville, 37; Cheney Fork, 48; Cape Girar- 
deau, 329 ; Leroy, 53 ; Gravel Hill, 62 ; Round 
Pond, 49; lona, 77; Jackson, 296; Lithium, 
82; New Bethel, 116; Niswonger, 28; Oak 
Ridge, 158; Pleasant Grove, 123; Bethlehem, 
74; Whitewater, 42. 

Of the churches of this association Jackson 
is the oldest. It was organized April 30, 
1824, largely from members of Bethel 
church and it finally absorbed the best and 
most progressive element of that church. 
Cape Girardeau church was organized in 
1834 by Elder Thomas P. Green with nine 
members. The pastors of the church before 
the war were T. P. Green, J. H. Clark, Sam- 
uel Baker, S. H. Ford, W. F. Wilson. James 
S. Green, A. Sherwood and J. C. Maple. 

This church at Cape Girardeau, which is 
the most important owing to its situation of 



the church in the association, has had a most 
interesting history. Owing to the unfortu- 
nate circumstances most of the old records of 
the church were destroyed, but Mrs. J. C. 
Maple, who was for many years a member of 
the church in the early period, wrote a sketch 
of the early histoiy which is reproduced here 
through the kindness of Dr. J. C. Maple. It 
contains much of interest and importance 
concerning these early years. 

"This sketch of the early history of the 
church," says Mrs. Maple, "must be largely 
reminiscent; made up from the recollections 
of a child, and of what was told her, and of 
occurrences that I remember. The church 
records having been lost, I may be able to re- 
view some things that will prove of interest 
to the present membership. 

"Rev. R. S. Duncan, in his history of Mis- 
souri Baptists gives the date of the organiza-* 
tiou August 13, 1834, with nine members. 
The church was instituted in the little brick 
schoolhouse that stood almost directly west 
of the present residence of L. J. Albert, Sr. 
The track of the Cape Girardeau and Chester 
railroad runs near the location of the build- 
ing. 

There is now no means of knowing the 
names of the original nine, but I feel confi- 
dent that John Juden, Sr., John Juden, Jr., 
Abbie Block Juden, liis wife, and Captain 
William Surrell and his wife, Ann Surrell 
(nee Juden), were among the number. Rev. 
Thomas P. Green was instrumental in bring- 
ing about the organization and was its first 
pastor. John Juden, Jr., was the first clerk 
and senior deacon and continued to fill both 
offices until his removal to New Orleans, La., 
a few years latei-. 

"The church must have taken steps very 
promptly to secure a house of worship, and 
the brick building on Lorimier street was 



466 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :\IISSOURI 



erected. It was the first and for a long time 
the only Protestant house of worship in the 
city. 

"An occurence, connected with the first 
services held in this house, served for a long 
time to fix dates of events, by the habitual 
saying 'these things occurred before or after 
the floor of the church gave way.' The late 
Mrs. Louisa Rodney, who had a remarkable 
memory for dates, told me it was in 183!). 
Mrs. Mary La Pierre connecting the time with 
some items of family hi.story corroborates that 
date. If they are correct, I was only two and 
a half years old, yet some of the events were 
indelibly fixed in my mind. 

"The Cape Giarardeau Association was to 
hold its annual session with the church, and 
the workmen were very much hurried to get 
the house in condition to be used. Situated 
on a hill that sloped to the south, it was very 
easy, and inexpensive to arrange for a base- 
ment room half way under the building. The 
floor above was to be supported by substan- 
tial pillars but there was not time to finish 
the basement and temporary supports were 
arranged. A stump, that had not been re- 
moved served as a base for one of these im- 
provised pillai-s. My impression of the day 
is that it was very bright and beautiful and 
the house was crowded to its utmost capacity. 
The people were also dressed in their very 
best attire. The pews were not in, but tem- 
porary seats had been made of planks. 

"I remember very distinctly sitting by my 
mother, and looking at Rev. ]\Ir. Edwards who 
was preaching the introductory sermon, when 
suddenly the floor seemed to sway under me, 
and when I looked up I saw the red-top-boots 
of my brother — the late C. G. Juden — go out 
of the window south of the pulpit. Then my 
father said to my mother, ' Sit here until I 
come back,' and took me in his arms and 



placed me upon the \np of Uncle Thomas 
Juden who was sitting on the pulj^it stejis. 
From this safe haven 1 looked with bewilder- 
ment upon a panic, such as is seldom wit- 
nessed. 

"The first law of nature seemed to have as- 
serted itself, for every one was tr.ying to es- 
cape from the building regardless of every- 
thing and everybody else. Clothing was 
torn, slippers lost, bonnets crushed, jewelry 
torn away and broken, while many bruises 
and hurts were inflicted by the merciless 
crowd. It is strange, but true, that no one 
was seriously injured. 

"After almost every one had left the build- 
ing, my father, after getting my mother out 
unhurt, came for me. Uncle Thomas told 
him that I had been a good girl and did not 
cry. This praise was very pleasant to me, 
but I think it was not goodness, but the 
sight of that screaming, struggling mass of 
humanity so bewildered me that I forgot I 
could cry. 

' ' Investigation showed that the prop placed 
on the stump had acted as a wedge, and so 
split it that the floor had sagged only a little 
way, but enough to produce the fright of the 
entire audience. The damage to the floor was 
easily repaired, and the length of time the 
build has stood, and the many, many 
times it has been filled by attentive worship- 
ers prove how substantially it was built. 

"The membership of the church must have 
increased rapidly between the time of its or- 
ganization and the opening of the house of 
worship. Besides those I have already men- 
tioned I recall the names of Mr. and Mrs. 
William Johnson, his mother, ]\Irs. Johnson, 
Cynthia John.son, wife of Thomas Johnson, 
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Baldwin, Mr. and Mrs. 
Campster, whose stone residence still stands 
near the Campster schoolhouse, Mr. and ]Mrs. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



467 



Thomas Joyce, Mr. and Airs. Thomas Ander- 
son — (Mr. A. was a half-brother of the late 
Dr. W. B. Wilson), Mr. and Mrs. Baker 
Gorden, ]\Irs. Clark, a sister of Mrs. Gorden. 
This Mrs. Clark's son, John Henry Clark, Mr. 
Clark's sister, Mrs. Samuel Gorden, JMrs. 
Smarr, another sister of J. H. Clark, Mrs. Al- 
fred Ellis, Jlr. and Jlrs. Sutton, Mr. and Mrs. 
Case, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Juden, ilr. and 
jMrs. G. W. Juden (the father and mother of 
Mrs. J. C. Maple, who wrote this sketch), 
Mrs. Wathen who was one of the early teach- 
ers in this community, and her daughter, Mrs. 
Wheeler, Sirs. Captain Watson, ilr. Porter, 
who came from Hickman, Kentucky, and 
after a few years residence here returned to 
Hickman. Joseph Gorden and wife, William 
SIcKnight and wife, parents of Mrs. Emma 
Kimmel. and others whose names I do not 
now recall. 

"There were some things in connection 
with the building of the house of worship, 
which I remember to have heard discussed 
that make me quite certain that Mr. Ander- 
son and Mrs. Ellis came into the church at an 
early date, if they were not constituent mem- 
bers. 

"Captain Ellis, though not a member of 
the church, was a staunch Baptist in principle 
and a man of large means. He made a liberal 
contribution to the building fund and offered 
in addition a lot on the east side of Lorimier 
street north of Broadwa.v for the use of the 
church if they would build thereon. Mr. An- 
derson was a man of limited means, but of- 
fered the lot on which the house was built, 
stating that this was all he was able to give. 
The church accepted this offer, hoping that 
Captain Ellis would increase his contribu- 
tion, at least, to the value of the lot. Per- 
haps he was a little sensitive over the matter; 
at any rate, he did not increase his contribu- 



tion. The choice proved to be an vuifortu- 
nate one, for after some years it cost the 
church large sums of money to prevent the 
house from being undermined by the con- 
stant washing away of the earth forming a 
deep ditch. That ravine offers a lesson of the 
importance of taking things in time. A lit- 
tle ditch was formed by the rains in the gar- 
den of Mr. Ollar which joined the church lot 
on the west and ran towards the east. The 
people were used to hills and hollows, and 
were unconcerned about the small ravine thus 
formed. 

"The church had preaching every Sunday. 
Each family had its own pew, and it was the 
custom for parents and children to sit to- 
gether. The pews were also supplied with 
Bibles and hymn books. Another custom, 
which we would do well to follow today, was 
when the pastor read the scripture lesson, the 
congregation was reading it too ; thereby im- 
pressing it upon their minds, through two 
channels, the eye and the ear. 

"A Sunda.y school was established at an 
early day. I have no recollection of the time 
when I first went to Sunday school, but I re- 
niember my father going with me every Sun- 
day. He took his children to the Lord's 
house, and after school closed, he usually took 
us for a little walk, but returned and we were 
all seated in the family pew before the 
preaching service began. In those daj's it 
was not optional, with the children, whether 
they attended church services or not, at least 
I never learned it. I do not remember the 
name of the superintendent. 

"As has been said Thomas P. Green was 
the first pastor. I think it must have been 
shortly after his death that Dr. Russell Hol- 
mon of Alabama visited the church and 
preached for a few weeks, to the delight and 
edification of the membership. He received 



468 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



a hearty call to the pastorate, but did not ac- 
cept. The facts in regard to Dr. Holmon I 
obtained from letters of my father written 
to my mother, in August, 1843, while she was 
absent from home '&t a health resort. 

"I think the church must have been with- 
out a pastor for some time, for my father 
died in August, 1844, and Rev. Edward 
Hempstead was sent for to preach the funeral 
sermon. 

"John Henry Clark was ordained in De- 
cember, 1844, and following his ordination 
supplied the pulpit for a few months. I re- 
member his ordination. He preached a ser. 
mon previous to the laying on of hands from 
the text, 'Mary Hath Chosen that Good Part 
which shall not be taken away from her' — 
Luke 10-42. 

"Rev. Samuel Baker a native of England, 
then a young man, became pastor. He in 
after years attained high eminence as a man 
of great learning. "Was pastor of churches in 
New York City, in Chicago and other cities. 
His last years were spent at Russellville, 
Kentucky. 

"S. H. Ford became pastor in 1845. He en- 
tered the editorial field at Louisville, Ken- 
tuekj% a few years later; was editor and pro- 
prietor of the 'Christian Repository,' a 
monthly magazine, for more than fifty years. 
His wife, Sallie Rochester Ford, attained 
equal eminence with her distinguished hus- 
band as an author. 

"Rev. "W. F. Nelson was for a time profes- 
sor in a theological seminary, while Dr. 
Adiel Sherwood was an author and college 
president of several institutions of learning. 
Thus we see, in that day the church had the 
best talent in its pulpit. 

"On October 4, 1857, J. C. Maple was or- 
dained at the call of this church. He had been 



stated supply from the first of July preceding 
this date. ' ' 

Dr. Maple served as pastor in 1860. Dur- 
ing his term there were about 100 members 
of the church and Thomas Juden and Thomas 
Baldwin were deacons and the latter was 
church clerk. Dr. Maple gave up the care of 
the church in 1860 and removed to Jackson. 
Here he engaged in teaching school until the 
outbreak of the war. The school was closed 
at that time and he then preached part of 
the time at Jackson and part of the time at 
Cape Girardeau until 1864. On his removal 
to Kentucky in that year, he severed his con- 
nection with the church for a time. 

Between 1864 and 1874 thei"e were a num- 
ber of pastors, among them Rev. Mr. Bray 
and J. S. Jordan. In the latter year Dr. 
Maple returned to the church and served as 
pastor for three years. 

Among the pastors since that date have 
been Rev. J. Hickman, Rev. Mr. Daniels, C. 
J. Tate, Rev. Mr. Duvall, J. 0. Willett, and 
A. M. Ross. The present pastor is F. Y. 
Campbell. 

The church worshipped in the old house on 
Fountain street until 1894, when a new house 
was constructed at the corner of Broadway 
and Spanish. This was during the pastorate 
of Mr. Daniels. Later an addition was made 
to the house under the pastoral direction of 
C. F. J. Tate. This house is still in use 
though the congregation has purchased a new 
lot and plans the erection of a more suitable 
building. 

Among the other organizations in the as- 
sociation were Union church organized in 1832, 
Pleasant Hill in Scott county, organized in 
1828 ; Pleasant Grove in Perry county in 1839, 
Mount Moriah in Scott county in 1830, Ap- 
ple Creek in 1820, Ebenezer in the big bend 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



469 



of the Mississippi, Cape Girardeau county in 
1821, Cypress in Scott county in 1821, Hub- 
ble Creek in 1861, Harmony in Mississippi 
county in 1830, reorganized in 1855, Little 
River, later called Sylvania, in 1845 in Scott 
county, and Goshen near Oak Ridge in 1841. 

Franklin Association was organized at the 
house of J. C. Duckworth in the year 1832 
At that time there were ten churches repre- 
sented, ten ministers and a total membership 
of 374. The territory embraced in the asso- 
ciation consisted of the counties of Franklin, 
Washington, and parts of Jefferson, St. Fran- 
cois, Gasconade, and Crawford. 

The second annual meeting was held at 
Potosi in Washington county in 1833. There 
were at that time 13 churches and a member- 
ship of 544. 

In 1835 the association met at the Provi- 
dence church in St. Francois county, there 
were then 20 churches, 15 ministers and a 
membership of 797. By 1839 there were 26 
churches, and among the prominent minis- 
ters were John Hutchings, Uriah and Josiah 
Johnson, Isaac Penning, Z. Jennings, Simeon 
Frost, J. C. and P. P. Brickey, J. H. Banbo, 
and James Glenn. 

In 1844 the session was held at Union 
church in Ste. Genevieve county. After cut- 
ting off a large number of churches, thirteen 
remained with a total membership of 1,482. 

Among the prominent churches of tliis 
body were Black River situated on the middle 
fork of Black river, organized in 1833 by 
Elder H. Lassiter. Among its preachers have 
been R. S. V. Caldwell, H. M. Smith, J. N. 
Russell and J. R. Pratt. 

Another of the old churches was Liberty, 
called Bellevue, organized June 9, 1816, by 
Elder Felix Redding, who was its first pas- 
tor. This church was anti-missionary but 
was organized as a missionary church in 1829 



being called Liberty. Old Mines was organ- 
ized in 1834 in Washington county by James 
Williams with a membership of 16. Union 
church in Ste. Genevieve county was organ- 
ized May 7, 1832, by Elder James Williams, T. 
B. Green and James Cundill. 

The most prominent minister of the period 
of this association was James Williams, who 
was a native of Kentucky and came to St. 
Louis and later to New Madrid, where he 
suffered the loss of property in the earth- 
quake of 1811. After the earthquake he re- 
moved to Cape Girardeau county and began 
the work of preaching about 1816. He then 
moved to Madison county and in 1832 to 
Washington county. Through his work a 
number of churches were organized in these 
various counties and he was a very active and 
able man. He died in Jefferson county in 
1861. 

Franklin Association in 1910 had 25 
churches with a membership of 2,911. The 
churches were: Bismark, 126 members; 
Bonne Terre, 176 ; Belleview, 33 ; Big Creek, 
34; Cove, 42; Cantwell, 56; Chestnut R'ge, 
91 ; Doe Run, 141 ; Desloge, 164 ; Elvins, 224 ; 
Flat River, 459 ; Farmington, 184 ; Genevieve, 
40; Hopewell, 105; Ironton, 168; Irondale, 
41 ; Knob Lick, 20 ; Leadwood, 289 ; Liberty, 
55; Little Vine, 73; Providence, 47; Hercu- 
laneum, 90 ; St. Francis, 87 ; Union, 153 ; Mt. 
Zion — 

Black River Association was organized with 
churches dismissed from Cape Girardeau As- 
sociation, in 1835 at Greenville, in Wayne 
county. The churches entering into the or- 
ganization were Black River, Cherokee Bay, 
Columbia, Big Creek, Bear Creek, and Green- 
ville. There was an aggregate membership 
of 188. The ministers were Henry McEl- 
murry, William Maeom, and S. Winningham, 



470 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Elder ]\IcElmurry was moderator and S. J. 
McKnight, clerk. Within a few years Elder 
William Little, B. Clark, and N. G. Ferguson 
were added to the list of ministers. 

This association was an aggressive and ac- 
tive one and grew rapidly. Its territory in- 
cluded the counties of Wayne, Stoddard, 
Dunklin, and Madison with parts of other 
counties. In 1850 the association dismissed 
twelve churches principally in Wayne county 
to form a uew association and in 1857 five 
churches were dismissed to form Cane Creek 
Association in Butler county. This left 18 
churches in Black River Association and its 
territory was reduced to Stoddard and Dunk- 
lin counties. 

At the meeting of 1860, which was held 
at Bloomfield in Stoddard county, there 
were messengers present from the following 
churches : Providence, Bloomfield, Gravel Ilill, 
Bethany, Mount Pleasant, Grand Prairie, 
Kennett, Bethlehem, Pleasant Valley, Pales- 
tine, Shiloh, Oak Grove, ]\Iount Union, White 
Oak Grove, New Hope, Duck Creek, Pleasant 
Grove, Ebenezer, Point Pleasant, Friendship, 
Union, Concord and Casterville. There were 
125 baptisms reported for the previous year 
and a total membership of 962. 

The ministers belonging to the association 
were R. P. Paramore, Samuel Walker, Ed- 
ward Allen, F. W. Miller, W. B. Howell, A. 
E. Watson, W. W. Whayne, William Macom, 
James H. Floyd, Lewis L. Stevens, John Mil- 
ler, and Jonathan Snider. 

In 1881 a meeting was held at Bloomfield 
at which time R. P. Owen was moderator and 
C. B. Crumb was clerk. At that time the 
ministers of the association were David Lewis, 
B. F. Bibb, W. H. Dial, T. B. Tunibaugh, R. 
S H. Douglass, T. Hoben, M. B. Baird, L. D. 
Cagle, J. J. Wester, J. H. D. Carlin, and M. 
J. Whitaker. 



The following s.ynopsis of the first forty- 
four meetings is taken from the minutes of 
1880: 1st. Anniversary held at Greenville 
Sept. 3rd, 4th and 5th, 1836. First sermon by 
Bro. Mcp]lmurry. Wm. Street, moderator, and 
Wm. W. Settle, clerk. 8 churches and 228 
members. 

2nd. Anniversary held with Columbia 
church Randolph county, Ark., Sept. 30th, 
1837. First sermon by Bro. McElmurry. Wm. 
Street, moderator, Wm. W. Settle, clerk. 9 
churches, 252 members. 

3rd. Anniversary held at Providence 
church, Stoddard county, ]\Io., Oct. 27th, 28th 
and 29th, 1838. Wm. Street, moderator, and 
Wm. W. Settle, clerk. Churches 10, members 
287. 

4th. Anniversary held at Mt. Pleasant 
church, Wayne county. Mo., Sept. 7th, 8th and 
9th, 1839. First sermon by Bro. McElnuirry. 
II. McElmurry, moderator, Elisha Landers, 
clerk. Churches 11, members 312. 

5th. Anniversary held with Black River 
church, Wayne county. Mo., Sept. 12th, 13th, 
and 14th, 1840. First sermon by Bro. McEl- 
murry, E. Rhewbottom, moderator, and E. 
Landers, clerk. Churches 12, members 320. 

6th. Anniversary held with Black River 
church, Wayne county. Mo., Sept. 11th, 12th 
and 13th, 1841. First sermon by Bro. W. W. 
Settle, W. W. Settle, moderator, Elisha Land- 
ers, clerk. Churches 13, memliers 357. 

7th. Anniversary held M'ith Black River 
church, Sept. 10th, 1842. First sermon by 
Wm. Jlaeom. Elisha Spiva, moderator and 
Elisha Landers, clerk. Churches 12, and 322 
members. 

8th. Annivei-sary held with Black River 
church Sept. 9th, 10th and 11th, 1843. First 
sermon by Bro. B. Clark, M. A. Short, moder- 
ator, Elisha Landers, clerk. Churches 11, 
members 625. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



471 



9th. Anniversary held with Black River 
church, Sept. 7th, 8th and 9th, 1844. First 
sermon by Bro. Wm. B. Kere, Wm. B. Gra- 
liam, moderator, Pinckuey Graham, clerk. 
Churches 15, members 694. 

10th. Anniversary held with Black River 
church, Sept. 12th, 13th and 14th, 1845. First 
sermon by Bro. N. G. Ferguson. A. A. 
Shorter, moderator, Pinekney Graham, clerk. 
Churches 21, members 345. 

11th. Anniversary held with Black River 
church, Sept. 11th, 12th and 13th, 1846. First 
sermon by N. G. Ferguson. David Pruit, mod- 
erator, Solomon Kitrell, clerk. Churches 23, 
members 798. 

12th. Anniversary held with Mars Hill 
church, Wayne county, Mo., Oct. 2nd, 3rd and 
4th, 1847. First sermon by Bro. N. G. Fergu- 
son, Carter J. Graham, moderator, E. Landers, 
clerk. Churches 21, members 957. 

13th. Anniversary held with JIars Hill 
church, Sept. 29th and 30th, 1848. First ser- 
mon by E. Landers. Carter T. Graham, mod- 
erator, and Elisha Landers, clerk. Churches 
20, members 1,162. 

14th. Anniversary held with Mars Hill 
church Oct. 6th, 7th and Sth, 1849. First ser- 
mon by R. P. Paramore. R. P. Paramore, 
moderator, and Pinekney Graham, clerk. 
Churches 22, members 1,227. 

15th. Anniversary held with Cedar Creek 
church Wayne county. Mo., Aug. 31st and 
Sept. 1st, and 2nd, 1850. First sermon by 
Wm. W. Settle. R. P. Paramore, moderator. 
Pinekney Graham, clerk. Churches 24, mem- 
bers 1.079. At this session twelve churches 
were dismissed to form St. Francis Associa- 
tion, which they did October, 1850. 

16th. Anniversaiy held with Stoddard 
(now Bloomfield) church Sept. Sth, 6th, 7th 
and Sth, 1851. First sermon by Martin Epps. 
R. P. Paramore, moderator, R. P. Owen, clerk. 
Churches 11, members 634. 



17th. Anniversary held with Cane Creek 
church September 3rd, 4th, Sth and 6th, 1852. 
First sermon by Sanders Walker, Sandei-s 
Walker, moderator, R. P. Owen, clerfc. 
Churches 12, members 595. 

18th. Anniversary held with Union church 
Randolph county, Arkansas, Sept. 2nd, 3rd, 
4th and Sth, 1853, on the plantation of Deacon 
Duckworth who died a few weeks before the 
meeting, but left ample arrangements for the 
attendants. First sermon by R. P. Paramore. 
R. P. Paramore, moderator, R. P. Owen, clei'k. 
Churches 12, members 592. 

19th. Anniversary held with Antioch 
church, Butler county. Mo., Sept. 1st, 2nd, 
3rd and 4th, 1854. First sermon by Martin 
Epps, R. P. Paramore, moderator, R. P. Owen, 
clerk. Churches 16, members 793. 

20th. Anniversary held with Bloomfield 
church Aug. 31st and Sept. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, 
1855. First sermon by Martin Epps, Martin 
Epps, moderator, R. P. Owen, clerk. Churches 
15, members 922. 

21st. Anniversary held with Kennett 
church Dunklin county. Mo., Sept. Sth, 6th, 
7th and 8th, 1856. First sermon by Mathew 
J. Reed, S. Walker, moderator, Given Owen, 
clerk. Churches 16, members 938. 

22nd. Anniversary held with Bloomfield 
church Sept. 4th, Sth, 6th and 7th, 1857. First 
sermon by R. P. Paramore, R. P. Paramore, 
moderator, R. P. Owen, clerk. Churches 18, 
members 1,095. 

Cane Creek, Black River, Antioch, Mars 
Hill and New Hope churches were dismissed 
to form Cane Creek Association. 

23rd. Anniversary held with New Liberty 
church, New Madrid county. Mo., Sept. 3rd, 
4th, 5th and 6th, 1858. First preacher, S. 
Walker, S. Walker, moderator, R. P. Owen, 
clerk. Churches 16, members 797. 

24th. Anniversarv held with Oak Grove 



472 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



cliurelies, Sept, 2iid, 1859. Introductory ser- 
mon by R. P. Paramore, S. "Walker, moderator, 
R. P. Owen, clerk. Churches 20, members 825. 

25th. Anniversary held with Bloomfield 
church August 31st, 1860. Introductory ser- 
mon by S. Walker, S. Walker, moderator, R. 
P. Owen, clerk. Churches 23, members 963. 

26tl'. Anniversary was held with Palestine 
church but on account of the war only two or 
three churches were represented. No minutes 
of session obtained. 

27th. For 1862, and 28th for 1863, and 
29th for 1864, and 30th for 1865 prevented 
by war. 

31st. Anniversary held with Palestine 
church Sept. 14th, 1866. Introductory sermon 
by L. L. Stevens, L. L. Stevens, moderator, 
J. B. Rese, clerk; only 4 churches represented. 

32nd. Anniversary held with Oak Grove 
church Sept. 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th, 1867. 
Introductory sermon by James E. Floyd, L. 
L. Stevens moderator, Given Owen, clerk. 
Churches 18, members 946. 

33rd. Anniversary held with Liberty 
church Sept. 18th, 19th and 20th, 1868. In- 
troductory sermon by L. L. Stevens, L. L. 
Stevens, moderator, M. V. Baird, clerk. 
Churches 27, members 1,313. 

34th. Anniversary held with Bethany 
churcE Sept. 24th, 25th and 26th, 1869. In- 
troductory sermon by L. L. Stevens, L. L. 
Stevens, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
Churches 27, members 1,360. 

35th. Anniversary held with Oak Grove 
church Sept. 16th, 17th and 18th, 1870. In- 
troductory sermon by L. L. Stevens, L. L. 
Stevens, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk 
Churches 30, members 1,726. 

36th. Anniversary held with Shady Grove 
church Sept. 15th, 16th and 17th, 1871. In- 
troductory sermon by L. L. Stevens, L. L. 



Stevens, moderator, M. V. Baird, clerk. 
Churches 30, members 1,628. 

37th. Anniversary held with Land Mark 
church. Minutes lost. 

38th. Anniversary held with Oak Grove 
church Sept. 12th, 14th, and 15th, 1873. In- 
troductory sermon by Tilford Hogan, David 
Lewis, moderator, M. V. Baird, clerk. 
Churches 25, members 1,434. 

39th. Anniversary held with Palestine 
church Oct. 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 1874. Introduc- 
tory sermon by M. V. Baird, David Lewis, 
moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. Churches 26, 
members 1,354. 

40th. Anniversary held with Little Vine 
church Sept. 24th, 25th and 26th, 1875. In- 
troductory sermon by David Lewis, David 
Lewis, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
Churches 27, members 1,252. 

41st. Anniversary held with Bloomfield 
church Sept. 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 1876. In- 
troductory sermon by J. H. D. Carlin, R. P. 
Owen, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
Churches 24, members 1,294. 

42nd. Anniversary held with Oak Grove 
church July 20th, 21st and 22nd, 1877. Intro- 
ductory sermon by J. H. D. Carlin, M. V. 
Baird, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
Churches 24, members 1,257. 

43rd. Anniversary held with Shady Grove 
church July 27th, 28th and 29th, 1878. In- 
troductory sermon by David Lewis, David 
Lewis, moderator, C. B. Crmnb, clerk. 
Churches 18, members 959. 

44th. Anniversary held with Antioch 
church July 26th, 27th and 28th, 1879. In- 
troductory sermon by J. H. D. Carlin ; David 
Lewis, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
Churches 18, members 649. 

45th. Anniversary held with Four Mile 
church July 23rd, 24th and 25th, 1880. In- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



473 



troductory sermon by M. J. Whitaker, M. V. 
Baird, moderator, C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
Churches 22, members 923. 

The meeting in 1SS5 was held at Oak Grove 
church iu Dunklin county. Eld. R. H. Doug- 
lass was moderator and C. B. Crumb, clerk. 
There were 25 churches represented and the 
total membership was 1,018. The introduc- 
tory sermon was preached by Rev. S. M. 
Brown. 

The fifty-fii*st annual meeting was held at 
Philadelphia church in Stoddard county in 
1886. Eld. R. H. Douglass was moderator, 
and R. P. Owen, clerk. The introductory ser- 
mon was preached by the moderator. Eighteen 
churches reported 978 members. 

About 1890 the association was divided, the 
churches in Stoddard county organizing the 
Stoddard county association and those in 
Dunklin county retaining the original organ- 
ization and name. 

Among the older churches of this associa- 
tion are Bloomfield, organized in 1846; Oak 
Grove, in 1858; Liberty, 1866; Shady Grove, 
1866 ; Four Mile, 1866 ; Kennett and Cotton 
Plant. 

This association is now confined to Dunklin 
county. In 1910 there were 24 churches in 
organization with a total membership of 2,449. 
The churches were : Bible Grove, 76 ; Caruth, 
75; Cardwell, 202; Campbell, 144; Clarkton, 
208 ; Friendship, — ; Gideon, 17 ; Holly Grove, 
66; Holly, 36; Holcomb, 90; Hornersville, 
276; Kennett, 289; Little Vine,— ; Lulu, 98; 
Maiden, 119 ; New Prospect, 74 ; Oak Grove — ; 
Octa, 97 ; Palestine, 115 ; Parma, 80 ; Senath, 
148 ; Shady Grove, 82 ; Stanfield, 73 ; Varner 
River, 91. 

The man, who more than any other per- 
haps, contributed to the prosperity of the 
Baptist church in this association was Elder 
J. H. Floyd, who was a native of Clark county, 



Missouri, born in 1832. Together with his fa- 
ther 's family he came to Dunklin county 
about 1850 and" began the work of preach- 
ing in 1858 continuing in the ministry there, 
with the exception of one year, until his death 
in 1874. He was a man of veiy great energy 
and not only preached continually, having 
charge usually of three or four churches, but 
also sujiported himself by farming. Doubt- 
less to his labors is due more than to that of 
any other man the growth which the churcli 
exijerienced in those years. 

Another of the early ministry was John W. 
Brown, who died in August, 1868, after hav- 
ing spent a number of years in the work of 
the church. 

Still another one was L. L. Stephens, who 
served for a number of times as moderator of 
the association and also as missionary. He 
died in 1874. 

^Vmong the ministers who contributed very 
greatly to the success of the churches in this 
association were M. V. Baird, M. J. Whittaker, 
R. H. Douglass, and J. N. Richardson. Eld. 
Richardson came to the association from Ar- 
kansas though a Tennessean by birth. He was 
a careful student, an original thinker, and a 
powerful and pleasing speaker. 

One of the influential citizens of Dunklin 
county is and has been for a number of years 
Rev. Martin V. Baird, who was born in Wil- 
son county, Tennessee, June 7, 1837. He came 
with his father's family to Missouri in I860; 
he had received a good education before com- 
ing to Missouri and after living for a time in 
Dunklin coTinty he was licensed as a minister 
of the Baptist church and began his active 
work in 1870 ; from that time until the pres- 
ent he has been one of the foremost ministers 
of that denomination in that county. At one 
time or another he has been pastor of prac- 
tically every Baptist church in the countj', 



474 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



aud his iufluence for good has beeu strong in 
every community. In addition to his work as 
a minister, whieii lias given liim a wide ac- 
quaintance, he has been a successful farmer 
and owns a large and well improved farm. 
In 1860 he was married to Ollie B. Hopper; 
to them were born two sons, Walter B. and 
Thomas J. Both these young men. were edu- 
cated at the Normal School at Cape Girar- 
deau ; both became influential teachers in their 
county and both met early an untimely death. 

Rev. Mr. Whittaker was a self-made man, 
an earnest, devoted minister, possessing a most 
commendable influence in his community. He 
was a native of Kentucky, born in 1832. He 
was for a time a teacher before coming to Mis- 
souri. In 1854 he removed to Dunklin county 
and in 1874 was ordained as minister of the 
Baptist church. He served as pastor of a 
number of churches in his home county. He 
was also a farmer and nurseryman. He 
served in the Confederate army for a time and 
was present at one of the skirmishes at Bloom- 
field. 

Rev. R. H. Douglass was a member of one 
of the pioneer families of Dunklin county. He 
was a native of Kentucky, born in 1839. He 
came with his parents to Dunklin county in 
1850. He received the school training com- 
mon to pioneer countries .such as Dunklin 
county then was. At the breaking out of the 
war he enlisted and served until itsi close. He 
was a member of the famous cavalry regiment, 
the Second ilissouri, and participated in all 
its great battles and marches. 

After the war he retiirned to the farm and 
won for himself a competence. He was always 
an active and devoted member of the church 
and was finally ordained as a minister. On 
taking up this work he felt the handicap of 
the lack of sufficient education and set him- 
self to the work of self-cultivation. Gifted 



with a good mind, great physical and mental 
endurance, and a determined will, he acquired 
a good education through his own endeavors. 

He was an eloc^uent and forceful speaker 
being gifted with a high degree of magnetism 
and a power of clear exposition. He labored 
as pastor and evangelist with great success, 
but it was as an exponent and teacher of the 
great doctrines of his church that he excelled. 
Here few men surpassed him in the power and 
clearness with which he presented his con- 
victions of truth. Due as much to his uncom- 
promising stand and able exposition as to any 
other cause is the prosperous condition of the 
Baptist church in the Black River Associa- 
tion. 

Personally he was a man of the highest 
ideals and the firmest convictions of right. No 
man who knew him doubted his absolute and 
unqiialified sincerity. 

He was twice married. The first time to 
Rebecca J. Wagster. One child of this union 
survives, T. J. Douglass, of Kennett. The 
second marriage was to Mrs. Mary E. (Lamb) 
Richardson, who survives him. Mr. Douglass 
died in 1904 at his home in Caruth. 

The Concord Association is the second as- 
sociation of the name to be organized in the 
state; the first, was in Cooper county. The 
one in Southeast Missouri was composed of 
churches in Iron and Reynolds counties and 
was organized in December, 1867, at Big Creek 
church. The other churches taking part in 
the organization were Bethlehem, Mount Zion, 
and Pilgrims Rest ; these churches had a mem- 
bership of 298. The moderator of the asso- 
ciation was Isaac Lane and the clerk was E. 
C. Smith. 

In 1858 this association met at Pilgrims 
Rest church in Iron county and received the 
following new churches ; New Prospect, Pleas- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



475 



ant Exchange, Mount Gilead and Sugar Tree 
Grove. The ministers at this meeting were 
Isaac Lane, R. Seal and D. Warren ; Isaac 
Lane was moderator again and Thomas Dick- 
son was chosen clerk. The next year's meet- 
ing met at Big Creek church in Iron county, 
one other organization was added, this being 
Highland church. The third annual meeting 
was with Bethlehem church in Reynolds 
county in 1870. At this time there were only 
6 churches in the association, l)ut the next 
year, 1871, Denning Chapel, Pleasant Valley, 
Locust Grove, White Oak Grove, Black Oak 
Grove and Friendship churches were received. 
The meeting was held at Pleasant Exchange in 
Reynolds county ; Samuel S. Beard was mod- 
erator. In 1874 the association consisted of 
16 churches with a membership of 584 and 6 
ordained ministers. 

The territory of this association is now in 
Franklin and Reynolds counties. The asso- 
ciation had 21 churches in 1910 with a mem- 
bership of 1,468. The churches were: Centre- 
ville, 95; Dickens Valley, 90; Lesterville, 136; 
Pine Dale — ; Bethany, 34 ; Bethlehem, 85 ; 
New Hope, 20; Dry Valley, 47; Oak Grove, 
71 ; Redford, 122 ; Ellington, 149 ; Lone Cedar, 
50 ; Logan Creek, 54 ; Roland Hill, 83 ; Corri- 
don, 12 ; Van Buren, 68 ; Cedar Grove, 196 ; 
Sinking Creek, 28 ; Hopewell, 41 ; West Fork, 
47 and Black River — . 

Bethel Association was continually sending 
off groups of churches for the establishment 
of other associations. In 1860 a group of 
churches in Iron count.v consisting of ]\Iount 
Pleasiint, Big Creek, Pilgrims Rest, White 
Oak Grove, Sugar Tree Grove, Mount Gilead, 
Mount Zion and Locust Grove organized an 
association called the Central ilissouri Asso- 
ciation. The ministers concerned in this or- 
ganization were William Polk, Harry Young 



and James Ritter. All of these churches had 
been members of Bethel Association and were 
dismissed from that organization in 1859. 
This association met in 1860 at Mount Zion 
in Washington county ; at that time Isaac Lane 
was moderator and David Adams was clerk. 
There were 13 churches in the association at 
this time, 8 of which were represented at the 
meeting reporting a total membership of 367. 
The ministers were N. Adams, Isaac Lane, G. 
W. Bay and P. McCracken. 

The next year Central Missouri Association 
met at Pleasant Grove in Iron county; there 
wei'e 13 churches represented reporting a 
total membership of 528. Seven of these 
churches were then dismissed to form a new 
association called Concord. 

In 1874 the Central ^lissouri Association 
had 9 churches with a total membership of 
283, and there were 5 ordained ministers. The 
churches constituting the association were no 
longer confined to Iron and Washington 
counties, but were scattered over Dent, Rey- 
nolds and I\Iadison counties as well. This asso- 
ciation is now disbanded and the churches are 
in other organizations. 

Jefferson County Association was organized 
at Bethlehem church, October 8, 1853; there 
were representatives present from Bethlehem, 
Swashing, Mount Zion, Calvary, Sandy and 
Little Maramec, all of them being in Jeffer- 
.son county. The ministers of the association 
were James Williams, Washington Stevens, 
William McKay, J. C. Hudspeth, Sullivan 
Frazier and John H. Hensley; James Wil- 
liams was the moderator of this first meeting. 
The meeting of 1856 was held with Swashing 
church ; three new churches were added to the 
association. The meeting of 1869 was held at 
]\lount Zion church, tlie moderator being W. 
Stevens, who also preached the opening ser- 



476 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



mon. There were at this time 17 churches con- 
nected with the association, only 13, however, 
sent any report whicli showed a total member- 
ship of 791. The meeting for 1870 was at 
Sandy church where three more churches were 
admitted. lu 1871 Mount Zion and Valle 
Mines churches were admitted to the associa- 
tion ; at the meeting with Swashing church at 
this time the total membership was 1,390 and 
there were 22 churches on the roll of the as- 
sociation. In 1881 the meeting was with Lit- 
tle Maramec church and the reports showed 
that there were 20 churches. 

The oldest church in Jeffei-son county is 
Bethlehem church which was organized in 
1829, about 8 miles northwest of Hillsboro. 
Two ministers, Lewis and James Williams, 
were the oldest preachere and assisted in the 
organization of this church; in 1840 there 
were 60 members. The first house of worship 
was built in 1843 ; it was a log house and was 
20 X 24 feet. 

Another of the old churches was Lebanon 
which was organized with 7 members in 1833 
by James Cundiff and Walter W. Tucker. 
While a member of the Jeft'erson County As- 
sociation the church w'as situated in Ste. Gene- 
vieve county ; the first minister was J. C. Ren- 
fro, who continued as pastor for many years. 
The first building erected by this church was 
a log building which dated from about 1835. 

Swashing church was organized in July, 
1843, with 6 members; W. Stevens was the 
first pastor. This church is about 10 miles 
southeast of Hillsboro and 2 miles from De- 
Soto. 

Pilgrims Rest church was organized in No- 
vember, 1854, with 7 members, by John Huds- 
peth. It was on Dry Creek in Jefferson 
county. 

Hopewell in AVashington county was or- 
ganized by Elder W. Stevens, September 24, 



1855, with 7 members, the first pastor being 
William McKay. 

Cedac Hill church was organized by W. 
Stevens, April, 1856, with 7 members ; it is in 
Jefferson county northwest of Hillsboro. 

In 1910 Jefferson County Association re- 
ported the following churches having a com- 
bined membership of 1,169 : Bethlehem, 64 
Blackwell, 31 ; Cedar Hill, 14 ; Cantwell, 62 
Festus, 139; Grubville, 30; Highland, 81 
House Spgs. — ; Hillsboro, 27 ; Lebanon, 64 
Moontown — • ; Mt Hermon, 76 ; New Har- 
mony, 19 ; Oakland, 30 ; Oak Grove — ; Pleas- 
ant Ridge, 78 ; Plattin — ; Pilgrims Rest, 159 ; 
Providence, 40 ; Swashen, 106 ; Temperance 
Rest, 143. 

In 1850 representatives of 12 churches, for- 
merly members of the Black River Associa- 
tion, met at Castor church in Madison county 
and oi'ganized the St. Francois Association. 
The churches were situated in Wayne and 
Madison counties and perhaps one or two in 
Bollinger county. The first meeting of the as- 
sociation after its organization was held at 
Little Vine church in iladison county in 1851. 
At this meeting Zion church in Wayne county 
and Salem church in Bollinger county were 
admitted to membership. The ministers of the 
association were C. T. Graham, W. W. Set- 
tle, J. Duncan, J. P. Wallis, A. Hughes, R. S. 
Eaton and S. M. Randoff. Other ministers 
who later worked in this association were L. 
D. Bennett, A. G. Tidwell, A. R. L. Meador, 
A. Land, L. Langley, S. Farr, W. H. Mattox, 
:M. W. Taylor and E. J. Bunyard. 

The association grew steadily up to the 
breaking out of the war when there were 29 
churches, in 1863 there were only 10 churches 
reported at the meeting in Big Creek church 
in Madison county, with only 326 members 
in the association. In 1874 there were 37 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



477 



churches in the association with 1,400 mem- 
bers. In 1876, 10 churches were dismissed to 
form the Wayne County Association. At the 
meeting in 1878 there were representatives 
present from 24 churches chiefly in Madison 
and Bollinger counties with a membership of 
1,200. At this time the ministers of the as- 
sociation were J. C. Hornsby, AVilliam Loudon, 
H. F. Toug, L. W. Revelle, A. Tidwell, F. M. 
Holbrook, M. Robins, V. T. Settle, B. L. Bow- 
man, J. F. Rudy, and J. C. Hembree. 

The oldest church in the association was 
Big Creek church organized in iMa3', 1835, 
about 18 miles south of Fredericktown. The 
first church house was built in 1854 ; the first 
pastor of the church was Henry McElmurry ; 
he was succeeded by C. T. Graham, who served 
as pastor for 22 years. 

Castor church was oi'ganized in 1845 by 
Elders Graham, Settle and Eaton. Little Vine 
church was organized in 1846 with 21 mem- 
bers. Marble Hill church was organized in 
1848. 

The first church of Fredericktown seems to 
have been organized in 1870 by Elder W. W. 
Settle and Silas Livermore; there were 31 
members at the time of the reorganization in 
1872. 

Among the prominent ministers of this as- 
sociation were the following: Carter T. Gra- 
ham, who was a native of North Carolina and 
who came to Madison county in 1822, was 
a well educated man and while he preached 
for a great many years, supported himself 
principally by farming. He died in Septem- 
ber, 1861 ; Anderson Hughes was a native of 
Tennessee but settled in Wayne county while 
very young; he preached for a number of 
years and died in 1863. 

One of the most influential of the men of 
this association was W. W. Settle, who came to 



Missouri from Tennessee in 1833. He first 
lived in Bollinger county and later in Madi- 
son county ; he became a preacher in 1839 and 
up to the time of his death in 1870, was a very 
active, energetic woi'ker as a minister. 

One of the early preachers of this a.ssocia- 
tion was Pinkney Graham, who was a native 
of Kentucky and came to Southeast Missouri 
in 1826 and was for many years an influential 
minister. 

Twenty-four churches reported to the asso- 
ciation in 1910. They had a combined mem- 
bersliip of 2,009. They were : Big Creek, 82 ; 
Brush Creek, 87; Castor, 22; Ebenezer, 71; 
Fredericktown, 444; Friendship, 107; Gran- 
ite View, 19 ; Glen Allen, 102 ; Little White- 
water, 136 ; Marble Hill, 156 ; Marquand, 113 ; 
Miller's Chapel, 41; Moore's Chapel, 46; Mt. 
Carmel, 43 ; Mt. Pisgah, 116 ; Mt. Pleasant, 47 ; 
New Salem, 73; Shetley's Creek, 93; Trace 
Creek, 93 ; Twelve Mile, 116 ; Union Light, 19. 

The association known as Cane Creek Asso- 
ciation was formed in 1857 by 5 churches 
formerly members of Black River Association ; 
for a considerable time the association had 
churches in Butler, Carter and Ripley coun- 
ties in ]\Iissouri as well as some churches in 
Arkansas. In 1867 there were 14 churches 
reported, in 1874 there were 24 churches with 
a total membership of 632, in 1875 there were 
22 churches. 

There were 29 churches in the association 
in 1910 with a combined membership of 2,115. 
They were: Amity, 46; Antioch, 73; Black 
Creek, 71 ; Bethel, 75 ; Belleview, 31 ; Bethle- 
hem, 33; Bay Springs, 94; Concord-Elsinore, 
26 ; Cane Creek, 30 ; Doniphan, 353 ; Friend- 
ship, 44; Grandin, 125; Harmony, 25; Lone 
Star, 41; Lone Hill, 90; Mt. Carmel, 53; Mel- 
ville, 7 ; New Prospect, 49 ; Naylor, 91 ; New 



478 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Hope, 106; Providence, 23; Poplar Bluff, (1st) 
211 ; Poplar Bluff (2nd), 266 ; Paradise Ridge, 
20 ; Rocky Point, 57 ; Sylvan, 53 ; Spring Hill, 
62 ; Center Hill — ; Fairdealing — . 

The Mararaec Association was organized 
November 11, 1870, by 6 churches in Washing- 
ton county ; these churches were Oak Hill, 
White Oak Grove, Crossroads, Little Spring, 
ilount Vernon and Fourehe a Renault. The 
moderator of this association was J. R. Ham- 
lin and M. T. Walker was clerk. There were 
l-tS members. The ministers of the associa- 
tion were M. 0. Gibson, J. R. Hamlin and H. 
:\[. Smith. Tlie second meeting was held at 
Oak Hill in 1871 ; there were 11 churches and 
302 members. In 1879 there were 10 churches 
and 319 members. The early ministers, be- 
sides those mentioned, were H. M. Smith and 
Gideon Seyniore. 

The oldest church of this association was 
Fourehe a Renault which was organized in 
January, 1829, under the name of Mount 
Zion ; its first pastor was James Williams and 
there were 6 members at the time of the organ- 
ization. Like most other of the early churches, 
its first meeting house was a log structure 
built in 1844. 

White Oak Grove church in Washington 
county was organized April 9, 1842. 

Maramec Association was composed of 14 
churches in 1910, whose membership was 821, 
divided as follows : W. Oak Grove, 83 ; Steel- 
ville,. 136; Shoal Creek, 131; Liberty — 
Courtois, 56 ; Mt. Olive, 50 ; Cross Roads, 76 
Bourbon, 45; Huzzah. 61; :\Iis. Ridge, 17 
St. Joseph, 36 ; Fourehe a Renault, 29 ; Em- 
maus, 62 ; Bethel, 86. 

Charleston Association was organized in 
1876 with 4 churches; Morley, New Hope, 
Richwoods and Sylvania. These churches 
were all in Scott county and they had a mem- 



bership of 146. In 1879 there were 9 churches 
with a total membership of 239. The minis- 
ters at this time were I. E. Anderson, Lewis 
Dickinson, W. K. Rainbolt, W. B. Richardson 
and J. G. Shearer ; the latter was moderator. 
In 1880 the session had held at Blodgett in 
Scott county; tliere were then 10 churches 
with 313 members ; the churches were in Scott, 
IMississippi and New Madrid counties. 

There were 20 churches in the association 
in 1910 with a combined membership of 1,693. 
They were: Bethel, 26; Bethany, 130; Blod- 
gett', 41 ; Charleston, 282 ; Chaffee. — ; Diehl- 
stadt, 63; East Prairie, 108; Fornfelt. 21; 
Harmony, 76; Hickory Grove, 63; Hopewell, 
41; Morley, 165; New Bethel, 128; Oran, 
237 ; Pleasant Hill, 41 ; Rock View, 57 ; Savan- 
nah, 81; Sikeston, 32; Unity, 53; Van- 
duser — . 

In 1910 there were 14 churches in Wash- 
ington County Association with a total mem- 
1)ership of 716. They were: ]\It. Zion, 47; 
Breton Creek, 25; Lost Creek, 52; Pleasant 
Grove, 74; Missionary Ridge, 34; Fourehe 
a Renault, 39 ; Shoal Creek, 36 ; Bunker Hill, 
128; Hickory Grove, 39; Liberty, 51; Em- 
maus, 16 ; W.- Oak Grove, 59 ; Potosi, 30 ; 
Hazel Creek, 17 ; Macedonia, 30. 

The Stoddard County Association bad 21 
churches in 1910 whose total membership was 
971: Advance, 79; Bloomfield, 101; Dexter, 
158 ; Duck Creek, 133 ; Idalia, 43 ; Liberty, 57 ; 
Little Vine, 50; New Hope. 34; Philadelphia, 
140; Providence, 306; Puxico, 58; Little 
Flock, 12. 

In New :\Iadrid Association there were 19 
churches in 1910. having a membership of 
1,403. Tliey were: Caruthersville, 258; Cot- 
ton Wotjd Point, — ; Como, — ; Dry Bayou, — 
Evergreen, 45 ; Holly Grove, 50 ; Holland, 65 ; 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



479 



Hayti, 100; Macedonia, — ; Mieola, 70; Oak 
Grove, 80 ; Portageville, 90 ; Steele — ; Shiloh, 
— ; Tyler, — ; Little River, 39 ; New Zion, 50 ; 
Pierce's Chapel, 36; Crockett Chapel, 40. 

In 1875 it was determined to divide St. 
Francois Association, and 10 churches in 
Wayne county were dismissed to form a new 
association, in October of that j'ear known as 
Wayne County Association. The ten churches 
had a mendjersliip of 1,444. and the ministers 
were Isaac Lane, A. R. L. ileador, J. W. Wil- 
son, J. B. Mattox, jM. A. Taylor and David 
Cheats. Five more churches were added in 
1875 and in 1878 the total membership was 
678. 

There were 30 churches in the association in 
1910 with a membership of 1,754. They were: 
Bear Creek, 47; Bethel, 24; Beulah, 64; Big 
Brushy, 33 ; Big Lake, 103 ; Black River, 105 ; 
Cedar Creek, 107; Chaonia, 49; Cullen's Sw. 
— ; Des Arc, 8; Greenville, 155; Hodge's Fer., 
— ; Lebanon, 180; Little Lake, 75; Liberty 
Hill, 22 ; Leeper, 34 ; Mt. Olive, 51 ; Mt. Pleas- 
ant, 70; Mt. Zion, 77; New Life. 37; New 
Prospect, 78; Philippi, 34; Piedmont, 193; 
Trace Creek, 72 ; Virginia, 21 ; Oak Grove, — ; 
Patterson, 57; Williamsville, 91 ; Rocky Grove, 
23; Low Valley, 14. 

The Methodists and Baptists have been pe- 
culiarly fortunate in being able to do pioneer 
work in this section. More than the ministers 
of other denominations they have been able 
to get out into the country and organize and 
develop churches away from the towns and 
centers of population. No other denomina- 
tions have quite equalled them in this respect. 
Accordingly we find the country districts of 
Southeast Missouri dotted over with ^Methodist 
and Baptist churches. 

The Baptists were first in the field. Tywap- 
pity church was the first non-Catholic relig- 
ious organization in this part of the .state, and 



Bethel the second. Both were Baptist organ- 
izations. From the organization of these 
early churches until now, the denomination 
has prospered. There are now in Southeast 
Missouri, 281 churches with an aggregate 
membership of about 25,000. The ministers 
of the church have been in the forefi'ont of 
every good and worthy movement, education 
has been fostered by them, they have cre- 
ated and supported Will Mayfield College 
at Marlile Ilill liesides lending support to 
other educational institutions. The denom- 
inations seem entering on an era of increased 
prosperity as is attested by the erection of 
better buildings, the liberal support accorded 
tlie church, and the widening of its plan of 
work. 

The church in this section has en.ioyed the 
service of a long line of eai'ncst and able men. 
To their al)ility and industry is due much of 
the place the denomination now occupies in 
the religious affairs of Southeast Missouri. 

Lutherans 

When the German colony was formed in 
Perry county in 1838, there was organized the 
first society of the Evangelical Lutheran 
church in this part of the state. A numlier 
of small communities made up this colony, 
and at first a number of pastors ministered to 
the wants of the communities. Wittenljerg 
and Frohna had for their ministers Rev. Ernst 
Gerhard, Wilhelm Keyl; Altenberg's minis- 
ter was Gotthold Heinricli Loeber. The min- 
ister of Seelitz community was Rev. Moritz 
Burger, while Rev. Carl Frederick Wilhelm 
Walther ministered to Dresden and Johannes- 
burg. At a later period, however, it was found 
impossible to support so many pastors and the 
communities were combined. In 1839 there 
was established another community called 
Putzdorf. This was about eight miles from 



480 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI 



Altenberg, and the pastor here was Carl 
Frederick Gruber. 

Most of the settlers of this colony were 
poor, and were subjected to very great hard- 
ships in a new country, hardships which 
they were not fitted to undergo. It is, how- 
ever, a striking commendatary upon their 
earnestness and piety, that in spite of the 
difficulties which surrounded them, from the 
very first, they began and carried on the work 
of preaching, building church houses, and even 
the formation of a Christian school. It was 
under the leadership of Rev. Carl Frederick 
Wilhelm Walther that the foundations for a 
college were laid at Altenberg. This college 
had only a one-story log building at first, but 
the school was opened and conducted within 
it and continued until the year 1849. Up to 
this time it was the sole property of the col- 
ouists of Perry county and was conducted by 
them and supported by their gifts. In this 
year it was transferred to the synod of the 
church and removed to St. Louis; it is now 
known as Concordia Seminary. In 1839 the 
college erected a parsonage and in 1841 a 
school house, in addition to the college. This 
school employed one teacher, H. F. "Winter for 
more than twenty-five years. In 1844 the col- 
ony erected a stone church, building which is 
still standing. 

Two incidents which occurred in the history 
of this colony disturbed the work of the 
church. One of these was the great attack of 
cholera in 1849. The pastor of the church. 
Rev. Mr. Loeber, remained and cared for 
those who were sick and those who died, until 
he, too. fell a victim on August 19, 1844. The 
other disturliing incident was a discussion 
over doctrinal matters which took place in 
1856. The pastor of the church G. A. Sehief- 
erdecker, was dismissed from his post and on 
his refusal to vacate the parsonage, was sued 



by the church and compelled, by law, to give 
to give up the place. 

The Evangelical Lutheran church in Cape 
Girardeau dates its origin to the year 1854. 
In that year the church was constituted with 
eight members, among them being: Caspar 
and Louis Roth, Ernst Mantz, Charles Does- 
selman and Anthony Schrader. They adopted 
the constitution of the church on June 1, 
1854, and in 1855 began the erection of the 
first building. It was of brick and very 
small. 

The man who was instrumental in found- 
ing this church, and who was its first pastor, 
was the Rev. A. Lehman, who was succeeded 
in 1856 by Ernst Harms. He was pastor of 
the church until August, 1859, and for the 
next nine years, the Rev. Mr. Riedel was in 
charge. 

During this period other churches of this 
denomination were organized at various 
places in Southeast Missouri, most of them, 
however, in or near Cape Girardeau. One 
of these was Trinity church at Dissen, in 
Apple Creek township. Its organization was 
made in the year 1848 with these members: 
Fred Leeving, Louis Kaiser, Edward Engel- 
man, Gottlieb Krause, Henry Grossheider, 
John Beck, Caspar Klaus and Henry Wehn- 
miller. The pastor of the church was F. J. 
Blitz. The congregation erected a log build- 
ing for church purposes and used it until 
during the Civil war. The successors of Rev. 
Blitz as pastor were: F. Reidel, G. Gniber. 
F. AV. and John H. Harmening. 

There was also a church organized about 
1860 at Kurreville. In Randol township, 
Cape Girardeau county, a church was organ- 
ized at Hanover in 1852. They immediately 
erected a frame building which was used by 
the church for many years. The first pastor 
of this church was Daniel Bertling. In 1857 



\ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



481 



a church was organized at New Wells, by A. 
Schieferdecker. The principal members of 
the church at that time were : Joseph Meyer, 
6. Starzinger and M. Koessel. Zion Luth- 
eran church was organized in 1857 at Gravel- 
ton. The first pastor of the church was Rev. 
John R. Moser, who served until 1870. 
There were about twenty-five members of the 
church at the time of its organization, and 
it became one of the largest and most pros- 
perous churches of its denomination in this 
part of the state. In 1850 a church was or- 
ganized in Kelso township, Scott county, and 
named Eisleben church. The men instru- 
mental in this organization were : David Roth 
and Daniel Raubel. 

In 1887 Rev. J. F. Kostering became the 
pastor at Altenburg, and was succeeded by 
Rev. A. G. Grimm. There was also organ- 
ized a congregation at Frohna and at Union- 
town and Perryville. The latter was organ- 
ized in 1867 by Rev. Mr. Besel. This church 
erected a school building and also a church. 
The first regular pastor was Rev. C. H. 
Demetrio, who was called in 1869. He was 
succeeded by Rev. Wm. Matthes. This 
church has a good brick building and a brick 
schoolhouse. 

The Lutheran church of Ste. Genevieve 
was incorporated by the circuit court on i\Iay 
11. 1867. The petitionei-s were Christian 
Lueke. Henry Wilder, Phillip Medast, 
Charles Weiss, F. C. Fertner, August 
Wilder, Wiliam Mavoss and F. A. Klein. In 
1875 a brick building was erected and a 
school since that time. 

The church at Farmington, known as St. 
Paul's, was organized in 1874 by Rev. C. F. 
Oberraeyer. The first house of worship was 
a small frame structure, erected the same 
year. 

About 1859 the church was organized at 



Iron ilountain, and at a somewhat later date 
the congregation at Pilot Knob. 

Trinity church at Egypt Mills was dedi- 
cated in 1881 by H. Guemmer. 

A church was organized at Tilsit in 1866 
and called Emmanuel. Rev. G. A. Muller 
was the first pastor. There were about 15 
members. 

Zion Evangelical Lutheran church was or- 
ganized at Gravelton in 1857 by Rev. John 
R. Moser, with a membership of 25. Two of 
the prominent members of the church at this 
time were Judge Law Cloninger and Maj. 
M. N. Abernathy. The second pastor of the 
church was Rev. P. C. Henkel. He was suc- 
ceeded by L. M. Wagner. A fine church edi- 
fice was erected in 1878, and a parsonage, 
near the church, in 1885. Under the leader- 
ship of Pastor Wagner a school, known as 
Concordia, was established and is still con- 
ducted. 

At the present time there are church or- 
ganizations at Festus. Ste. Genevieve, Pop- 
lar Bluff, Bismarck, Pilot Knob, Pocahontas, 
Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Gordonville, 
Farmington, Altenburg, Perryville and 
Kimmswick. Jlost of these organizations 
are in a fiourishing condition and this de- 
nomination is making progress in Southeast 
Missouri. 

Episcopal 

In 1887 there were only three Protestant 
Episcopal churches in Southeast Missouri — 
at Cape Girardeau, Ironton and De Soto. 
The first Episcopal minister who came to the 
southeast was Rev. Thos. Horrell, who came 
from Maryland to Cape Girardeau county in 
1818. There was no church organization at 
that time, but he held services at different 
houses and baptized a number of people. He 
resided in Cape Girardeau county for only 



482 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



a short time and then went to St. Louis. In 
1876, George Moore, a native of New York, 
located at Cape Girardeau, and through his 
influence a house of worship was built at the 
corner of Fountain and Themis streets. It 
was a brick structure and cost about $3,000. 
He became the first rector of the church and 
was succeeded by Rev. T. F. C. James, who 
was installed in 1882. The present rector is 
the Rev. C. F. Maltus. 

The church at De Soto was organized in 
1865. St. Paul's church was organized at 
Ironton as a mission in 1869, when Judge 
John W. Emei-son was warden, and there 
were only two communicants, Mrs. IMark- 
ham and her daughter. In 1887 the mem- 
bei-ship of the church had grown to 39, and 
a neat frame building was erected, costing 
about $600. 

In 1890 Grace Episcopal church was or- 
ganized in Crystal City. The Pittsburgh 
Plate Glass Company donated about three 
acres of ground to the church and upon this 
site was erected a handsome brick structure. 
It is open for use by all denominations. It 
is maintained principally by the Plate Glass 
Company, and is one of the most beautiful 
spots in Southeast Missouri. 

At the present time there are organiza- 
tions at De Soto, Cape Girardeau, Crystal 
City and Ironton. 

Congregational 

The first Congregational church in South- 
east Missouri was organized at Arcadia 
about 1840. After an existence of a few 
years, however, the members adopted the 
Presbyterian confession of faith and became 
connected mth the Potosi Presbytery of that 
church. The next organization was that at 
De Soto. Later churches were formed at 
Bonne Terre and Grandin. These are the 



only organization within this territory. The 
church at Bonne Terre has recently erected 
a beautiful and commodious building. It 
stands in the center of a large plot of ground, 
very attractively laid out in trees and flow- 
ers. The building itself is of brick and fol- 
lows the English style of architecture. It 
presents a pleasing contrast to the usual 
fonns of church buildings. 

German Evangelical 

The history of the German Evangelical 
church in Southeast Missouri began in 1836. 
At that date a number of families from 
Switzerland made their homes near Rod- 
ney's Mill, in Cape Girardeau county. Two 
members of this Swiss colony, Benedict Mul- 
lett and Benedict Schneider, bought a mill, 
while the others were engaged, principally 
in farming. They were devout people and 
kept up religious services in the absence of 
any regularly organized church or of a pas- 
toi". For a number of years they were accus- 
tomed to meet at private residences to hold 
these informal services. The first pastor was 
called, and the church organized about 1847. 
The pastor was the Rev. J. Koebler. In 1851 
they built and dedicated a small log house 
for church purposes. This was the only or- 
ganization of the Evangelical church in this 
part of the state before the war. 

The church at Jackson was organized in 
May, 1867, with 28 members and the follow- 
ing trustees: Charles Hohrenberg, Jacob 
Frederick, Adam Hoffman and Hermann 
Geyerd. F. Kies was the first pastor. The 
church fell into difSculties owing to a debt 
on the building and certain internal dissen- 
sions, and no regular pastor was employed 
for about fifteen years. In 1886 a reorgani- 
zation was made and since that time the 
church has continued its work. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



483 



At present there are organizations at 
Cape Girardeau, De Soto, Allenville, Al- 
theim. Dexter, Dutchtown, Jackson and Til- 
sit. 

German Methodists 

The first organization of German IMeth- 
odists in Southeast Missouri was probably 
the church at Gordonville, which was organ- 
ized in 1848. In the same year Apple Creek 
chapel was made a mission and was attached 
to the congregation which was formed about 
six miles southwest of Jackson. The original 
officers of the church at Gordonville were : 
Phillip Ruhl, presiding elder; Christian Bar- 
tels, Frederick Schleuter, August Gunther, 
Conrad Boettler and Henry Doris, stewards; 
and John Antonsen, Dietrich Erase and 
Henry Doris, trustees. The officers of the 
church in the early times were Charles Holl- 
man, Frank Horstraan, Jacob Mueller, 
Thomas Hoyer, Christopher Hoech and 
Henry Schultze. The first building for this 
congregation was a simple frame house 
erected in 1849. It served the purposes of 
the church until it was replaced by a brick 
l)uilding in 1875. The original members of 
Apple Creek church were : AA^'illiam Schultze 
and wife, Heinrich Tuschoff and wife and 
Ileinrich Westmeir and wife. William 
Schultze was the local minister, and Tus- 
ehoff was the steward and superintendent of 
Sunday school. The i^astors of this church 
were : Charles Hollman, 1849 ; Frank Horts- 
man, 1851; Jacob Mueller, 1853; Theodore 
Heyer, 1854; C. Hoech. 1856; Henry 
Schulze, 1860. The first house of worship 
erected by the congregation was a small 
frame building which is still standing. It 
was dedicated by Rev. Jacob ^lueller. This 
church was continued as a mission until 



1863, when a parsonage was erected and the 
mission became a circuit. 

Later a church was organized at White- 
water. The church at Cape Girardeau is 
perhaps the largest of these organizations in 
Southeast Missouri. It has a good brick build- 
ing and is a flourishing and influential body. 
It was organized as a mission in 1867 and 
connected with Apple Creek until it was made 
a station in 1884. 

The German Methodist church at De Soto 
was organized in 1851 by Rev. John G. Kost. 

Pkesbyteruns 

The Presbytery of Missouri was formed by 
the Synod of Tennessee and held its first 
meeting at St. Louis on December 18, 1817. 
It then included all the territory in the 
United States west of the meridian passing 
through the mouth of the Cumberland river, 
the only ministers in the Presbytery being 
Solomon Giddings, Timothy Flint, Thomas 
Donnell and J. W. Mathews. In 1831 the 
Synod of Illinois was formed and the Pres- 
bytery of Slissouri was divided into three 
Presbyteries, St. Louis, Missouri and St. 
Charles. The next year the Synod of Mis- 
souri was formed and held its first meeting 
at St. Louis on the second Thursday in Oc- 
tober, 1832 ; there were forty churches in 
the organization and eighteen ministers. In 
1837 the general assembly of the Presbyterian 
church passed what was Icnown as the Exci- 
sion Act, severing all ecclesiastic relations with 
several sj'nods and causing the organization, 
in 1838, of what was popularly known as the 
New School General Assembly. This act led 
to a division of s\Tiods and Presbyterian 
churches throughout the United States. In 
1839 the Presbytery in Missouri divided also; 
on flie division of the St. Louis Presbytery 



484 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



each faction should retain the original name. 
At its meeting in 1843 the Synod of Missouri 
(Old School) passed a resolution allowing the 
organization of the Presbytery of Potosi. 

Southeast Missouri Presbyterian 
Churches 

At a meeting of the Synod of Missouri in 
St. Louis, October 23, 1843, it was ordered 
that the churches in Southeast Missouri 
should be organized into a Presbytery called 
the Presbytery of Potosi. The meeting for 
the purpose of effecting this organization was 
held in the Presbyterian church in Farming- 
ton April 2, 1844. The assembly was called 
to order in the old brick church building 
which afterward became the property of the 
Disciples or Christians. The opening sermon 
was preached by Rev. John T. Cowan and 
after the sermon the organization was per- 
fected. There were three ministers present, 
John F. Cowan, D. E. Y. Rice, and James M. 
Covington. There was only one other minister 
within the bounds of the Presbytery, Jolin 
McLean. The elders present were John Mc- 
Neely, of the 1st Apple Creek church, Peter 
Statler of Whitewater church, Seth Hall of 
the 2nd Apple Creek church, Robert Sloan of 
Bellevue and Potosi, John D. Peers of Farm- 
ington, William Patterson of Clark's Creek, 
and Peter Whittenberg of Steelville. The 
churches not represented were Brazeau, 
Pleasant HiU, Jackson and Castor, making 
a total within the bounds of the Presbytery 
of five ministers and twelve churches. It will 
be noticed that the Presbytery was somewhat 
larger than the territory of Southeast Mis- 
souri, as we have defined it, for it included 
thirty-three counties in this part of the state. 
During the first ten years following the or- 
ganization of the Presbytery the ministers 
received were as follows: In 1845, Amos H. 



Rogers, who had charge of the Farmiugton 
church; Asael Muuson, who was received in 
June, 1845, and for 23 years was in charge 
of the 1st Apple Creek church, afterward 
becoming a member of the St. Louis Presby- 
teiy, but returning to Potosi Presbytery in 
April, 1870, where he supplied the Potosi and 
Irondale churches until his death in 1876; 
J. T. Paxton, who was received into the Pres- 
bytery in April, 1853, and supplied the church 
of Farmiugton ; A. A. Mathis, on the same 
date, and was supply at Bellevue and after- 
ward pastor at Brazeau ; John McLean, one of 
the ministers of the Presbytery was a member 
for five years, but during that time was not 
in charge of any church. 

During these ten years two new churches 
were organized, one at Cape Girardeau and 
one at Benton in 1852. During the same 
period Jackson, Castor and the 2nd Apple 
Creek churches were dissolved, so that at the 
close of the first decade there were five min- 
isters and eleven churches. 

Presbyterianism in 1854-64 

During the second decade, extending from 

1854 to 1864, there were a number of changes 
in the ministry of the church. The Rev. D. 

E. Y. Rice died in 1854; he had been a mem- 
ber of the Presbytery for more than ten 
years and served as a stated clerk, was pastor 
at Pleasant Hill and Cape Girardeau and, 
as we have seen, was president of the Wash- 
ington Female Academy. In 1854, Rev. John 

F. Cowan was dismissed from the Presbytery 
after a service of more than 20 years. In 

1855 J. H. Moore was ordained as a minister 
and supplied Brazeau for a number of years. 
At the same time J. G. Wells was ordained 
and was made principal of Pleasant Hill 
Academy. W. F. P. Noble was also made a 
minister, but seems to have had no charge ; 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



485 



Julius Spencer was ordained in 1863 and re- 
mained in the Presbytery until 1869, supply- 
ing Bellevue and Potosi churches, and later 
establishing an academy at Irondale. From 
other Presbyteries, there were received 
Thomas C. Smith for the Farmington church, 
L. P. Rowland for Clark's Creek church, and 
also as a missionary, Francis Patton for Cape 
Girardeau church; H. F. L. Laird for Potosi 
church, G. C. Cannon for Bellevue and Po- 
tosi churches; John Donaldson for the 1st 
church at Ironton; David E. Curtis for Farm- 
ington and New Jladrid, and D. A. Wilson 
for Potosi and Ironton. 

During this period there were a number 
of changes in church organizations. The Ar- 
cadia Congregational church having adopted 
the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, was 
received in April, 1856, and the name was 
changed to the First Presbyterian church of 
Ironton. In 1857 the churches at New Madrid 
and Bloomfield, which had been organized 
by Rev. L. P. Rowland, were enrolled. 

One of the strong and influential advan- 
tages of the work of the church during this 
period was its educational interests. The 
academy at Pleasant Hill under the direc- 
tion of Rev. M. M. Fisher and later of Rev. 
J. G. "Wells, seems to have exerted a consid- 
erable influence on the course of church mat- 
ters and to have developed a number of min- 
isters for the church. At the close of this 
decade within the Presbytery there were seven 
ministers and sixteen churches, which shows a 
growth, though but a slow growth during the 
period. 

1864-74 

The third decade, from 1864 to 1874. also 
saw a number of changes in the churches. 
Foi;r men were ordained as evangelists, C. 
W. Alexander in October, 1867, who served 



as supply of the First Apple Creek church 
and Brazeau church for 13 years; W. B. Y. 
Wilkie, who was ordained in April, 1876, and 
for three years was supply to New Madrid 
and Sikeston churches; O. W. Gause was or- 
dained July 9, 1871, and was at first the 
supply at Jackson and Pleasant Hill 
cliurches and later the pastor of Cape Girar- 
deau church, and William McCarty was or- 
dained the same day, July 9, 1871, and served 
first as an evangelist and preached also at 
Jackson, New Madrid, and Sikeston, and also 
supplied for the churches at Lakeville and 
Clarkton. Later he supplied at the First 
Apple Creek church and Brazeau and still 
later of Potosi, Irondale and South Bellevue. 

Besides ministers ordained there were re- 
reived from other Presbyteries George W. 
Harlan, who was received in October, 1865, 
and served as supply at Farmington, Clark's 
Creek and Syenite ; Thomas C. Barret, who 
was received in October, 1866, and was sup- 
ply of Bellevue and South Bellevue churches 
and later of Cape Girardeau ; John Branch 
was received in January. 1868, but had no 
regular assignment; W. W. Faris, received 
in 1870, served one year as pastor of the 
Cape Girardeau church. 

During this period the following changes 
in church organization were made: In May, 
1864, the church at Jackson was reorganized 
by Rev. A. Munson with 18 members; the 
church at Irondale was organized in August, 
1868, by a committee consisting of Rev. 
George W. Harlan and Rev. T. C. Barrett 
and Elder John Adams: there were 10 raem- 
liers in this church in 1867, Robert Sloam and 
John A. McCormiek being elders; the South 
Bellevue church was organized in December, 
1 869 ; the Sikeston in July, 1870 ; the Charles- 
ton in 1871 ; the Clarkton church in 1872, and 
the Lakeville church in 1873. During the 



486 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



same period the Benton and Bloomfield 
elmrehes were dissolved because they were in 
a disorganized state; the Whitewater church 
was dropped from the roll because it was 
withdrawn from connection with the church 
organizations and had become affiliated with 
the Northern Presbyterian church. 

Jast as is true in the history of every other 
church organization in the state, the Civil war 
period was an exceedingly trying one. Not 
only were buildings burned and many mem- 
bers of the congregation killed and their 
property destroyed so that the organizations 
were themselves almost destroyed, the bitter 
feelings engendered by the war and the con- 
test from slavery made themselves felt in the 
conference, synod and associations of various 
church bodies. 

The troubles in the Presbyterian church be- 
cam'i acute at the meeting of the general as- 
sembly in 1861 and were intensified by tht 
adoption of a resolution known as the Ipso 
Facto Order, in 1866. This Ipso Facto Order 
summoned the signers of a certain declaration 
and testimony which had been presented to 
the general assembly as a protest against 
certain of its members to appear before the 
assembly of 1867 and answer for their con- 
duct in signing this declaration. It was also 
part of this order that such persons were for- 
bidden to sit in any court higher than the 
session and enjoined all Presbyterians to look 
out for this order and not to enroll any such 
persons as members of their respective courts 
under penalty of immediate dissolution. 

When the Potosi Presbytery met in 1868, 
Rev. John Branch introduced a resolution 
that only such delegates as avow their adher- 
ence to the general assembly be permitted to 
take seats as members of the Potosi Presby- 
tery. This resolution was promptly rejected. 



whereupon Rev. John Branch and Rev. Julius 
Spencer gave notice that the^ withdrew from 
the jurisdiction of the Presbytery. 

Prior to this meeting of the Potosi Pres- 
bytery the Synod of Missouri had divided, 
owing to an attempt to carry out this Ipso 
Facto order, the division having been made in 
October, 1866. The niinority of the Potosi 
Presbytery, after the withdrawal of Branch 
and Spencer, sent a memorial to the synod in 
which they expressed their adherence to the 
assembly of the church and they secured 
from the synod an order for the meeting of 
the Potosi Presbytery in Ironton April, 1869. 
This order of the synod was in violation of 
the arrangements made by the Presbytery 
itself at a stated meeting appointed by the 
Presbytery in Farmington September, 1868, 
and was to be held in the First Apple Creek 
church in April, 1869. 

Division in Presbytery 

This, then, affected a division of the Pres- 
bytery ; the majority of the members retained 
the records and met in the First Apple Creek 
church on the 22nd of April; the meeting 
was composed of three members and represen- 
tatives of thirteen churches; the minority 
met in the First church at Ironton on the 
same date and there were present five min- 
isters and representatives of four churches. 

There were thus two bodies, each claiming 
to be the Potosi Presbytery. One of them, 
which we have called the majority, was inde- 
pendent for three years, not being represented 
in any of the synods of the church. In 1872, 
however, when it seemed that the division 
could not be cured, the majority connected 
itself with the Independent Old School Synod 
of Missouri. This synod, as its name indi- 
cates, was at the time occupying a neutral 
position, not being attached either to the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



487 



Presbyterian church of the North or of the 
South, and it was the hope of this association 
who were guilding the destinies of the synod, 
that a connection between the two divisions of 
the church might be effected. Abandoning 
this hope, however, at a meeting of the Potosi 
Presbytery in Jackson in April, 1874, it was 
determined to send commissioners to the gen- 
eral assembly of the Presbyterian church in 
the United States, commonly known as the 
Southern Presbyterian church. The commis- 
sioners chosen at the meeting were Rev. T. C. 
Barret and Elder E. Virgil Conway. The 
meeting of the assembly was held at Colum- 
bus, Mississippi, and the commissioners from 
Potosi Presbytery were received and the con- 
nection established between the bodies. 

At the beginning of the fourth decade of 
the history of the Potosi Presbytery in April, 
1874, there were on its roll six merabei's and 
seventeen churches. The ministers were: 
A. Munson, George W. Harlan, T. C. Barret, 
C. W. Alexander, William McCarty and An- 
drew W. Gause. The churches were: Belle- 
vue, Potosi, Farmington, Brazeau, First Apple 
Creek, Clark's Creek, Pleasant Hill, First 
Ironton, Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, First 
Jackson, Iroudale, South Bellevue, Charleston, 
Sikeston, Lakeville and Clarkton. Two of 
these churches, however, those of Ironton and 
Pleasant Hill, though they were on the roll, 
were no longer regarded as a part of the 
Presbytery since they had attached them- 
selves to the Northern Assembly and were 
dropped from the roll in October, 1874. 

During this period of the church the min- 
isters received and ordained were these: J. 
V. Worsham, ordained November 12, 1874. 
He preached at Clarkton and New Madrid 
and was siipply at Apple Creek and Brazeaii 
and was later the general evangelist of the 
Presbytery. A. W. Milster, who became con- 



nected with the Presbytery in Jime, 1876, and 
served as supply at Bellevue and South Belle- 
vue churches, was later pastor at Bellevue; 
John M. Rhea, also received in June, 1876, 
was for a time supply at New Madrid church ; 
Robert Morrison, preached at Potosi and 
Irondale, was received in April, 1877; Uncas 
McCluer, who was received in September, 
1877, preached at New Madrid, Clark's Creek, 
Clarkton and other points; John B. Rubey 
received April, 1878, and supplied a number 
of churches; William M. Stratton, received 
in 1881, and served as supply at Potosi and 
Irondale ; Jcseph A. Graves, received in April, 
1881, and preached as supply at Cape Gir- 
ardeau, New Madrid and Clarkton ; Weisel 
Beale ordained in September, 1881, was pas- 
tor at Apple Creek and supply at Brazeau, 
New Madrid, Clarkton, Kennett, Jackson 
and Oak Ridge ; James H. Creighton, received 
m September, 1882, preached at Farmington 
for six years ; J. W. Roseborough, received in 
September, 1882, and supplied at Cape Gir- 
ardeau and Pleasant Hill ; John Brown, re- 
ceived in April, 1883, but had no regular 
work ; Horace B. Barks, received in April, 
1884, and preached as supply at Bellevue and 
South Bellevue. 

Only one church was organized during this 
period, that of Watervalley in August, 1879. 
In April, 1878, the churches at Lakeville and 
Sikeston were disbanded and Charleston 
church was disbanded in March, 1882, leav- 
ing on the roll seven ministers and thirteen 
churches. 

Decade from 1884 to 1894 

During the decade which extended from 
1884 to 1894, the changes in the ministers of 
the church were as follows : James V. Wor- 
sham was received in September, 1884, and 
supplied at Brazeau and Apple Creek for 



488 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



three years and was also evangelist for a 
time; Henry C. Brown, received in Septem- 
ber, 1885, was supply at Bellevue and South 
Bellevue churches for one j'ear; Samuel W. 
Mitchell, received in September, 1885, and 
served as supply at Jackson, Apple Creek, 
Potosi, Irondale; Eber G. Mathews was sup- 
ply at Cape Girardeau for one year ; A. W. 
Wlison, received October, 1886, was presi- 
dent of Elmwood seminary six years and was 
supply of Doe Rim church for two years ; J. 
L. Leonard, received May, 1887, and supplied 
Bellevue and South Bellevue churches ; Josiah 
F. Curtis, received April, 1888, was supply 
at New Madrid church four years ; Samuel T. 
Ruffner, received in August, 1888. supplied at 
Farmington church, and "W. T. Howison. re- 
ceived April. 1889. was pastor of Potosi and 
Irondale and supply of Bismarck and South 
Bellevue ; William Flynn, D. D., received 
April, 1889, and was for a time suppl.y of 
Cape Girardeau church; John W. Primrose, 
D. D., received in January, 1891, and served 
as evangelist for nearly three years ; W. W. 
Killough, i-eeeived in April, 1891, and served 
as supply at Apple Creek. Pleasant Hill and 
Brazeau church for a number of years ; S. Ad- 
dison MeElroy, received in September, 1891, 
was pastor of the church at Cape Girardeau 
until 1898 ; Weisel Beale, received in April, 
1891, and for five years supplied Apple Creek 
and Jackson churches; John E. L. Winecoff 
received September, 1891. and was .supply for 
churches at Clarkton and Kennett; M. D. W. 
Granger, received October 13, 1892, was for 
several years supply at Bellevue and South 
Bellevue churches; J. D. Fleming, ordained 
in November, 1893, and made pastor of New 
Madrid church. 



History Since 1894 

In 1904 the reports made to the Presbytery 
show that there were then twelve ministers 
and twenty-four churches in its territory. In 
1912 the ministers within the Presbytery were 
George W. Harlan, stated clerk of the Pres- 
bytery, Josiah F. Curtis, M. H. Kerr, pastor 
of Potosi, F. L. Delaney, stated supply at 
Maiden and at Clarkton, F. E. Flow, pastor 
at Kennett, J. D. Harley, pastor at Charles- 
ton, William C. Beattie, stated supply at 
Brazeau and First Apple Creek, J. R. C. 
Brown, J. F. Curtis, C. E. Hicock, pastors at 
Farmington, W. W. Killough, pastor at Pleas- 
ant Hill and Perryville and stated supply at 
Oak Ridge, J. F. Lawson, pastor at Cape Gir- 
ardeau, Lynn F. Ross, pastor at Jackson, New- 
ton Smith, pastor at Caledonia, Bellevue and 
Ironton and stated supply at Bellgrade, 
Thomas H. Watkins, pastor at Caruthers- 
ville, and James V. Wor.sham, stated supply 
at Ste. Genevieve. 

The first Presbyterian church which was 
organized in Missouri was at Bellevue, in 
what is now Iron county. The church was 
constituted by Rev. Salmon Giddings on 
August 3rd, 1816. It was called at that time, 
Concord church. There were thirty members 
in the organization and the elders were Will- 
iam Sloan, Robert M. Stephenson and Jo.seph 
McCormick. It is not only the oldest church 
in the state, but was for a number of years a 
most pi'osperous one. In 1844 it had a total 
of 175 members ; fifty years later, in 1894, it 
had ninety members. 

Brazeau church was organized in what is 
now Perry county, September 12, 1819, by 
Rev. David Tenney with 20 members. It was 
reorganized in July, 1890, with 62 members, 
and in 1894 it had 100 members. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



489 



The First church of Apple Creek was or- 
ganized by Rev. Sahnon Giddings, May 20th, 
1821, with 41 members. The ruling elders 
were Mitchel Fleming, John Gilliland and 
Oliver Harris. Its membership had grown to 
92 in April, 1844 ; in 1894 it had 85 members. 

Farmington church was organized May IS, 
1832, by Rev. Joseph Sadd and Rev. Thomas 
Donnell with seven members; Alexander 
Boyd was the elder of the church. In April, 
1844, this church had 89 members and its 
elders were John D. Peers, IMilton P. Ca3'ee 
and Newton F. Cayee. In 1844 this church 
had 160 members. 

Rev. Mr. Sadd continued as minister of the 
church imtil April. 1835, when he removed to 
Scott county. His successors were Thomas 
Donnell, Luther Vandoren, James M. Coving- 
ton, who filled the pulpit of the church imtil 
1844; among the other men who have been 
pastors were Rev. Amos H. Rogers, Rev. 
James T. Paxton, Rev. David E. Curtis, Rev. 
George W. Harlan, Rev. James A. Creighton 
and Rev. Mr. Ruffner. The first house of 
wor.ship built by the Farmington church was 
dedicated in 1836 and was rebuilt and reded- 
icated in 1868 ; this house was sold to the 
Christian congregation and a new house built, 
which is .still occupied. 

The Presbyterian church at Cape Girar- 
deau is dated by some of the church author- 
ities, in 185], but it seems that there was an 
organization formed at a much earlier date. 
In 1835 the Rev. J. F. Cowan, who was the 
pastor at Apple Creek church, visited Cape 
Girardeau and gathered together eight mem- 
bers whom he constituted into a church. It 
was made a part of the Presbytery of St. 
Louis. It is not possible to give the names 
of the members, except that it is known that 
Charles Welling, afterward a member of the 
church at Jackson, was one of the early mem- 



bers and a Captain Dutch and familj' were 
also members. It is doubtful whether the 
organization ever succeeded in accomplishing 
an.ything, for there was preaching only at in- 
tervals by pastors of other churches and at a 
meeting of the Presbytery at Brazeau in 
Perry county in May, 1839, the Cape Girar- 
deau church was struck from the list, its offi- 
cers and members having moved away. In 
August, 1842, Rev. Robert G. Barret, then 
pastor at Apple Creek, visited Cape Girar- 
deau and preached to a good congregation. 
He says that at that time the population of 
the town was about 400; that there were only 
two church houses in existence, one of them 
owned by the Baptists and the other by the 
Catholics. The Methodists had an organiza- 
tion in the to\\'n, but no church building. 
Rev. Mr. Barret reported that he found only 
one Presbyterian in the town, a woman. 

The Potosi Presbytery met at "Whitewater 
in April of 1850 and appointed a committee 
composed of D. E. Y. Rice, A. Munson and 
Elder A. Caldwell to organize the Cape Gir- 
ardeau church. This organization was per- 
fected and the church was received into the 
Presbytery August 31, 1850. The first pas- 
tor of the charge was Rev. D. E. Y. Rice, 
who served from 1850 to 1854. During his 
term as pastor of the church he was also 
president of the Washington Female acad- 
emy, which he established and conducted in 
Cape Girardeau. The church went through 
the usual vicissitudes, being reorganized in 
1855, at which time there were 18 members, 
the elder of the church being A. Flynn. For 
a time it was without a pastor, but from 
1857 to 1859 it was served by the Rev. F. 
Patton. After his resignation two or three 
different ministers spent a few months in 
the service of the church, biit on the break- 
ing out of the war the organized work prac- 



490 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tically ceased for a time. Some of the ser- 
mons during that period were preached by 
the Rev. A. Miuison, of Apple Creek church. 
In 1868, the church was visited by Evange- 
list W. H. Parks, who served them as a sup- 
ply for several months. In 18C9 Rev. ]\Ir. 
Drake became the pastor, but remained for 
only six months ; during his pastorate, how- 
ever, the church had a constant growth. In 
1870 W. W. Faris was chosen as pastor ; 
from 1873 to 1875 the pastor was 0. W. 
Gause; from 1875 to 1880 T. C. Barret, one 
of the most active and energetic men ever 
connected with the church, was pastor; from 
1881 to 1885 the pastor was J. "W. Roseberge ; 
from 1886 to 1888, Rev. E. G. Mathene; 
from 1899 to 1891, Lellwyn Hixmphreys: 
1901-02, J. L. Allsworth. The church was 
without a pastor for some time and then 
called Rev. Robert S. Brown, who remained, 
however, for only a short pastorate; from 
1905 to 1910, Rev. Adolphus Kistler was 
pastor; he was succeeded by Rev. E. P. Ab- 
bott, who resigned in 1911. 

The fifth church organized in the boiuids 
of Southeast Missouri was Potosi church, 
which was formed July 21, 1832, by Rev. 
Thomas Donnell. There were six members 
in the organization, and Henry Pease was the 
elder. In 1844 it had 49 members and in 
1894, 85 members. 

Pleasant Hill church was formed by a 
group of members from the First Apple Creek 
church and was organized in April, 1841. It 
was first called South Apple Creek church, 
but the name was changed in September of 
the same year. In 1845 it afforded 75 mem- 
bers and in 1894 there were 90 members. 

Clark's Creek church was organized in 
1842 by Rev. James M. Covington. In 1844 
i^ had 15 members, in 1894, 52 members. 

The eighth church in Southeast JMissonri 



was organized at Jackson, February 7, 1843, 
by Rev. Robert G. Barret with seven mem- 
bers ; Dr. Franklin Cannon and James J. 
Gardiner were the elders of the church. In 
April, 1844, there were 11 members. During 
the war this church was disorganized, but 
was reconstituted May 15, 1864, by Rev. A. 
Mtmson. There were at this time eight mem- 
bers, and Charles Welling was the elder. In 
1894 there were 95 members. 

Pleasant Hill church was formed by a col- 
ony from the First Apple Creek church and 
organized in April, 1841; it was at that time 
called the Soiith Apple Creek church, the 
name being afterward changed. The elders 
of the church were Ebenezer Flynn, E. W. 
Harris, E. L. Adams and Elam Harris. For 
a number of years after the Civil war this 
church was connected with the St. Louis Pres- 
bytery from which it was received into Po- 
losi Presbytery in April, 1893. In April, 
1894, it had ninety members and four elders. 
During the period from 1850 to 1860 a very 
flourishing school was taught at Pleasant 
Hill. It was established by the Rev. Mr. Bid- 
ler, with Robert Caldwell as assistant. After 
one year. Professor Andrews assumed the 
management of the institution. He was suc- 
ceeded by J. G. Wells, who remained until 
the beginning of the war. It was through 
liis work that the school grew, as he was a 
very able and successful teacher. 

The pastors of South Apple Creek, or 
Pleasant Hill church, as it is known, were 
J. L. Frary, 1841 to 1843; D. E. Y. Rice, 
1843 to 1851 ; A. Mimson, 1851 to 1865 ; James 
Stafford, 1865 to 1872 ; 0. W. Gauss, 1872-73 ; 
John Branch, ,1873-74; C. W. Alexander, 
1874 to 1878; J. B. Rubey, 1878-79; P. B. 
Keach, 1879 to 1883; J. W. Roseborough, 
1883. 

The New Madrid Presbyterian church was 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



491 



organized September 20, 1856, by Rev. L. P. 
Rowland. The members of the organization 
at that time were Thomas L. Fontaine, Cath- 
erine Davis, David Welschance, Elizabeth 
Welschance, Elizabeth Hatcher, Harriet 
Hatcher and Susan Duncan. At first the 
services were held in the Baptist church, but 
in 1875 a frame church building was erected. 
Among the pastors of the church were W. B. 
T. Wilkie, "William McCarty, Uncas McCluer, 
J. A. Graves, J. H. Rhea, Weisel Beale and 
J. L. Curtis. 

The Presbyterian church at Clarkton wa.s 
organized December 1, 1872, though there 
had been preaching there for many years be- 
fore that time. The church was formed by 
Rev. W. B. T. Wilkie and Rev. William Mc- 
Carty and Elder W. A. Ponder ; the members 
were Z. B. Penney, V. H. Harrison, elders; 
John II. Stokes, Chaiies E. Stokes, Clement 
McDaniel, Mrs. B. D. Austin and ilrs. Lucre- 
tia Stokes; the pastors of the church have 
been J. V. Wor.sham, Uncas McCluer, J. A. 
Graves, J. C. Buchanan and Weisel Beale. A 
church house was constructed in 1875 and 
dedicated April 3, 1882. 

The church at Kennett was organized in 
June, 1887, by Rev. J. W. Roseborough and 
Rev. W. Beale. There were 41 members of 
the original organization, the elders of the 
church being Thomas E. Baldwin, and D. Y. 
Pankey. In 1894 the church had 60 members. 

The Presbyterian church at Oak Ridge was 
organized October 31, 1884, by Rev. W. 
Beale and Rev. J. W. Roseborough. The mem- 
bers of the church were Oliver S. Harris and 
wife, Martha A. McNeely, Julia Hatcher, J. 
M. Bollinger, Elizabeth Bollinger, James C. 
and Mary A. Henderson; J. C. Henderson 
was also the elder of the church. In 1894 
this church had 29 members. 

Watervalley church in WajTie county was 



organized in May, 1879, by Rev. George W. 
Ilarlan and Rev. John B. Rubey and Elder 
Samuel Black. There were 13 members orig- 
inally; John F. Miller was the elder. 

Syenite church was organized in Jime, 
1885, by Rev. George W. Harlan and Rev. 
James A. Creighton and Elder George W. 
Williams with 36 members and four elders. 

Doe Run church was organized April 26, 
1891, by Rev. A. W. Wilson and Rev. S. T. 
Ruffuer and Elder James McCormick, with 
] 1 members ; Dr. F. L. Keith and S. G. Tem- 
pleton were elders. In 1894 the church had 
15 members. 

The church at Bismarck was organized 
April 29, 1891, by Rev. J. W. Primrose with 
13 members; Charles T. Martin and W. 
Scott Dent were the elders. In 1894 this 
church had 15 members. 

Irondale church was organized in August, 
1869, by Rev. George W. Harlan and Rev. T. 
C. Barrett. There were 11 members in the 
organization and Robert Sloan and John A. 
McCormick were the elders. 

Sikeston church was organized in February, 
1894, by Rev. Frank Mitchell, with 11 mem- 
bers, and B. L. Barnes and Thomas R. Bro\vn 
as elders. 

The church at Point Pleasant was organ- 
ized March 18, 1894, by Rev. J. D. Fleming, 
with 11 members; the elders of the organiza- 
tion were James S. Law and Henry Bishop. 

Northern Presbyterians 

When the synod of ilissouri divided in 
1840 a call was issued for a gathei'ing of 
those members of the synod who afterwards 
came to be known as New School Presby- 
terians, this meeting was held in Hannibal, 
October 7, 1841, and arranged for a meeting 
of the synod in St. Louis on April 8, 1842. 



492 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



At this meeting there were present thirteen 
ministers and three elders who represented 
the New School element in the presbytery of 
St. Louis and that of St. Charles. After a 
short time matters were so arranged that 
there were four presbyteries in llissouri, by 
18-45 they were in a flourishing condition. 
This branch of the church, however, was 
hampered very greatlj* in Missouri by the 
opposition of the General Assembly to slav- 
ery. After the resolution passed by the Gen- 
eral Assembly in May, 1857, at its session in 
Cleveland all the churches of the New School 
throughout the South, except those in Mis- 
souri, were separated from the General As- 
sembly of the church. The Synod of Mis- 
souri decided first to stand independent but 
in 1859 it renewed its allegiance to the Gen- 
eral Assembly and was later joined to the 
Synod of Kansas. 

In 1870 the Synod of Missouri, New School, 
and that part of the Synod of ]\Iissouri, Old 
School, which remained in connection with 
the Northern General Assembly united, they 
then created a Presbytery of Potosi which 
they declared to be the legal successor of the 
original presbytery of that name, thus deny- 
ing to the adherents of the Southern Church 
the right to use the name of Potosi Presby- 
tery. The territory of this body was defined 
to include twenty-two counties of Southeast 
^Missouri, and its first meeting was held Sep- 
tember 20, 1870, at Whitewater church in 
Bollinger county ; in 1872 the presbytery had 
six ministers and thirteen churches and 494 
members. 

The oldest church of this presbytery is 
Whitewater in Bollinger county, which was 
organized June 24, 1832, under a tree on the 
banks of Wliitewater river. Its organization 
was the result of the visit of Rev. Joseph M. 
Sadd who had been sent to Missouri in 1830 



by the American Missionary Society. While 
traveling over the country he visited the 
German colony in Bollinger county, most of 
the residents in this vicinity were members 
of the German Reformed church and their pas- 
tor for many years had been the Rev. Samuel 
Whybark who, however, had died shortly be- 
fore the visit of Rev. Mr. Sadd and the con- 
gregation was left without a pastor. As 
there are no great doctrinal differences be- 
tween the German Reform church and the 
Presbyterian church many of the members 
of the Reform went into the new organiza- 
tion ; the names of the members of White- 
water church were Mathias Bollinger, Peter 
Statler, David Conrad, Moses Bollinger, 
Mary Statler, Sally Yount, Polly Bollinger, 
Rebecca Conrad, Sally Statler, Elizalieth 
Bollinger, Peter Ground, Peggy Ground, So- 
phia Whybark, Sophia Yount, Sally Conrad 
and Peggy Bollinger. Mathias Bollinger and 
Peter Statler were ordained as elders of the 
church. At first the congregation met in the 
house of iloses Bollinger and later thej' fitted 
up an old still house for services ; after a time 
a log building was erected and dedicated as 
a church. The pastor, Mr. Sadd, remained 
until 1835 and he was succeeded by Thomas 
Donnell, James M. Covington, Robert G. 
Barret, Amos H. Rodgers, John J. Cowan, 
A. Munson, J. H. Moore, L. P. Rowland, D. 
E. Curtis and A. A. Mathias. These pastors 
bring the record of the church up to 1861. 
There seems to have been no regular services 
held between 1861 and 1867. In the latter 
j'ear Rev. John Branch became pastor and 
served until 1872. Since that time other pas- 
tors have been Rev. Rowland, McCoy, E. P. 
Keach. From this congregation went off 
other churches — one at Bristol, one at Marble 
Hill and a third at Smithville. 

The church at Marble Hill was organized 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



493 



lu 1868. The original inemhers were Levi 
E. Whybark and wife, Samuel W. Whybark 
and wife, J. J. Conrad and wife, Mrs. Mur- 
doek, Kaziali E. Sutherlin and Urriah D. 
Titus. A meeting house was erected by 
them in 1868. 

In 1880 a church was organized at Fred- 
ericktown, and on March 21, 1880, one at 
Poplar Bluff by J. W. Allen of St. Louis. 
The Poplar Bluff congregation erected a 
house of worship in 188-1 at a cost of $2,000. 

The churches of this branch of the Pres- 
byterian church are affiliated with the 
Northern Presbyterian General Assembly. 
Their work has prospered but has hardly 
kept pace with the work of the Southern 
Church. 

Recently an effort has been made to unite 
the Cumberland church — a venerable organ- 
ization with the General Assembly of the 
Northern Church. The great bulk of the 
Cumberland churches were merged with the 
church of the North. Some refused to enter 
the larger organization and out of this at- 
tempted merger came much bitter feeling 
and a number of suits to determine the own- 
ership of church property. Some of the 
Cumberland churches in Southeast ]\Iissouri 
followed the ma.jority of churches of that 
connection into the Northern church but 
others have maintained their sepai'ate exist- 
ence. 

An account is here given of some of the 
Cumberland churches in this part of the 
state. 

Cumberland Presbyterians 

There are a number of Cumberland Pres- 
byterian churches in Southeast ^Missouri. 
The oldest one of these was organized at 
Clarkton in Dunklin county, in 1855 by Rev. 
G. W. Jordan. The members were: Jacob 



Trout and wife, William Pickard and fam- 
ily, Thomas P. Hord and wife, John Agnew 
and family and John Timberman and wife. 
In 1856 the congregation m-ected a meeting 
house of hewn logs and in 1866 they built a 
substantial frame structure which was dedi- 
cated in 1887 by Rev. B. G. Mitchell. 
Among the pastors of this church have been 
G. W. Jordan, J. N. Roberts, E. J. Stockton, 
James .McKnight, Rev. Mr. Cobb and W. W. 
Speuce. This church was for a time known 
as West Prairie church. 

A church was organized at Dexter, March 
21, 1870, under the name of Mount Union 
church, the elders of the organization were 
Abner Warren, John Sitton and D. W. 
Mays. The name of the church was changed 
to Dexter church in 1875 and it was reorgan- 
ized in 1879 with M. P. Riggin and L. 0. 
Glascock as elders 

A church was organized at Maiden in 
Dunklin county, July 10, 1884, by Rev. W. 
W. Spence, who became the pastor of the 
church. There were abovit 20 members in 
the original organization. 

In 1887 a church was organized at Ken- 
nett. 

On November 12, 1858, four ministers, 
James Kincaid, S. Brown, J. W. Jordan and 
W. B. Province and several elders met at 
West Prairie church in Clarkton and organ- 
ized West Prairie Presbytery. The new 
presbytery was under the .jurisdiction of 
McAdoo Synod, which included 9 congrega- 
tions and 360 members. Its territory ex- 
tended into Ar-kansas until in 1877, when 4 
of the churches were dismissed to the White 
River Presbytery and the southrn boiuidary 
of the West Prairie Presbyterj^ was made to 
coincide with the southern boundary of the 
state. In 1888 there were within the pres- 
bytery a total of 21 churches with 641 mem- 



494 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



bers. The churches with their membership 
at that time were as follows : Bloomtield, 17 
Canaan in Dunklin county, 59 ; DeLassus, 6 
Dexter, 54 ; New Providence, 21 ; Doniphan 
97 ; Irondale, 26 ; Maiden, 45 ; Mount Car- 
mel, 18; Patterson, 41; Pleasant Grove, 13; 
New Hope, 33 ; Piedmont, 16 ; Pilgrims Rest, 
24; Union, -f4; West Prairie, 67; Blackwell, 
12 ; Kenuett, 9 ; Kennett Branch, 8 ; Good 
Hope, 10 and Mount Horeb, 21. 

The ministers belonging to the Presbytery 
in the same year were: C. M. Eaton, W. H. 
Cook, W. W. Spence, E. H. White, J. M. 
Birdwell, Henry Ilillman and P. Langford. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian church at 
Clarktou in Dunklin county was organized 
about 1850 and they begun the erection of 
their church house in 1853 and finished it in 
1855. It was built of hewn logs and was 
two stories in height, the second story being 
used for a Masonic hall. The house was 
built before there was a saw mill in the 
county and all the lumber for the doors, the 
floors and the finishing of the house was 
sawed by hand, the seats in the church were 
long benches. In 1883 the congregation 
erected a new frame building at a cost of 
about .$1,600. One of the early pastors of 
the church was Rev. T. S. Love, who preached 
for them during the Civil war. He was suc- 
ceeded by J. H. McKnight, during his pas- 
torate the ehui'ch grew rapidl.y and in 1868 
had a membership of 175. 

It was this congregation which had a pe- 
culiar experience during the war. On a Sun- 
day while they were engaged in worship the 
house was surrounded by a band of guerillas 
whose leader announced to them that they 
did not wish to disturb the congregation but 
that they did want to exchange clothes with 
the men. Resistance M'as out of the question 
so the men left the building and exchanged 



clothing with the guerillas. One young man, 
who was more thoughtful than the rest, saved 
his boots by putting them in the stove in 
which there was no fire, before he left the 
room. The rest of the men had their choice 
of going home barefoot or wearing the worn- 
out shoes discarded by the guerillas. 

Another of the early organizations of this 
church was Canaan organized at Gibson in 
1862. Its first pastor was E. J. Stockton. 
Among its elders and prominent men have 
been M. J. Benson, W. R. and S. T. W^eathers 
and John C.- Agnew. In 1895 this church 
had 110 members and was an active flourish- 
ing body. There is also a Cumberland Pres- 
byterian church at Kennett and one at Mai- 
den. 

ClIRISTI.\NS 

The first church of Disciples, or Christians, 
which, as we have seen, was organized in 1822 
by William McMurtry near the village of Lib- 
ertyville, grew slowly during the years and 
in 1844 erected its first building. This was a 
frame building which was replaced in 1860 
by a brick structure. The pastors of this 
church were : William McMurtry, John C. 
Farmer, Sterling Price, A. G. Lucas, B. F. 
Wilson, T. E. Sheppard and J. G. Dillard. 

About 1825 a church was organized in 
Madison county, three miles east of Freder- 
icktown, called Antioch. Among the early 
members of this church were : George and Ja- 
cob Nifong, Ephraim Potter, Joseph Bennett, 
James Marshall and their families. 

About 1844 a church was organized in the 
New Tennessee settlement in Ste. Genevieve 
county. Among its members were: Richard 
Griffith, J. M. Powell, Valentine Underwood 
and Peter Bloom. 

In 1854 a church was organized at Farm- 
ington through the efforts of Elder S. S. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



495 



CJiurch. This congregation erected a large 
brick building, but it finally passed out of 
their hands, and became the property oi the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 

Rev. Thomas Douthitt reorganized the con- 
gregation in 1875 and it purchased the house 
of worship formerly used by the Methodist 
Episcopal church, South. The church pros- 
pered and now has a handsome and commo- 
dious brick building. 

The Poplar Bluff church was organized in 
1877 through the efforts of Elder E. Chil- 
dress. There were about twenty members in 
the organization but it gradually lost num- 
bers and finally became extinct. Rev. G. A. 
Hoffman reorganized it in 1887, at which 
time there were twenty-two members. It has 
grown very greatly and is now a large and 
powerful organization. 

The Dexter church was founded by Elder 
Thomas Sheppard in 1879. The membership 
was small at first and no hoiise was erected 
until 1883. The congregation is active and 
growing now. 

In 1886 a church was organized at Maiden. 
A good frame building was erected which was 



afterward destroyed by fire caused by light- 
ning. It was replaced with the present com- 
fortable building. About the same year the 
church at Kennett was organized. It has a 
frame building and is actively engaged in 
church work. 

The great gi-owth and expansion of the 
church has been the work of the last thirty 
years. Up to that time the denomination was 
of comparatively small numbers in this part 
of the state, but it has grown to be one of the 
large and influential church organizations. 
It has been found impossible to secure de- 
tailed information concerning the foundation 
of the various congregations or their present 
membership. 

There are many other churches in South- 
east Missouri besides those we have men- 
tioned. There are congregations at Charles- 
ton, East Prairie, Festus, Predericktown, 
Caruthersville, Greenville, Hematite, Marble 
Hill, Morley, Naylor, Marquand, Mine La 
Motte, Higdon's chapel, Bismarck, Knob 
Lick, Bonne Terre, Mill Springs and DeSoto. 
The DeSoto church was founded in 1868. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

RAILROADS 

Beginning of Railroad Agitation — Companies Formed — The First Railroad — St. Louis, 
Iron Mountain & Southern — Cairo & Fulton — Present Condition op the Iron Moun- 
tain — The Cape Girardeau, Pilot Knob & Belmont — The Houck Lines — The 'Frisco 
System — the St. Louis Southwestern — The Illinois & Missouri Bridge Company — Mis- 
sissippi River & Bonne Terre Railroad Company — The Williamsville, Greenville & 
St. Louis Railroad Company — St. Louis, Kennett & Southeastern — The St. Louis & 
Missouri Southern — The Paragould Southeastern — The Illinois Southern — The 
Missouri Southern — The Paragould & Memphis — The Butler County Railroad — The 
St. Francois County Interurban. 



During tliis period of Missouri history tlie 
organization of railroad companies was be- 
gun. Up to this time there had been no par- 
ticular interest in railroad building, but the 
decade extending from 1850 to 1860 was 
tilled with railroad pro.iects of almost every 
conceivable kind. Railroads were projected 
from place to place throughout the state. 
Many companies were organized, most of 
which were without any tangible capital and 
were, therefore, unable to construct rail- 
roads. Southeast Missouri was no exception 
to the situation in the state as a whole. 
There wei'e a great number of railroads pro- 
jected, and but few of them ever built. 

One of these was a company called Mine 
La Motte & Mississippi Railroad, with a cap- 
ital of $300,000.00, for the purpose of build- 
ing a road from ]\Iine La Motte to some 
point on the Mississippi river not lower than 
Pratte's Landing. Another railroad ^vas pro- 
jected from St. Louis to Caledonia, in Wash- 



ington county, by way of Potosi. This com- 
pany had a capital of $2,000,000. Another 
one was to run from Caledonia to Cape 
Girardeau by way of Iron Mountain, Mine 
La Motte and Jackson. It was called the 
Southern Railroad and was capitalized at 
$1,000,000.00. The Southeastern Railroad, 
with a capital of $200,000.00 was projected 
from New Madrid to Commerce, in Scott 
county, and the Washington & Ste. Gene- 
vieve Railroad was planned to be built be- 
tween Washington and Ste. Genevieve. All 
of these mentioned were organized in 1836 
and 1837, but none of the companies pos- 
sessed either money or credit enough to con- 
struct the railroads proposed. 

The first railroad company which actually 
built a railroad in Southeast Missouri was the 
St. Louis & Iron IMoiuitain Railway Com- 
pany. The fir.st work done looking to the 
building of this road in this part of the state 



496 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



497 



was the survey from St. Louis to Irou Jloim- 
tain made in 1852 by J. H. Morley. Tlie 
object of the promoters of this scheme was to 
make available the great quantities of iron 
ore then supposed to be contained in Iron 
]\Ioiuitain. Iron had been mined in consider- 
able quantities in the vicinity of Iron Jloun- 
tain for a number of years. In fact the first 
record we have of the working of iron mines 
in Iron county is prior to 1820, but during 
all of these years the work of digging out the 
ore and developing these mines was very 
greatly handicapped bj' the lack of proper 
transportation facilities. It was necessary 
to transport the ore overland from the mines 
to the river. The ore was carried on horse- 
back or in carts and wagons and the transpor- 
tation cost was very great. It was to provide 
better means for shipping the product of 
these mines that this tirst railroad in South- 
east Missouri was projected. This fir.st sur- 
vey, in 18.52, resulted in very little being 
done. In Januar.y, 1853, there was chosen 
for the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Company 
a board of directors. This board imme- 
diately ordered the making of a new survey 
for the road. After many delays the road 
was finally built as far as Pilot Knob, in 
Iron county. 

The state of Missouri had provided that 
any railroad company in the state might re- 
ceive state aid. This aid was given in the 
form of lands, or in the form of the credit 
of the state itself. The credit of the state 
was loaned to these railroad enterprises 
through the device of guaranteeing the bonds 
of the railroad. A bill which became law, 
provided that the state should grant two 
dollars in bonds for every dollar expended 
by any railroad company, not to exceed .$400,- 
000.00. The Iron Moimtain Railway Com- 



pany received both grants of lands and guar- 
antee of the large amount of its bonds. This, 
however, did not meet the expectation of its 
promoters and they soon fell into financial 
difficulties. The road became unable to pay 
the interest on its bonds, and on September 
22d, 1866, the railroad was sold at public 
auction, and was purchased for the state itself. 
It w-as operated by three commissioners ap- 
pointed by the governor until January 12th, 
1867, when it was again sold, and was pur- 
chased this time by McKay, Simmons & Vogel. 
They later transferred it to the man who more 
than any other was instrumental in providing 
for the people of this section of the state their 
first railroad, Thomas Allen. Under his 
management the road was extended and was 
put upon a paying basis. The first extension 
south was that which came to be known as 
the Belmont branch. This particular line of 
railroad was built from both ends tow-ard the 
middle and it was completed August 14th, 
1869, the last rail being laid in the middle of 
the timnel in Bollinger county. 

On February 9th, 1853, the President of 
the United States approved an act of Con- 
gress which granted to the states of Missouri 
and Arkansas the right of way and lands to 
aid in the construction of the railroad from 
a point on the Mississippi river opposite the 
mouth of the Ohio by way of Little Rock to 
the Texas boundary near Fulton, Arkansas. 
Not only was the right of way granted 
through all government lands, but every 
alternate section of land designated by even 
numbers contained in a strip six miles in 
width on each side of the track was also con- 
veyed. The act carried'with it a proviso that 
it should expire by limitation within ten 
years. 

The people of Southeast Missouri were, 



J. 



498 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



very naturallj', anxious to take advantage of 
this liberal offer of assistance, and accord- 
ingly a meeting was called of the citizens of 
Charleston and such othei-s as might be in- 
tei-ested, to begin work looking to the con- 
struction of the road. This meeting was held 
Jime 9th, 1853, in the court house at Charles- 
ton, and was presided over by Judge Noah 
Handy, as chairman. John C. Thomas was 
secretary. It was determined first of all to 
discover the cosi of constructing the rail- 
road across the swamp along the line of the 
projected road from Cairo to Fulton. George 
"Whitcomb, Harrison Hough, H. M. Molder, 
H. M. Ward, A. M. Bedford, John Byrd and 
Felix Badger were appointed as a committee 
to investigate this cost of construction. It 
was then determined to call together a large 
number of citizens from the southeast and 
alst) from Kentucky and Tennessee, to fur- 
ther consider the possibility of building the 
road. This meeting was held at Benton, 
Missouri, November 14th and 15th, 1853. 
Not much was done at the meeting, further 
than to adojit resolutions advocating the 
building of the Cairo & Pulton road by way 
of Bloomfield, and asking that the St. Louis 
& Iron Moiuitain Railway Company extend 
their road to a crossing with the Cairo & 
Fulton. 

On September 12th, of the same year, the 
Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company had been 
organized in Stoddard county, with John IM. 
Johnson as president. The capital stock of the 
new corporation was fixed at $1,500,000.00, 
divided into 60,000 shares of the par value 
of $25.00 each. The incorporators of this 
railroad did not have the means to build 
it, and it had been provided before the act 
of incorporation to secure from some of the 



interested counties subscriptions to the cap- 
ital stock of the railroad. These subscrip- 
tions were to be paid in land at a value of 
$1.00 per acre. Subscriptions were received 
from the coimties, as follows : 

Stoddard County $150,000 

Butler County 100,000 

Dunklin County 100,000 

Scott County 50,000 

Ripley County 19,500 

Total $419,500 

In accordance with the terms of the agree- 
ment made, the county courts of the counties 
mentioned conveyed to the Cairo & Pulton 
Railroad Company, lands at the value of 
$1.00 an acre to the amounts mentioned. 
This transfer of large bodies of land at a 
minimum price, resulted in very great loss 
to the counties, and in long continued litiga- 
tion. 

A meeting was lield in Charleston in 1853 
to determine whether it was possible to pro- 
ceed to survey the line of the new railroad. 
The meeting asked the county court of Mis- 
sissippi county to provide funds not to ex- 
ceed $500.00, for the purpose of a survey. 
This the county did, but the surve.y was not 
made. The Cairo & Pulton Railroad Com- 
pany had, in the meantime, been incorporated 
by the state of Arkansas, and the chief engi- 
neer, J. S. Williams, had made a survey of 
the road through Arkansas and extended his 
survey through Missouri and reported to the 
legislature of IVIissouri in February, 1855. 
Immediately following this report, the legis- 
lature proceeded to incorporate the Cairo & 
Fulton Railroad Company in Missouri, and 
to pass an act to issue bonds of the state to 
the new company, equal to the amount that 
it had expended, but not to exceed $250,- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



499 



000.00. This bill was vetoed by the gover- 
nor, but was later passed over his veto and 
became a law. 

In 1856 the company elected Orson Bart- 
lett as president, and a new survey of the 
line was made, beginning, this time, at Bird's 
Point. In 1857 new officers were chosen and 
the contracts were let for the grading of the 
road from Bird's Point to Charleston. The 
first actual work was done on October 1st, 
1857. H. J. Deal, who Avas the contractor, 
threw the first shovel of dirt on that date. 
The work of construction proceeded slowly, 
and it was not until April 1st, 1859, that the 
first train reached Charleston. The engine 
on this train had been named Sol. G. Kitchen, 
in honor of Sol. G. Kitchen, of Stoddard 
county, who was one of the men most inter- 
ested and active in securing the road. On 
the 4th of July, 1859, there was held a great 
celebration in honor of the formal opening 
of the road. 

By the beginning of the war, in 1861, there 
were about twenty miles constructed, and at 
that time it fell into the hands of the govern- 
ment and was used for military purposes, 
which resulted in the loss of the greater part 
of the rolling stock. This prevented the road 
from earning even enough to pay the interest 
on the state bonds, which fell into arrears. 
The holders of the bonds caused a sale of the 
road in 1866, which was bought by commis- 
sioners for the state, who later sold the road 
to McKay, Simmons & Vogel, the same per- 
sons M'ho bought the St. Louis & Iron Moun- 
tain. They paid the state the sum of $350,- 
000.00, and then transferred the road to 
Thomas Allen, the president of the Iron 
^Mountain System. It was later extended to 
Poplar Bluff, and was known as the Cairo, 
Arkansas & Texas road. It is still popularly 



called the "Cat Road," the word being 
formed from the initial letters of Cairo, Ar- 
kansas and Texas. It remained a separate 
organization until 1874, when it was con- 
solidated with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain 
& Southern, and was afterward designated as 
the Cairo branch. 

For many years the Iron Moimtain System 
was the only great system in Southeast Mis- 
souri. In fact, for years it was the only sys- 
tem. After the war, when the road came 
into the possession of Mr. Thomas Allen it 
entered upon a period of prosperity and ex- 
pansion. When the war closed the road ex- 
tended only as far south as Pilot Knob in 
Iron county. Shortly after Mr. Allen's pur- 
chase of the road in January 1867, it was 
transferred to a corporation known as the 
St. Louis & Iron IMouiitain Railroad Com- 
pany. This company was formed by Mr. 
Allen and his associates and was incorporated 
July 26, 1867. Mr. Allen was made its presi- 
dent, a position he held for many years. 

This company proceeded to construct a 
line from Pilot Knob to Belmont, a distance 
of 120 miles. This line opened up the coun- 
ties of St. Francois, Madison, Bollinger, 
Scott and Mississippi. The principal towns 
along it were Farmington, two and one-half 
miles distant, Fredericktown, Oran, Moi'ley 
and Charleston. 

Between 1870 and 1874, the company con- 
structed a branch called the Arkansas branch 
from Bismark to the Arkansas line at 
Moak, a distance of 184 miles. This road 
passed through Iron, WajTie and Butler 
counties, the principal towns springing up 
along it, being Ironton, Piedmont, Williams- 
ville and Poplar Bluff. 

In 1872, Thomas Allen conveyed to the 
St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Com- 
pany the property of the Cairo, Arkansas & 



500 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Texas Railroad Company, which consisted of 
a line from Cairo to Sikeston. The company 
then proceeded to rebuild this line and ex- 
tend it to Poplar Bluff, a distance of 70 
miles. 

Acting under the charter granted to the 
Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company and ac- 
quired by the Iron Mountain, the latter com- 
pany constructed a line from Moak through 
Arkansas to the Texas line at Fulton, Ark. 
These two companies were consolidated 
under the name of the St. Louis, Iron Moun- 
tain & Southern Railroad Company in June, 
1874. This line from St. Louis to Fulton, 
Arkansas, a distance of 681 miles, became 
the main line of the company and the line 
from Bismarck to Belmont became Imown 
as the Belmont branch. 

In 1883 a company was organized, Iniown 
as the Jackson Branch Railroad Company, 
to build a line from Allenville, on the Bel- 
mont branch, to the ^Mississippi river, at 
Grand Tower, by way of Jackson, the county 
seat of Cape Girardeau county. This line 
was constructed by the Iron Moimtain as far 
as Jackson and was later consolidated with 
the Iron Mountain System. Later a branch 
was constructed from Mineral Point to Po- 
tosi, in "Washington county, to provide trans- 
portation for the mineral products of that 
region. 

The Iron iMountain company later con- 
structed a line from Poplar Bluff to Doni- 
phan, in Ripley county, by way of Naylor, 
m the same coiunty. This road is now oper- 
ated as a part of the Cairo branch, through 
trains being run from Bird's Point to Doni- 
phan. 

Close relations have always existed be- 
tween the Iron JMountain System and the St. 
Louis Southwestern, or Cotton Belt, as they 
are both owned in large part by members of 



the Gould family. The Iron Mountain Sys- 
tem, about 1900, constructed a line called the 
Valley line, from East St. Louis to Gale, 
Illinois, opposite Gray's Point, the northern 
terminus of the Cotton Belt. On the con- 
struction of the Thebes bridge these roads 
formed a continuous line from Texas and 
Arkansas points to St. Louis. It also pro- 
vided connection with the main line and 
branches of the Iron Mountain. The Cotton 
Belt connects with the Belmont branch at 
Delta, with the Cairo branch at Dexter, and 
with the main line of the Iron Moimtain at 
Paragould, Arkansas. A traffic agreement 
was entered into between these roads by 
which Cotton Belt trains entered St. Louis 
over the tracks of the Valley line, and Iron 
Mountain trains used the tracks of the Cot- 
ton Belt from Dexter to Thebes. This last 
arrangement was made because the Cotton 
Belt and Valley lines afford what is prac- 
tically a water-level route to St. Louis, while 
the Iron Mountain above Poplar Bluff passes 
through a hilly country. Much of the freight 
from Arkansas and Texas is diverted at Pop- 
lar Bluff over the Cairo branch to Dexter, 
then by way of the Cotton Belt and Valley 
lines to St. Louis. The immen.se importance 
of the Thebes bridge is made apparent by 
this arrangement. 

Plans are under way at this time provid- 
ing for the double tracking of much of the 
main lines of the St. Louis, Iron IMountain 
& Southern and the St. Louis Southwestern. 
The Iron Mountain continiies to be, as it has 
been since its construction, one of the most 
important factors in the development of 
.southeast IMissouri. Its main line provides 
unrivaled transportation facilities for the 
western tier of counties and its various 
branches serve much of the remainder of the 
territorv. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



501 



lu 1859 the Cape Girardeau, Pilot Ivnob 
& IJelinont Railroad Company was organized 
to uonstruc't a road from Pilot Knob to Bel- 
mont, by way of Cape Girardeau. William 
C. Ranney was made president of the com- 
pany, arrangements were perfected and a 
large private subscription obtained for the 
stock of the company. The county of Cape 
Girardeau voted to take two himdred thou- 
sand dollars worth of the company- 's stock. 
It seemed that the railroad would be built 
and it probably would have been but for the 
breaking out of the Civil war. Nothing was 
done during that period, but after the close 
of the war the matter was taken up again. 
A company was organized, known as the 
Cape Girardeau & State Line Railroad Com- 
pany, with intention to build a road from 
Cape Girardeau to some point on the Ar- 
kansas line. The company was organized 
April 27th, 1869, with the following direc- 
tors: G. C. Thilenius. John Albert, T. J. Rod- 
ney, Robert Sturdivant, John Ivers, A. B. 
Dorman, M. Dittlinger, L. P. Klostermann, 
William Woeleke, P. Hanny, I\I. M. Kimmell, 
A. D. Leech, H. Bader, C. Hirseh, AVilliam 
Regenhardt, William Hamilton, J. Vaster- 
ling and Casper Uhl. G. C. Thilenius was 
made president, John Ivers, vice-president, 
and S. G. Kitchen, manager. 

The company started off with very flatter- 
ing prospects, there was a large private sub- 
scription to the bonds and the city of Cape 
Girardeau voted to take a hundred and fift.y 
thousand dollars worth and the township of 
Cape Girardeau the same amount. The 
bonds were sold and with the money the work 
of construction was begun. Through bad 
management, however, the funds were ex- 
hausted before a single mile of the road was 
finished. It was then determined to build 
the road by contract. Accordingly an agree- 



ment was entered into with Governor 
Pletcher and his associates to build the road, 
and for their services they were to receive a 
deed to the roadbed, provided they completed 
twenty-tive miles by December 1, 1871. 

Governor Pletcher then proceeded to or- 
ganize a companj- known as the Illinois. Mis- 
souri & Texas Railway Company and issued 
bonds to the amoimt of $1,500,000 secured 
by mortgage on the property of both com- 
panies. The bonds foimd no sale however, 
and it became impossible to secure funds. 
The project of building the road was aban- 
doned for ten years. A considerable amount 
of work had been done in building bridges 
and in laying ties and throwing up a road- 
bed; all these suffered very materially dur- 
ing the years when nothing was done, the 
wood work decayed and the roadbed was 
washed away by the rain and grew up in 
brush. 

In 1880 a man became interested in the 
railroad whose name is associated with most 
of the successful railroads built in Southeast 
Missouri, Louis liouek. He entered into a 
contract with the Cape Girardeau & State 
Line Company, which still controlled the old 
roadbed, by the terms of which he was to 
complete the road from Cape Girardeau to 
Delta by January 1, 1881, and was then to 
receive a title to all the property of the old 
company. He was successful in carrying out 
his agreement and the Cape Girardeau & 
State Line Company transferred to him the 
title to the road. By August, 1881, he had 
exterided the road to Lakeville, in Stoddard 
county, and in 1882 it reached Brownwood. 
In this year the name of the company was 
changed to the Cape Girardeau & South- 
western Railway Company. In 1883 it was 
built to Idlewild; in 1884 it reached Wappa- 



502 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



pello, in Wayne county, a distance of fifty- 
one miles from Cape Girardeau. In 1886 the 
road acquired by lease the Brownwood & 
Northwestern Railroad, which extended from 
Brownwood to Zalma, a distance of nine 
miles. This Brownwood & Northwestern had 
been built by William Brown. In 1887 the 
road was extended from Wappapello to 
Chaonia, a distance of seven miles. 

In 1891 Mr. Houck became interested in 
a railroad that had been built from Camp- 
bell, on the Cotton Belt, to the county seat 
of Dunklin county. This road had been con- 
structed by E. S. McCarthy and associates. 
Mr. Houck acquired a controlling interest in 
this road, reconstructed it, and continued its 
operation. In 1893-1894 he built a railroad 
from Kennett to Caruthersville, in Pemiscot 
comity, a distance of 25 miles, giving the 
people of the southern part of Dunklin county 
a more direct outlet to the Mississippi river 
than they had had before. In 1896-1897 he 
constructed a railroad from Kennett, by way 
of Seuath, to Leechville, iu Arkansas, opening 
up a country before distant from railroads 
and a country among the most fertile and 
valuable in Southeast Missouri. 

In 1898 he built a railroad from Brown- 
wood to Bloomfield, La Stoddard county. Up 
to this time Bloomfield had been a purely 
inland town having no railroad connections 
at all. This brought connection with the 
Cape Girardeau & Southwestern which, with 
its connections, formed a trunk line through 
southern Missouri. In the same year the 
road from Bloomfield to Zeta, in Stoddard 
county, on the Cotton Belt, was rebuilt. 

In 1894 Mr. Homck began the construction 
of one of the most important of his railroads. 
It was known as Houck 's Missouri & Arkan- 
sas Railroad, and was to extend from Cape 
Girardeau to a connection with the St. Louis, 



Kennett & Southern at Gibson, in Dunklin 
county, a distance of 100 miles. This enter- 
prise required until 1900 for its completion. 
This link made the railroads owned by j\Ir. 
Houck into a system, since all of them were 
now connected. 

This sj'stem of railroads covered part of 
Southeast Missouri south of Cape Girardeau. 
In 1905 a railroad was constructed from 
West Chester, on the Mississippi river, to 
Perryville, the county seat of Perry county. 
In 1898 a road connecting St. Mary's and 
Ste. Genevieve was built. These were the 
beginnings of a system north of Cape 
Girardeau, but for a time were left \mcon- 
neeted. In 1902 all of Mr. Houck 's railroads 
south of Cape Girardeau were consolidated 
imder the name of the St. Louis & Gulf. 
They embraced the lines running to Hunter 
and from Cape Girardeau to Kennett, 
Caruthersville, and a stretch of railroad 
eight miles in length from Pascola to Deer- 
ing, which had been built in 1901. 

Shortly after the consolidation of these 
various railroads the o^Tiership of them was 
transferred from Mr. Houck and his asso- 
ciates to the St. Louis & San Francisco Rail- 
road Companj', but Mr. Houck 's activity in 
railroad building did not cease with this 
transfer. He had parted with the control 
and ownership of most of his railroad prop- 
erty, but still owned the road from West 
Chester to Perrj^ille and that from St. 
Mary's to Ste. Genevieve. It was his inten- 
tion to make these the beginnings of a new 
system to cover the comntry north of Cape 
Girardeau which was without railroad facil- 
ities. It is rather remarkable that the coun- 
ties of Ste. Genevieve, Perry and St. Fran- 
cois, among the old coimties of the state, were 
among the last to secure adequate railroad 
facilities. Carrying out his purpose, in 1904 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



503 



he formed a company known as the Cape 
Girardeau & Chester Railroad Company and 
built a railroad from Cape Girardeau, by way 
of Jackson, to Perryville, connecting with the 
road from West Chester at the latter point. 
This system of railroads extending from 
Cape Girardeau to West Chester was about 
65 miles in length. In 1906 the Saline Val- 
ley Railroad was incorporated and work be- 
gun on the line from Saline Junction, where 
the Cape Girardeau & Chester crossed Saline 
creek, to Farmington, in St. Francois county. 
This is a distance of 35 miles and the rail- 
road w-as completed into Farmington in 1912, 

The Cape Girardeau & Thebes Bridge 
Terminal Railway Company was incorpor- 
ated in 1907 and constructed a line from 
Cape Girardeau to Kelso, on the main line of 
the St. Louis Southwestern, a short distance 
from the Thebes bridge; this line is seven 
miles in length. At the present time all the 
lines owned by Mr. Houck are being con- 
solidated imder one management into a road 
extending from the Thebes bridge to Farm- 
ington, in St. Francois coimty, a distance of 
about 110 miles. In addition to this line 
there is a branch from Saline Junction to 
West Chester. It is evident that the system 
of railroads here indicated is destined to form 
an important link in a north and south line 
probably from St. Louis to Thebes, or even 
further south. 

It is difficult for us to give a .just idea of 
the importance of the work of Louis Houck 
in Southeast Missouri. At a time when many 
localities in the section had absolutely no 
railroad facilities, at a time when people did 
not appreciate the importance of railroads 
in the destiny of the country, when capital 
was scarce and difficult to obtain for railroad 
purposes, Mr. Hoiick, who was then a lawyer 
with no great amount of capital, but with a 



vision which extended into the future and 
saw the development of Southeast Missouri 
and the part which railroads were destined 
to play in their development, began the con- 
struction of railroads. Through his efforts 
railroads have been built in Cape Girardeau, 
Scott, Stoddard, Bollinger, Dunklin, Pemi- 
scot, Perry, Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois 
coimties. In many of these counties the 
Houck railroad was the first constructed. 
The advantages which were accrued to the 
section from these railroads are irameasure- 
able. A study of the tables of population 
and surplus products establishes conclusively 
the importance of these lines. The benefits 
the coimtry derived from their building was 
not confined to the railroads themselves, the 
very evident fact that they were building up 
the coimtry and that they were carrying 
great quantities of freight and large num- 
bers of passengers was inducement for other 
railroad o\\Tiers to extend their systems into 
southeast Missouri. When these enterprises 
were begun the section was touched by but 
two railroads, the Belmont branch of the 
Iron Lloimtain and the Cairo & Fulton; all 
the other railroad.s have been built subse- 
quently to the beginnings made by Louis 
Houck. 

One of the two great trunk lines of South- 
east Missouri is the St. Louis & San Fran- 
cisco system. It acquired by purchase the 
system known as the St. Louis & Gulf, which 
had been built by Louis Houck. The lines 
of this system extended south from Cape 
Girardeau through the comities of Scott, New 
Madrid, Dimklin and Pemiscot, to Caruthers- 
ville, on the Mississippi. The principal 
towns on the mdin line of the road were 
Commerce, Benton. Morley, Morehouse, 
Parma, Clarkton, Holcomb, Kennett, Hayti 



504 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



and Caruthersville. In addition to the main 
line there were several branches. One of 
these ran from Clarkton to Maiden. Another 
extended from Gibson north to Campbell and 
Caligoa. A third branch extended south 
from Kennett to Leeehville, Arkansas, pass- 
ing through Senath and near Cardwell. A 
fourth extended eight miles from Paseola to 
Deering. 

When the 'Frisco took over the ownership 
and operation of these roads it proceeded to 
improve the main lines with heavier steel, 
taking up the branch running north from 
Campbell to Caligoa and rebuilding it to 
Bloomfield to connect with the line from 
Brownwood. 

The 'Frisco acciuired at the same time the 
Houck lines running southwest from Cape 
Girardeau to Hunter, in Carter county, 
where connection was had with the Current 
River Railroad. A branch from this line ex- 
tended from Zalma, in Bollinger county, to 
Bloomfield, in Stoddard county, crossing the 
main line at Brownwood. There was also a 
line from Bloomfield to the St. Louis South- 
western at Zeta, in Stoddard cotmty. 

The 'Frisco improved these lines also. The 
Zeta branch was extended to Vanduser, in 
Scott county, and a new line was built from 
Mingo, near Puxico, through Poplar Bluff, 
Nay lor and Pocahontas, Arkansas, to a con- 
nection with the 'Frisco's IMemphis and 
Kansas City line at Hoxie. This line is at 
present being greatly improved and will be- 
come one of the most important branches of 
the system. 

The great work of the new system was the 
construction of an entirely new line. This 
was called the St. Louis, Memphis & South- 
eastern and extends from St. Louis to Jlem- 
phis. This line passes to the west of the Iron 
Mountain south of St. Louis until itreaches 



the river at Crystal City. From this point 
it follows the river to Cape Gifardeau. It 
diverges at the latter place from the river 
and follows the Sikeston ridge after crossing 
"Nigger Wool" swamp. This road reaches 
some of the important towns in the eastern 
tier of comities. It was the first .railroad in 
Ste. Genevieve and greatly stimulated activ- 
ity and growth in that town. It gave the 
first direct rail connection that Cape Girard- 
eau had with St. Louis and Memphis and the 
great prosperity' of the town dates from this 
time. South of Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, 
Fortageville, Lilbourn, Hayti and Caruthers- 
ville are served by this line, and through its 
numerous branches, it is of great importance 
tc many other to^^Tis. 

The 'P^'risco system also secured the en- 
trance of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, an 
allied railroad, into Southeast Missouri. This 
road cros-ses the Mississippi at Thebes and 
rims trains into Cape Girardeau from Chi- 
cago. 

The 'Frisco has always adopted a liberal 
policy toward Southeast IMissouri and has 
aided all the forward movements in its terri- 
tory. It has provided good service in the 
main and its presence in this territory has 
meant much for the people. It now reaches 
by main line or branches nearly every one 
of the twenty counties in Southeast Missouri 
and provides transportation facilities for 
much of the region. 

One of the enterprises of Southeast Mis- 
souri about which there has been considerable 
controversy was the proposed plan of build- 
ing a plank road from Point Pleasant, in 
New IMadrid county, to Clarkton, in Dunklin 
county. Just before the war a company was 
organized for this purpose, known as the 
Blanton Plank Road Company, and it 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



505 



secured from New Madrid county a large 
grant of land. The company did consider- 
able work and opened up the road, but it was 
destroyed during the war and nothing was 
done toward rebuilding it by that company. 
In 1875 Oscar Kochtitzky, the registrar of 
the land office, George B. Clark, state au- 
ditor, and A. M. Shead, who was the agent 
of the Glasgow Ship Building Company, ob- 
tained the charter and franchise of the Blan- 
ton Road Company. It was their intention 
to rebuild this plank road and to secure a 
confirmation of the land grant frOm New 
Madrid coimty to themselves. After secur- 
ing the charter, however, they determined to 
build a narrow-gauge railroad and applied to 
New Madrid county for a transfer of the 
land for this purpose. The county court of 
New Madrid county assented and the com- 
pany proceeded to build the railroad. It was 
begun in October, 1876, and in February, 
1878, it was completed between New Madrid 
and Maiden. After being operated for a 
short time as a narrow-gauge railroad, it was 
rebuilt as a standard gauge and extended to 
Cairo. Shortly after this was done it came 
under the control of a group of capitalists 
headed by S. W. Fordyce, of St. Louis, and 
was reoi'ganized as the St. Louis, Arkansas 
& Texas Railroad and extended to Texar- 
kana, on the line between Arkansas and 
Texas. Through trains were run between 
Cairo and Texarkana in 1882. It soon be- 
came a part of the Gould system and in 1888 
a branch was built from Maiden to Delta. 
This branch was afterwards extended to 
Gray's Point, on the river, and later to the 
Thebes bi'idge. It is now operated as the 
main line of the system and the company is 
known as the St. Louis Southwestern Rail- 
road Company. 



One of the great movements in this part 
of the state in railroad matters was the build- 
ing of a bridge across the Mississippi river 
at Thebes. In 1900 a corporation called the 
Southern Illinois & Missouri Bridge Com- 
pany was organized for the purpose of con- 
structing such a bridge. It was composed 
of men representing the Illinois Central 
Railroad, the St. Louis Southwestern, the St. 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, the St. 
Louis & San Francisco, and the Chicago & 
Eastern Illinois. Charles G. Warner was 
president of the company, Myron J. Carpen- 
ter vice-president, and Charles N. Hillard 
secretary. 

It was determined to build a bridge at 
Thebes. The location was determined by a 
number of considerations. The St. Louis 
Southwestern had failed to secure an en- 
trance to Cape Girardeau and had located 
its northern terminus at Gray's Point, near 
Thebes. The Missouri Pacific and Iron 
Mountain, also part of the Gould system, had 
built the Valley line from St. Louis south 
along the Illinois side of the river to connect 
with the St. Louis Southwestern. The other 
roads indicated, had interests in the same 
territory. These facts had something to do 
with the selection of the site. The determin- 
ing factor, however, was the character of the 
river banks. At Thebes the river is narrow 
and the bluffs are at the water's edge on both 
sides. This afforded an opportunity to build 
a bridge Avithout the necessity for long ap- 
proaches. The character of the soil was such 
as to provide a firm foimdation, as native 
rock is foimcl at comparatively shallow 
depths both in the river itself and on either 
side. These two features make the site 
chosen an ideal one. In fact it is one of the 
best if not the best point for a bridge to be 



506 



HISTOEY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



found on the entire river. This site was 
chosen and the companj' proceeded to erect 
here a double track cantilever bridge of mas- 
sive proportions. 

There are five spans. The center or canti- 
lever span is 671 feet long, each of the other 
spans is 521 feet. The approaches are built 
of concrete, one of these concrete arches hav- 
ing a span of 100 feet. The entire length of 
the bridge including approaches is 3,910 feet. 
It is 65 feet above high water mark and 108 



violence of the river floods, or attacks of ice. 
It forms a link in one of the most important 
highways of travel from southwest to north 
and east. The volume of traffic carried across 
it is alreadj' enormous and is constantly in- 
creasing. 



The Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Rail- 
way possesses an unusual interest owing to 
the way in which the road was constructed. 
It was built to provide transportation facil- 




Mississippi River Bridge, Thebes 



feet above low water mark. From the lowest 
point of the pier foundations, which reach to 
bed-rock, to the topmost chord is 231 feet. 

The bridge was designed and constructed 
by the engineering firm of Noble & Modjeski. 
It was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies 
on May 25, 1900, in presence of a large num- 
ber of railroad officials and other persons. 
The strength of the bridge was tested by 
running upon it a string of locomotives. It 
has been in constant use since that time and 
has never been affected by heavy traffic, the 



ities for the jiroducts and supplies of the St. 
Josei^h Lead Company at Bonne Terre. Up 
till 1880 this company, which operated one of 
the largest lead mines in the world, depended 
upon wagons for hauling between their 
mines and the St. Louis & Iron Mountain 
Railway. In that year the St. Joseph Lead 
Company and the DesLoge Lead Company 
built a narrow-guage railway thirteen and a 
half miles long between the mines and Sum- 
mit, a point on the St. Louis & Iron Moun- 
tain. The cost of comstruetion was divided 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



507 



between the two lead companies, the St. 
Joseph Lead Company paying two-thirds and 
the DesLoge one-third. The business of the 
lead companies increased very greatly so that 
the narrow-guage railway no longer provided 
sufficient facilities for transportation. It was 
determined to construct another road, and 
in 1888 a charter was granted to the Missis- 
sippi River & Bonne Terre Railway Com- 
pany. It was to extend from Riverside, on 
the Mississippi river twenty-five miles below 
St. Louis, to Bonne Terre and later to Des- 
Loge. The line was completed in March, 
1890, and the Summit railway was aban- 
doned. The road was changed to standard 
guage in 1894. Later an extension was built 
from Bonne Terre to Doe Run, crossing the 
Belmont branch of the Iron Mountain at Doe 
Run Jimction. The road is at present forty- 
seven miles in length, and while it is an in- 
dependent line, having no connection with 
other roads, its road-bed and equipment are 
equal to most trimk lines, and it carries an 
enormous business considering the length of 
the road. 

In 1894, the HoUiday-Klotz Land and 
Lumber Company, a corporation owning 
vast bodies of timber and operating exten- 
sive mills in WajTie coimty, luidertook the 
construction of a railroad from the Iron 
Mountain at Williamsville to Greenville, the 
coimty seat of Wayne county and the site 
of their mills. The road was a costly one as 
the coimtry is very hilly. It was built, how- 
ever, and served the purpose for which it 
was constructed. Upon the practical exhaus- 
tion of the pine timber about Greenville, the 
mills were closed down there and the road 
extended further into the county to open 
new bodies of timber. The present terminus 
is Cascade, thirty-five miles from Williams- 



ville. The road serves a large part of Wayne 
county. 

The St. Louis, Kennett & Southeastern was 
built in 1906 from Campbell, on the St. 
Louis Southwestern Railroad in Dunklin 
coimty, to the county seat, Kennett. Later 
Piggott, Arkansas, was made the northern 
terminus. The road was built by a group of 
Dunklin county capitalists. Among them 
were R. H. Jones, Virgil McKay, J. B. Blake- 
more, W. D. Lasswell and D. B. Banker. It 
was built to develop large bodies of timber 
lands owned by these and other men. The 
land when stripped of its timber is very 
valuable farming land and the road aids in 
opening it up for settlement. Railroad 
bridges have been constructed across Varner 
and St. Francois rivers and the road is being 
put into condition to handle the large traffic 
originating in its territory. 

In 1911 a road was completed from Mar- 
ston, in New Madrid county, to New Madrid, 
the county seat. It was built principally by 
capitalists of the latter place under the 
leadership of E. S. McCarthy, a well-known 
railroad promoter and builder. Among the 
men interested were L. A. Lewis, Mr. Garan- 
flo, A. B. and Lee Hunter and Murray 
Phillips. It provides a connection for New 
Madrid with the 'Frisco main line. Formerly 
the town had depended entirely upon the St. 
Louis Southwestern system which has a 
branch from Lilbourn. The new road is 
called the St. Louis & Missouri Southern. It 
ii eight miles in length and is one of the best 
built roads in this part of the state. It 
operates what is probably the only parlor car 
in the state for which no extra charge is 
made. The unusual character of the road 
leads to the belief that it is meant to form a 



508 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



link in a new north and south system, prob- 
ably extending from the bridge at Thebes, 
into Arkansas. Plans are already on foot for 
immediately inci-easing its mileage to eighty, 
and the probabilities are that actual work on 
the construction will soon be begun. 

The Paragould Southeastern is a line of 
railroad extending from Paragould, Arkan- 
sas, to the southeast, crossing the St. Fran- 
cois river near Cardwell, in Dunklin county. 
It is built across the south end of Dvmklin 
county, reaching Little river at Hornersville. 
A few miles east of Hornersville it turns to 
the south and enters Arkansas and has its 
eastern terminus at Blytheville, near the Mis- 
sissippi. This road opens up immense tracts 
of farming and timber land in Dunklin 
county and has been a prime factor in the 
building up of Cardwell and Hornersville. 
It was built and originally owned by local 
capitalists under leadership of E. S. Mc- 
Carthy. It is now owned by the Gould sys- 
tem and is operated by the St. Louis South- 
western. 

About 1905 the Illinois Soathern, an Illi- 
nois road with headquarters at Chicago, 
entered this territory. It was built from 
Salem to a point opposite Ste. Genevieve. It 
was constructed through Ste. Genevieve and 
St. Francois comities to Bismarck, in the lat- 
ter county, on the main line of the Iron 
Mountain. The road passes through the 
richest mineral section of the state. One of 
its important stations is Flat River, in the 
very center of the lead belt. The road is well 
built and operated after the beet methods. 
It imites the great system of the Iron Moun- 
tain and 'Frisco; serves a rich county and 
offers an outlet to Chicago. It is destined to 
be an important link in an east and west line, 



and will be of great benefit to the section 
which it serves. 

The Missouri Southern, which extends 
from Deeper, in Wayne county, on the main 
line of the Iron Moimtain, nearly through 
Reynolds county to Bunker, was built by a 
saw-mill company having large timber in- 
terests in the territory traversed by the road. 
A large steel bridge across Black river was 
built at Leeper and the road was well con- 
structed. Its present terminus is Bunker, in 
Rej'nolds county. Plans have been formed 
for its extension to the 'Frisco at Salem, in 
Dent county, but it is probable that it will 
become a branch of the Iron Mountain. 

The Paragould & Memphis Railroad, ex- 
tending from Paragould, Arkansas, through 
the south part of Dunklin county to Manila, 
Arkansas, is 118 miles long. It was developed 
from a tram road built to facilitate the hand- 
ling of timber by the Decatur Egg Case Com- 
pany, a large corporation with headquarters 
at Cardwell. Out of this tram road has 
grown the Paragould & Memphis. The presi- 
dent of the road is John W. Vail, of Card- 
well, Mo., and most of the other officers are 
residents of the same town. Although its 
line is principally in Arkansas, it is distinctly 
a Missouri enterprise. Its successful develop- 
ment has been due in part to the energy and 
ability of the men who built it and in part 
to the fact that it opened up immense tracts 
of valuable timber and farming land pre- 
viously without railroad facilities. 

The Biitler Coimty Railroad Company 
operates a short line in Butler county, Mis- 
souri, and Arkansas. It extends from Lin- 
stead and LoweU Junction, on the Iron 
Mountain, to Arkansas points and is operated 
as a timber road in large part. The present 
president of the road is R. M. Parker. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



509 



About 1905 a company composed of busi- 
ness men and capitalists of St. Francois 
coimty was organized for the purpose of con- 
structing an electric line through the lead 
belt. That section has an enormous popula- 
tion and it was thought by the promoters that 
an interurban line would be of great benefit 
to the country and also a paying investment. 
The line was built from Flat River, on the 
Illinois Southern and the ]\Iississippi river 
and Bonne Terre railroads, south and west to 
Farmington, the county seat, and then to 
DcLassiis, on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & 
Southern. The road was well-built and first- 
class equipment provided for it. The ex- 
pectations of its builders were fully met as 
it at once received a heavy traffic. 

It not only carries passengers, but operates 
freight and express service as well. It has 



become of immense inportance in its section 
and will be an important link in the inter- 
urban line which will doubtless be built in 
the near future from St. Louis south through 
Southeast Missouri. 

At the present time this is the only inter- 
urban line in the section. The Cape Girard- 
eau & Jackson Interurban Company was 
organized in 1905, but up to this time it has 
not extended its lines outside the city of Cape 
Girardeau. Its plans are to unite the latter 
place with Jackson and also with the towns 
near the Thebes bridge. The development of 
the country in wealth and population, and 
the demand for better transportation will 
doubtless lead to the biiilding of other elec- 
tric lines within a few years, some of which 
are alreadv under consideration. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 



GENERAL STATUS 



Location — Area — Topography — Timber — • Industries — Transportation — Towns 
— Population — Schools — Wealth — Bollinger — Butler — Cape Girardeau — Car- 
ter — Dunklin — Iron — Jefferson — Madison — ■ Mississippi — New Madrid — Pemi- 
scot — Perry — Reynolds — Ripley — St. Francois — Ste. Genevieve — Scott — 
Stoddard — Washington — Wayne. 



The sketches embraced in this chapter are 
designed to present a general pen-picture of 
the counties of Southeast Missouri embraced 
in this work. The counties are given in alpha- 
betical order. 

Bollinger county joins Cape Girardeau on 
the west. It contains 39-4,240 acres, about 
one-third of which is under cultivation ; the 
other two-thirds being unimproved and cov- 
ered with timber. The principal timbers are 
oak, hickorj' and walnut on the hills, and 
gum and cypress in the valleys of the rivers 
and streams. The county is almost wholly ag- 
ricultural in character, the chief products be- 
ing those of the farm. In addition to these 
products a large amount of lumber is shipped 
out every year. In 1910 there were shipped 
more than nine million feet of lumber. The 
north part of the county is rolling, partly 
broken and there is a considerable area of un- 
cultivated land that is capable of cultivation. 
The southern part of the county extends unto 
the edge of the lowlands. 

The population of Bollinger count.v is prin- 
cipally American born, there being only a few 
negroes, and not a great many settlements 
have any large number of foreign immi- 



grants. The population in 1910 was 14,576, 
;ind the assessable wealth of the county is 
$2,797,570. There are 89 school districts, 
employing 94 teachers and the number of 
childi-en enumerated in 1910 was 4,781. 

The principal towns are Marble Hill, which 
is the county seat, and Lutesville; besides 
these there are Glen Allen, Bessville, Sturdi- 
vant, Zalma and some other smaller places. 

The principal streams in the count.v are 
Crooked Creek, South Fork, and Little White- 
^\ater, and the comity is traversed by the 
Belmont branch of the St. Louis, Iron Moim- 
tain & Southern and the St. Louis & San 
Francisco railroads. 

There are no factories in the coimty except 
some saw mills, stave factories, flouring mills 
and other similar institutions. The total 
value of manufactured products inchiding 
railroad ties was $389,072 in 1910. There is 
some water power which will probably be 
used at some time. There are no mineral 
products, except kaolin, which is taken out 
in quantities near Glen Allen and some good 
lime stone found in a number of different 
places. 



510 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



511 



Butler county joins Arkansas on the south 
and it is divided into two parts by the Missis- 
sippi escarpment. Northwest of this part the 
country is rolling, while in the southeast are 
found the swamps of Black and St. Francois 
rivers. The county contains 716 square miles 
of territory, about one-half of which is allu- 
vial soil. A great deal of the land in the 
county is well timbered, much of it being 
very valuable on this accoimt. 

The principal streams in the eoimty are 
Black river and St. Francois river which run . 



adding machines. Besides these there are 
several flouring mills and other manufactur- 
ing establishments of minor importance. The 
total value of manufactured products in 1910 
was more than $2,000,000. 

The railroads of the county are the St. 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern main line; 
the Cairo, Arkansas & Texas branch of the 
Iron Mountain, and the Doniphan branch; 
besides these, there is the St. Louis, Memphis 
& Southeastern, a branch of the Frisco which 
runs through the county. 




In the Thick Timber 



entirely through it and which have many 
small tributaries, many of them being creeks 
of pure and clear water. The principal ex- 
ports of the county are farm products and 
lumber. In 1910 there were exported three 
million feet of lumber. There are some manu- 
facturing establishments, principally those in 
Poplar Bluff. These are principally wood 
working establishments engaged in the manu- 
facture of staves, lumber and heading. There 
is also a foundry and a factory for making 



The population of Butler county is 20,627 
and the taxable wealth is $4,148,435. There 
are 78 school districts employing 118 teach- 
ers, and the school system of Poplar Bluff is 
one of unusually high rank. 

The principal town in the county is Poplar 
Bluff, which has a population of about 6,000. 
The other to^\^ls are principally saw mill 
towns and small stations on some line of 
railway. 

Cape Girardeau county is situated about 



512 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



100 miles south of St. Louis on the ilississippi 
river. It is divided into two parts, the greater 
portion of the countj* being in the Ozark 
plateau, but part of the southern half is in 
the alluvial bottoms of the ilississippi river. 
At one time a large part of the eountj' was 
heavily timbered, ilost of this timber has 
been removed, however, and the land is in 
cultivation. There are some small tracts of 
oak and gum. but the timber is no longer of 
£ny very great value. The area of the county 
is 5-10 square miles, more than two-thirds of 
which is under cultivation. The soil of the 
county is productive even on the hills. In 
the bottoms of the ^lississippi and other 
streams the land is very rich. The principal 
products are those of the farm. Some lum- 
ber is shipped out. amounting to four million 
feet in 1910. There is no coal mined in the 
county, but large quantities of lime stone is 
quarried and there are a few kaolin pits, and 
in some places crystal sand is taken out for 
glass manufacturing purposes. 

There are a number of manufacturing es- 
tablishments, wood working plants, miUs. shoe 
factory, and a large cement plant; besides 
these there are some important quarries 
where large quantities of lime stone are re- 
moved. 

The conntj-, exclusive of the city of Cape 
Girardeau, produced manufactured products 
in 1910. amounting to $4,150,667. The larg- 
est single item was flour. In the same year 
the city of Cape Girardeau had products 
amounting to $2,773,432, the largest single 
item being shoes. 

The population of the coiinty is 27.621 and 
the assessable valuation $174,382. There are 
80 school districts in the county employing 
140 teachers, and the school system is a well 
organized one. The county has the Third 
District State Normal school. St. Vincent's 



college and academy at Cape Girardeau. 
There are good high schools at Jackson and 
Cape Girardeau. 

The coimty seat is Jackson, which is a 
thriving prosperous town, and the largest 
town is Cape Girardeau, with a population of 
about 9,000. Besides, there are the following 
towns: AllenviUe, Appleton, Burfordvills, 
Dutchtown. Egypt ^lills. Fruitland. Gordon- 
ville. iMillersville, Xeeleys Landing, Oak 
Ridge, Pocahontas and Whitewater. The 
coimty is well supplied with transportation 
facilities. Besides the ^Mississippi river there 
are the following railroads: St. Louis, Iron 
ilountain & Southern. St. Louis & San Fran- 
cisco. St. Louis Southwestern and the Cape 
Girardeau & Chester. 

Carter county is one countj- north of the 
Arkansas line and is five west of the ilissis- 
sippi river. It has an area of 323.000 acres, 
much of which is still timbered. There are 
three different classes of land in the county, 
hiU land, table land and creek bottoms. Sev- 
enty-five per cent of the land in the hills is 
rocky and at least one-fourth of the area of 
the covmty is still unimproved. The princi- 
pal productions are farm products and tim- 
ber, there having been thirteen million feet 
of lumber shipped out in 1910. besides large 
quantities of railroad ties and posts. The 
largest sawmill in the state is at Grandin. It 
has a capacity of 2S5.000 feet a day and em- 
ploys more than 1,200 men. The total of 
manufactured products in 1910 was $316,070. 

The soil is adapted to fruit growing and 
the probabilities are that within the not dis- 
tant future there wiU be large orchards in the 
county. !Much iron ore is found in two dif- 
ferent sections of the county and there are 
traces of lead and copper, but not in sufficient 
quantities to warrant their being mined. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



513 



The population is 5,50-4 and the assessable 
wealth is $1,523,380. The population is 
largely American, there being but few ne- 
groes or foreign immigrants. There are 32 
school districts in the county employing 37 
teachers. 

Perhaps the scenery in Carter county is 
equal to or superior to that in any other of 
the counties of Southeast Missouri. The 
county is divided by Current river, one of 
the most beautiful streams in the state. 
There is much unused water power on this 
stream that will doubtless be developed soon. 
There are two railroads in the county, the 
St. Louis, Memphis & Southeastern and the 
Current River branch of the 'Frisco. 

The largest town in the county ig Grandin. 
which is principally a saw mill town and 
o^\Tied by the mill company; Van Buren, the 
county seat, is situated on Current river and 
is surrounded by hills. 

Dunklin county ha.s an area of 500 square 
miles, not more than one-half of the area be- 
ing under cultivation. At one time the county 
was almost entirely covered with a dense 
growth of timber, consisting of oak, maple, 
sycamore, poplar, cypress, gum, ash, walnut 
and pecan. Large quantities of timber still 
exist, though much of it has been cut. With 
the exception of a strip about two miles wide 
and ten miles long, extending across the 
northwest corner, being a part of Crowley's 
ridge, the land is level. The soil is alluvial 
and part of it comprising the great ridge 
running south from Dexter, is sandy loam 
immensely productive. The soil of Little 
river bottoms and St. Francois river bottoms 
is a heavier soil, also productive. Much of 
this land was made usable only by drainage: 
many miles of ditches have been dug and 
much land reclaimed in this way. 

Vol. 1—33 



The principal productions are those of the 
farm. It is the great cotton growug county 
of the state and in fact is the greatest cot- 
ton prodvicing eoimty in the United States. 
Besides cotton, large quantities of corn, wheat 
and melons are grown. The factories are 
wood working plants, cotton oil mills, and 
brick yards. Hour mills, ice plants and other 
similar plants. In 1910 the manufactured 
products of the county amounted to nearlj- 
$2,000,000. The most important item was 
cotton, valued at $510,897, followed by lum- 
ber, cooperage and oils in almost equal 
amovmts. 

The county has the St. Louis & Southwest- 
ern Railroad, the 'Frisco, and St. Louis, Ken- 
uet & Southeastern. The largest town in the 
county is the county seat, Kennett, and other 
principal towns are Maiden, Campbell, 
Clarkton, Holcomb, Cardwell, Hornersville 
and Senath. 

The population of the coimty is 30,228, 
and the total taxable wealth is $5,876,187. 
The principal part of the population is Amer- 
ican born, seventy-five per cent of whom own 
their own homes. There are many churches 
in the county and a good system of public 
schools. There are 74 school districts employ- 
ing 134 teachers, and each of the larger to\\Tis 
maintains a high school. 

There are 550 square miles in Iron county, 
much of it being in the Ozark mountains. 
The best land is found in the valleys where 
the soil is alluvial, but there is also some 
good farming land on the hills. In the south- 
west part of the county the laud is very broken 
and rocky ; at the present time only a small 
percentage is under cultivation. The princi- 
pal productions of the county are its farm 
products and the products of the quarries. 
There are lead mines in the county, though 
not of very great importance, but there are a 



514 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



mimber of granite quarries and large de- 
posits of granite which are not yet being 
mined. The manufactures of the county 
amoiuited to the sum of $176,929 in 1910. 
The principal items in this amount were 
stone, cooperage, and flour. The Arcadia val- 
ley is one of the most beautiful spots in ]\Iis- 
souri and Ironton and Arcadia, two towns of 
this valley, are famous as summer resorts. 
Mines are worked at Pilot Knob, Shepard 
Mountain, Cedar ilountain and a few other 
places; besides these, marble and kaolin are 
also mined. 

The county is traversed from north to south 
by the main line of the St. Louis, Iron Moun- 
tain and Southern Railroad. The principal 
towns are Graniteville, a famous quarry 
town ; Ironton, the county seat, Arcadia, Pilot 
Knob, and DesArc. The population of the 
coimty is 8,563 and its total amount of tax- 
able property is $2,359,457. There are 47 
school districts employing 55 teachers. 

There are 640 square miles in Jefferson 
county and practically all the surface gives 
evidence of mineral deposits. The land is 
generally high and rolling, much of it 
broken by streams. There are considerable 
areas of fertile bottom lands and the best 
part of the comity is in the northwest sec- 
tion. About one-third of the area of the 
coimty is imder cultivation and the principal 
productions are farm products and those 
which come from various mines. In 1910 
there were one thousand car loads of stone, 
granite, lead, zinc and sand shipped out of 
the county. There are also large manufac- 
turing plants, one of the largest lead smelt- 
ing plants in the world is in Herculaneum, 
while at Kimswick is an important lime 
plant, and Crystal City is famous for the 
manufacture of plate glass. Besides these 



other products of the mines such as zinc, 
lead and clay are mined and worked up in 
the commimity. The nearness to St. Louis 
makes the raising of garden products and 
orchard products profitable, as well as the 
dairy indu.stry. 

There are a number of famous springs in 
the county, some of them mineral springs 
said to have medicinal values, among them 
Sulphur Springs and Mineral Springs. There 
are other resorts along the Mississippi river. 

Transportation facilities are afforded by 
the Missi.ssippi river, the St. Louis, Iron 
IMoimtain & Southern and the St. Louis & 
San Francisco railroads. The population is 
27,878 and the total taxable wealth $6,056,- 
147. There are 87 school districts, employ- 
ing 133 teachers. 

The principal town is DeSoto, largely a 
railroad town, with a population of about 
5,000 ; the county seat is Hillsboro, one of 
the oldest towns in the county. Besides these 
the principal towns are Crystal City, Festus, 
Herculaneum, Kimswick, Riverside, Victoria 
and Selma. 

The manufactures of the county are very 
extensive. In 1910 they reached the total 
of $8,111,433. By far the largest item in 
this great amount was the products of the 
smelters which in themselves amoimted to 
more than $5,000,000. Glass was another big 
item, being more than $1,500,000. Other 
large items were the products of the car 
shops, shoes and flour. This enormous total 
makes Jefferson the most important manu- 
facturing county in the southeast. 

The chief industrial interest of Madison 
coimty is mining. There are large deposits 
of lead, cobalt, copper, granite, marble and 
iron in the county. One of the oldest mines 
in Southeast Missouri, Mine La Motte, is in 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



515 





Typical Stone Quaiirie« 



516 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



iladison county. It has been operated for 
about 110 years continuously. There are 492 
square miles in the county and of that about 
one-sixth is under cultivation, farming being 
the interest second in importance. 

The population of the county is 11,273 and 
the taxable wealth $2,608,295. There are 55 
school districts, employing 77 teachers. 

The land is rolling and much of it is tim- 
bered, white oak and pine still being foimd 
in many places. The river bottoms are fer- 
tile, the land on the hills is much less so, but 
it is well adapted to fruit growing, which will 
probably become one of the leading indus- 
tries of the county. Big and Little St. Fran- 
cois rivers and Castor river water the county, 
and besides these there are a number of fine 
springs. Those at White Spring are con- 
sidered to have a medicinal value. 

The principal manufacturing establish- 
ments are saw mills, flouring mills, stave 
factories, distilleries, ice plant and quarries. 
The principal town is the county seat, Fred- 
ericktown; besides this Marquand and Mine 
La ]\Iotte are also important. The total 
manufactured products in 1910 amounted to 
$53,274. The principal items were the pro- 
ducts of the smelters, lumber and flour. 

Mississippi county is about one himdred 
and sixty miles south of St. Louis, on the 
Mississippi river. It contains 275,000 acres 
of land, nearly one-half of which is in culti- 
vation. It is practically all level land lying 
within the alluvial plains of the ^Mississippi 
river. There is much sand in the soil in most 
of the coimty, but not enough to prevent it 
from being very productive. A part of the 
land near Charleston was originally prairie 
and is the most fertile land in the county. 
Other parts were originally heavily timbered 
with black and red oak, cypress, gvun, cotton- 



wood, 'sycamore and hickory. There were 
man}- other varieties of timber but these 
were the most important commercially. Some 
of this timber still remains. More than 
6,000,000 feet of lumber was exported in 
1910, 

Part of the land is subject to overflow from 
the river. Levees have been built to protect 
from floods, which will be adequate except 
for most unusual floods. The sand which 
everywhere forms a sub-soil aids very greatly 
in drainage. 

The county is well improved. Good barns 
and residences are foimd in all the older 
settled portions of the county. 

The chief industry is farming. The land 
is well adapted to the growing of corn and 
wheat, large quantities of both being pro- 
duced. These two crops furnish exports 
worth more than a million dollars each year. 
Alfalfa is also gro^Mi and is becoming more 
important as a crop. Second in importance 
to farming is the timber interest. The prin- 
cipal manufacturing plants are flour mills 
and woodworking establishments. Lumber, 
staves, heading, handles and spokes are man- 
ufactured in the latter plants. The man- 
ufactured products reached a total of $1,158.- 
801 in the year 1910. The largest single item 
of this total was flour, which had a value of 
$871,075. Cooperage was next in impoi'tanee. 

The county has three railroads. The Bel- 
mont branch of the Iron Mountain, the Caii-o, 
Arkansas & Texas branch of the same sys- 
tem, and the main line of the 'Frisco, The 
river which forms the eastern boundary af- 
fords transportation facilities also. 

The principal to-\Mi is Charleston, the 
coimty seat, which has a population of 3,144. 
Bertrand, East Prairie, Whiting and Annis- 
ton are other important places. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



517 



The population of the county is 14,557 and 
its taxable wealth is $3,939,516. There are 
45 school districts, employing 75 tefichers. 
The high school at Charleston is a well-or- 
ganized and well-attended institution. 

The usual church organizations are found 
in the county and the population is known 
for its industry, thrift and sobriety. 

There are 620 square miles in New Madrid 
county, about one-fourth of the area being 



probably become one of the leading products 
of the county. The value of manufactured 
articles in 1910 was $1,682,959. The im- 
portant products were lumber, cotton and 
cooperage. A large part of the land was at 
first not susceptible to cultivation because 
overflowed by the Mississippi river. The 
government levee and local drainage ditches 
have reclaimed large parts of the land. 

The river affords transportation and the 
St. Louis & San Francisco. St. Louis, Iron 




Corn Measured by Horses 



luider cultivation at the present time. A 
part of it is in the sandy loam of the Sikeston 
ridge and a large part in the heavy soil of the 
Little river bottoms. The principal industry 
is farming. The county was once covered 
with a heavy growth of timber, much of 
which has been removed. There are still large 
bodies of valuable timber which is rapidly 
being cut. The principal products in the 
north part of the county are corn and wheat. 
in the south part, cotton. Alfalfa is begin- 
ning to be grown in large quantities and will 



Mountain & Southern and the St. Louis & 
Southwestern railways, all of which have 
branch lines as well as the main line. 

The present population is 19,488 and the 
total taxable wealth is .$4,485,765. The prin- 
cipal towns are New Madrid, the county seat, 
with a population of about 1,900; Lilbourn, 
Morehouse, Portageville, Point Pleasant, 
]\Iarston. Gideon and Parma. There are 50 
school di.stricts in the county, employing 85 
teachers, and a number of the towns have 
weU organized high schools. 



518 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



In the extreme southeast corner of the 
state, bordering the ]\Iississippi river and ex- 
tending to the Arkansas line, is Pemiscot 
county, with an area of 480 square miles, 
about one-sixth of which is being cultivated. 
The land is all level and is alluvial soil. 
There are immense ciuantities of timber re- 
maining in Pemiscot county though it is 
rapidly being removed. In 1910 fully thirty 
million feet of lumber was shipped out of the 
comity. The land is extremely fertile and 



ber of branches. The population is 19,559 
and the total taxable wealth is $3,369,219. 
There are 48 school districts in the county, 
employing 70 teachers. 

Caruthersville, the coimty seat, is a town 
of about 3,500 and is a flourishing and pros- 
perous community. Besides Caruthersville, 
Hayti, Cottonwood Point, Pascola and Steele 
are the most important communities. 

Perry coimty is on the Mississippi river, 




Simply a Big Oil Tank 



is adapted to the growth of corn, wheat and 
other grains, the production of cotton, and 
especially to the growth of alfalfa, which in 
all probability will become the leading crop 
of the county. The principal factories ar6 
those devoted to the handling of timber, cot- 
ton and cotton seed oil. The total value of 
manufactured articles in 1910 was $1,840,- 
612. The most important of these products 
were cotton, lumber, cooperage and oils. 

The county has only the St. Louis & San 
Francisco Railway system, including a num- 



about 60 miles south of St. Louis. It contains 
436 square miles of surface, most of which at 
one time was covered with a heavy growth 
of Cottonwood, oak, walnut, willow and gum 
timber. At the present time more than half 
the area of the county is under cultivation. 
Most of the land is rolling, some of it broken. 
There are considerable areas of level land in 
the river bottoms and on top of the hills. 
The eastern part of the county is Mississippi 
bottom bordered by bluffs; the roughest part 
of the county is in the southeastern and ex- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



519 





ilissouKi Orchards in Bearing 



520 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



treme west. Ou the west side of the couuty 
is; a small lake called Silver lake. There are 
several creeks, but no navigable streams, ex- 
cept the Mississippi. Thei-e are good springs 
in the county. Lithium Springs in the north 
and Schunier Springs in the south are said 
to possess medicinal properties. 

The principal interest of the couuty is 
farming. There are some lead deposits and 
some fine stone. Lithographic stone is found 
ten miles west of Perryville. At one time 
iron ore was mined in the county, but this is 
no longer done. The forests yield consider- 
able products in the shape of lumber and 
railroad ties. The principal crops grown are 
wheat and hay and considerable attention is 
also paid to the growing of fruit. The soil 
seems adapted to fruit growing and it is 
probable that the orchard interests of the 
covmty will increase. Considerable attention 
is also given to stock raising and to poultiy 
farming. There are a number of factories of 
one sort and another, some of which are saw 
mills, flouring mills, distilleries and cream- 
eries, brick yards, ice plants and other minor 
factories. The largest item in the manufac- 
tured products of the county in 1910 was 
flour, which had a value of nearly $200,000. 
The total value of all manufactured articles 
was $320,736. 

The ]\Iissi.ssippi river forms one great high- 
way of commerce, and the county has the 
main line of the 'Frisco from St. Louis to 
Memphis and also is traversed bj' the Cape 
Girardeau & Chester Railway. There are 
many good roads in the county. The total 
length of gravel roads is about 100 miles. 

The present population i.s 14,989 and the 
total taxable wealth is $3,383,273. There are 
61 school districts in the county, employing 
73 teachers. 



The largest town in the county is the 
county seat, Perryville, with a population of 
about 1,500. Other towns are Altenberg, 
which was founded about 1847 by German 
Lutherans and was the original site of Con- 
cordia seminary ; Wittenberg, Longtown, 
Lithium, Crosstown, Brazeau, Frohna, Yoimt 
and LTnionto^\Ti. 

Reynolds county is situated in southern 
Missouri, being three counties north of Ar- 
kansas and five west of the Mississippi river. 
Its area is 830 square miles, or more than 
a half million acres. It was originally 
covered by forests of pine and oak; there 
were other species of timber also, but these 
were the principal ones. Not more than one- 
tenth of the entire area is in cultivation. The 
surface as a whole is mountainous, the soil 
that can be successfully cultivated is found 
in the river bottoms, where it is very rich. 
In the hilly part, the soil is poor and much 
of it has rock. In some few eases there are 
entire cpiarter sections of almost solid rock. 

The principal industry in the county is 
lumbering. Large amounts of lumber and 
railroad ties are shipped out of the county 
every j-ear. Farming interests follow, but 
these are less extensive owing to the small 
area in cultivation. The only factories in 
the county are wood-working establishments, 
flour and grist mills. Stock raising is carried 
on to a considerable extent, as stock may be 
grown in the woods with very little expense 
in many cases. No effort has been made to 
develop the mineral resources, which are 
large. There are fine beds of red granite, 
sandstone and some deposits of iron ore. and 
at some time the mineral resources of the 
count.y will become of very great importance. 
Lumber, ti&s and cooperage made up the 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



521 



greater part of the value of manufactured 
products which in 1910 reached a total of 
more than half a million dollars. 

Black river runs through the county on the 
eastern side and has a number of small tribu- 
taries, the largest being West Fork of Black 
river. There are a number of springs and an 
opportunity is afforded for the use of water 
power which will doubtless receive attention 
in the future. Another industry which will 
probably be developed is fruit growing, as 
much of the soil in the coiuitj' is capable of 
being put into orchards. 

The population of the county is 9, .592 and 
its taxable wealth is $2,369,791. There are 
63 school districts, employing 63 teachers; 
3,099 children of school age are enumerated 
in the county. 

At the present time there is only one rail- 
road in the county, the Missouri Southern, 
which riuis from Leeper. in Wayne county, 
on the Iron ^Mountain, to Corridon, near the 
central part of the county, ilost of the other 
sections of the county are served by the Iron 
Mountain Railroad in Wayne and Iron coun- 
ties. 

There is no incorporated town in the 
count}'. The county seat is Centerville and 
the largest town, perhaps, is Ellington, on the 
railroad. Some of the other smaller places 
are Bunker, Lesterville and West Fork ; of 
these towns Bunker is a railroad town and is 
situated in the midst of a large pine forest 
where large mills cut a great deal of timber 
during the year. 

The county is attractive on account of its 
scenery and also the opportunity for forming 
summer re-sorts, and for hunting and fishing. 
The streams are full of fish and there is still 
game to be found in some portions of the 
county. 



Ripley county is on the Arkansas line, 60 
miles west of the Mississippi river. It con- 
tains 640 square miles of land, about one- 
third of w-hich is in cultivation. Large parts 
of the county are still covered with timber, 
the principal timbers being yellow pint;, 
white oak, black oak and red gum. The 
southeast part of the county is in the low 
lands of Black river. The Mississippi escarp- 
ment, a line of bluffs, runs diagonally 
through the country. The northwest part of 
the eomity is hillj^ and even mountainous. 
Owing to this situation the eastern part of 
tlie county is more densely settled and at the 
present time the land is more valuable. 
Farming and timber working are the prin- 
cipal industries of the county. The ship- 
ments of lumber and other timber products 
are large, perhaps the largest saw-mill in the 
.state is located at Grandin, in Carter county, 
but near the Ripley county line. There are 
large mills also at Doniphan that saw and 
dress large quantities of lumber. Besides 
these there are some portable mills which are 
moved from place to place over the county. 

The manufactured products of the county 
liad a value of $376,677 in 1910. The only 
large item in this total was lumber and 
cooperage, with a value of $289,830. 

The eastern and southern part of the 
county is almost wholly agricultural in its 
interest. The principal farm products are 
cotton and corn. Some livestock is raised and 
the county is within the fruit belt. In time 
orchard products w'ill become one of the im- 
portant features of the county. There are 
considerable deposits of iron ore scattered 
over the western half of the county though 
there are no large attempts made at handling 
ores. Owing to the improved methods of 
handling ore and its increased value it is 



522 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



probable that the miuiug interests of the 
coimty will develop rapidly iu the near 
future. It has been said of the Ripley county 
farmer that he is also a manufacturer and a 
miner. He tills the soil, pastures livestock 
on a ranch, with an axe he makes railroad 
ties, and with a pick axe he collects iron 
ere. This statement, however, applies to the 
farmer living outside of the alluvial section 
of the coiuity, where the soil is rich and pro- 
ductive as any to be found in the state. 

The population of the coimty is 13,099, the 
taxable wealth is $2,879,028. There are 74 
school districts, employing 87 teachers. 
There are two lines of railroad in the county, 
the St. Louis, Iron Rloimtain & Southern, a 
branch line from Poplar Bluff to Doniphan, 
and the Hoxie branch of the St. Louis & San 
Francisco, which cros.ses the southeast corner 
of the county. 

The county seat is Doniphan, with a popu- 
lation of more than 2,000, and a most de- 
lightful town, situated near Current river. 
Other important towns are Naylor, at the 
crossing of the 'Frisco and the Iron IMoun- 
tain, having some manufactories; Varner, 
Fair Dealing, Ponder and Currentview. The 
school s.ystem is well organized in Ripley 
coimty, especially so in Doniphan, which sup- 
ports a good public school, including a well 
organized high school. 

The principal streams are Little Black 
river, which runs through the northeastern 
pai't of the county, Logan creek and Current 
river, which runs through the county from 
north to south dividing it into almost equal 
parts. There are some smaller streams tribu- 
taries of these and a number of fine springs 
and the possibility of developing water power 
on a number of them. Current river is per- 
haps the mo.st beautiful stream in the state. 



St. Francois county is fifty miles south of 
St. Louis and one county w^est of the Missis- 
sippi river. It contains an area of 410 square 
miles, about one-third of which is devoted to 
agriculture. There are two classes of land 
in the county, a high rolling section occupy- 
ing a large area in the southwest corner and 
broken regions adjacent to the principal 
streams and then an area which is gently 
rolling foimd in the eastern and southern 
part of the county. These lands on this 
plateau are free from stone and quite fertile 
indeed. The only poor land in the coimty is 
found in the extreme southwest corner. That 
along the border of the streams is rich and 
fertile as any in the state. 

St. Francois countj^ like most of the other 
counties in the state, had at one time a very 
heavy growth of timber, the most valuable 
being white oak. IMiich of this timber has 
been removed however, especially along the 
line of railroads. Besides white oak there 
were considerable quantities of black oak, 
red oak, sugar maple, walnut, cherry and 
hickory, besides these there were gum, pine 
and elm. There is .still some pine timber as 
well as some other varities in the county. 

The principal interest of the county is min- 
ing. It is the center of the lead district of 
Missouri. Besides lead, in the forms of dis- 
seminated ore, zinc, iron, nickel, copper and 
granite, limestone and sandstone exist in 
workable quantities. Of these minerals the 
most important is lead. St. Francois county 
has produced more than 70 per cent of the 
lead of ]\Iissouri for a great many years. 
During the year 1910 there were produced 
211.845 tons of lead, large quantities of 
barytes, iron ore, sand, granite and other 
mineral products. 

The farming interests of the county are 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



523 



also large. The chief products gro\Mi are 
wheat, corn and hay. Livestock is raised, 
making large shipments every year of cattle, 
hogs and sheep. Considerable attention is 
given to orchards and gardens. The prin- 
cipal factories are flouring mills which manu- 
factmre large quantities of high grade flour, 
saw mills, planing mills, oi'e reduction works, 
granite quarries and brick factories. The 
total of manufactured products in 1910 was 
$7.305,82.5. Of this amount the products of 
the smelters furnished .$6,556,423. The other 
large items were flour and the products of 
the car shops. St. Francois is surpassed in 
the value of manufactured products by only 
one county in the southeast — Jeffei'son. It is 
first in population, wealth and total value of 
all products. 

The railroads in the county are the St. 
Louis, Iron Moiuitain & Southern main line, 
the Belmont branch which runs through the 
county, the Missouri Southern, from Ste. 
Genevieve to Bismarck, and the Mississippi 
River & Bonne Terre, from Doe Run to River- 
side, in Jeiferson county. Besides these the 
St. Francois County Interurban line runs 
from De Lassus through Farmington to Flat 
River. 

The population of the county is 35,738 and 
its total taxable wealth is $9,969,403. There 
are 63 school districts, employing 168 teach- 
ers, and an enumeration of more than 10,000 
children of school age. 

The principal incorporated towTis in the 
county are Farmington, the county seat, near 
the central part of the county and having a 
population of about 2,673, and Flat River, in 
the mining district, with a population of 
5,012. Besides these incorporated towns 
there are a number of to-mis in the lead belt 
with large populations which are not incor- 
porated. The largest of these is Bonne Terre, 



with more than 5,000 people. Others are Doe 
Run, Des Loge, Elvins, Esther and Lead- 
wood, which are mining centers. Bismarck, 
on the Iron Mountain Railroad, has a popu- 
lation of 848 ; and De Lassus, Iron Mountain, 
Knob Lick, Libertyville and Syenite. Syenite 
is the site of a great granite quai'ry, the 
largest in the state, and is situated just west 
of Knob Lick. Farmington has large manu- 
facturing interests and is the seat of Carle- 
ton College, Elmwood Seminary and State 
Hospital No. 4, for the insane. 

Ste. Genevieve coimty is fifty miles south 
of St. Louis, on the Mississippi river. There 
are 450 square miles of land surface, about 
one-third of which is cultivated. A large 
part of the surface is rolling, and much of 
which is covered with timber, but along the 
]\Iississippi river and other water courses 
there are extensive tracts of bottom land. 
This is alluvial soil and is very fertile and 
productive. The upland, where it is farmed, 
is' well adapted to wheat growing. In the 
alluvial soil corn and fruit are grown. About 
60 per cent of the county has timber pro- 
ducts, the chief timbers being black oak, 
though there are quantities of white oak, 
walnut, hickory and pecan. 

The chief interest of the county is farming. 
The principal products are wheat and corn, 
though a large area is given up to the grow- 
ing of hay. Livestock interests are exten- 
sive, and considerable attention is given to 
poultry raising, and dairying and horticul- 
ture are important items. The mineral in- 
terests of the county are also extensive, there 
being deposits of copper, lead, zinc, iron, 
glass sand, kaolin, marble and building stone. 
All of these exist in quantities large enough 
to make mining a commercial possibility. 
The building stone is especially valuable. 



524 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Some fiue marble is foimd near the central 
part of the county and the large deposits of 
glass sand are of importance. At one time 
a plate-glass factory was projected for Ste. 
Genevieve to nse this sand. It was not 
erected, however. I\Iost of the sand that is 
taken out is sent to Crystal City. The prin- 
cipal products are marble, brick and lime. 
There are several .small nui'series and a num- 
ber of vine.yards where wine is produced, and 
other smaller manufacturing interests are 
also represented. The manufactured pro- 
ducts of the county in 1910 were worth $1,- 
199,039, the principal item being flour. Lime 
was also a large item. 

The county is bordered on the east by the 
Mississippi river, which has as tributaries 
within the county the river A\ix Vases, 
Establishment, Bois, and Saline creeks. There 
are a number of fine springs in the county 
also. The ^lississippi river affords transpor- 
tation facilities and the county is traversed 
by the main line of the St. Louis & San Fran- 
cisco, liy the Cape Girardeau & Chester, and 
by the Illinois Southern. 

The ]iopulation of the county is 10,607 and 
the total taxable wealth is $2,940,924. There 
are 54 school districts, employing 59 teachers. 
The population of the county is about one- 
half German and German descent and the 
other half is made up of both French and 
Americans. Ste. Genevieve, the county seat, 
is the largest town in the county and the 
oldest in the state. St. Clary's has a popu- 
lation of about 800 and there are some other 
smaller towns, among them being Brickeys, 
New Offenberg and Zell. 

Scott county is situated on the Mississippi 
river, and is about 140 miles south of St. 
Louis. It contains an area of 277,760 acres, 
ncarl\- one-half of which is in cultivation. It 



was at one time heavily timbered, the prin- 
cipal varieties being gum, white oak, black 
oak, maple, cypress, cottonwood and poplar. 
There are still 100,000 acres of timber, most 
of which, however, has been cut over and the 
most valuable timber removed. The comity 
is level with the exception of the range of 
hills kno\^'n as the Scott county or Com- 
uieree hills. These are in the northeast cor- 
ner and are part of the Ozark plateau. The 
soil is fertile, especially so on the ridge 
known as the Sikeston ridge, and the princi- 
pal crops are wheat and corn, though melons 
are also grown extensively. Perhaps Scott 
countj- produces more watermelons and 
cantaloupes than any other county in the 
state. The chief shipping point for melons 
is Blodgett, which In 1911 shipped more than 
six hundred cars of melons. 

There are some minerals found in the 
county, among them iron, limestone, sand- 
stone and several varieties of clays, including 
pottery, brick and clay suitable for making 
paint. Yellow ochre also occurs on the west 
side of the hills near Oran. Iron does not 
occur in commercial quantities, though there 
are traces of it in a number of places. The 
total value of manufactured articles in 1910 
was $2,115,796. Flour, feed and meal made 
up .^1. 126. 556 of this amount. Tlie products 
of car shops and lumber were the other large 
items. 

The coiuity is well supplied with transpor- 
tation facilities. Heavy freight is moved on 
the Jlississippi river, which forms the eastern 
border of the county, and it contains several 
railroads. The Belmont branch of the St. 
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and also 
the Cairo branch, the main line of the 'Frisco 
between St. Louis and Memphis runs through 
the county, as does the St. Louis & Gulf 
branch of the 'Frisco. The extreme southern 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



525 



part of the county is crossed by the St. Louis 
Southwestern sj^steni. 

The principal town is Silceston, on the 
'Frisco and tlie Iron Mountain. It is one of 
the fastest growing towns in this part of the 
state, and now has a population of about 
3,500. It is a center of unusually fine farm- 
ing country, and one of the principal indus- 
tries of the town is the manufacture of flour. 
There are two large flouring mills, and a high 
grade of flour is produced. Besides its flour- 
ing mills there are some woodworking plants 
which are using up the timber in the vicinity. 
Benton, one of the oldest towns in the county, 
is the county seat, situated about one-half 
mile from the St. Louis & Gulf. Commerce, 
on the Mississippi river, has a population of 
about 700, and is a freight shipping point, 
and has a flour mill and cooper plant. Oran, 
which is a railroad junction, is also an im- 
portant shipping point, especially for melons 
and wheat. Jlorley is the third town in size, 
having a population of 600; it is also a rail- 
road junction, and is the center of the canta- 
loupe country of the county. Besides these, 
there are some smaller towns, Diehlstadt, 
New Hamburg. Vanduser, Gray's Point and 
Kelso. 

The population of the coiuity is 22,372 and 
its total taxable wealth is $5,773,958. There 
is a good system of public schools, there be- 
ing 54 school districts, employing 103 teach- 
ers. A large part of the population of the 
coimty is American, though there are some 
settlements of Germans made before the M^ar. 

Stoddard coimty is one of the largest coun- 
ties in the state, having 840 square miles, or 
more than half a million acres. The middle 
part of the county, north to south, is hilly, 
being a part of Crowley's ridge, which 



swings in a broad curve from near Bell City 
through Ai-kansas to Helena. On the east 
edge of this ridge in Stoddard county the 
average height is about 100 feet, and the 
Cotton Belt railroad follows this ridge on the 
east side for a long distance. On the west 
the ridge .slopes gradually to the level of the 
Black river and St. Francois bottoms. The 
ridge land is about one-half of the area of the 
county. Its soil is yellow-red clay, mixed 
with sand, and it is underlaid with a gravelly 
clay. About fifteen per cent of this ridge 
land is still timbered, the greater part of it 
being in cultivation. East of the ridge is the 
lowland of Little river bottom, of which the 
very much greater part is not yet improved. 
Stoddard county is developing its swamp 
land very rapidly by a system of drainage. 
The soil thus reclaimed is alluvial soil of a 
high degree of fertility. West of Crowley's 
ridge is the swamp of Black river and St. 
Francois, which resembles in general char- 
acteristics that of Little river. 

The principal productions of the coimty 
are farm products, corn and wheat being the 
most important, and timber. At one time the 
timber interests were very extensive, and 
large quantities of staves and heading, as 
well as lumber, were manufactured at Bloom- 
field, Dexter and other points. Of late years, 
however, the timber is well cut out, except 
in the swamps. Even here, the best timber 
has been cut. About one-half of the area of 
the county is still timbered. Besides the 
staple crops mentioned, cotton is grown in 
the south part of the county, and is ginned 
at two or three points. Flour is manufac- 
tured, especially at Dexter and Bloomfield. 
A good grade of pottery clay is found near 
Bloomfield and there is an establishment for 
making pottery there. The manufactured 



526 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



products of the county reached a total of 
$1,676,351 in 1910. The large items were 
flour, lumber, cooperage and cotton. 

The coimt.y has the following railroads: 
the St. Louis, Iron Mouutaiu & Southern, 
Cairo branch ; the St. Louis Southwestern 
and the 'Frisco. Most of the coiuity is well 
supplied with railroad facilities. 

The principal towns are Dexter and Bloom- 
field. The latter is the county seat, and is 
supported largely by farming interests since 
the removal of the wood-working plants. 
Dexter is now the largest to-\\'n, made so 
largely because of its superior shipping facil- 
ities and in part by the fact that large bodies 
of timber are still available near Dexter. The 
population of the comity is 27,807, and its 
total taxable wealth is $6,452,077. There are 
107 school districts, employing 151 teachers, 
and the school system of the coimty is one 
of the best in Southeast Missouri. 

Washington county, one of the oldest in 
the state, is fifty miles south of the Missouri 
river and about forty west of the Mississippi. 
It is in the heart of the mineral district, and 
its principal industry is mining. The comity 
contains 780 square miles, or nearly half a 
million acres, and of this immense area only 
about 100,000 acres, or one-fifth, is farmed. 
The remainder of the county, amoimting to 
about 400,000 acres, is still timbered, the 
principal varieties being oak, yellow pine, 
hickory, maple and walnut. White oak is 
the most abundant timber and the most valu- 
able. It amounts to about 35 per cent of the 
remaining timber, and black oak, foiand 
chiefly in the western and southwestern parts 
of the county, amounts to about 25 per cent. 

There are three general classes of lands in 
the county. In the northeast part there is a 
table land where is to be foimd the most 



valuable of farming lands. The surface is 
gently rolling and well drained. The soil is 
gravelly clay, sometimes covered with rocks. 
The sub-soil is usually a red clay. This is 
fairl.y productive land and is well adapted to 
fruit growing. In the southeast part of the 
coimty there are also some high, rolling lands 
suitable for farming, while in the western 
part the land is broken, the only farm land 
in this county being foimd in the valleys of 
the .streams. 

There is scarcely a mineral known to South- 
east Missouri that is not found in consider- 
able quantities in Washington coimty. Of 
these minerals the most valuable and im- 
portant is lead. Lead mines have been oper- 
ated in the county from about 1780, when the 
mine known as IMine a Breton was discovered, 
near the present site of Potosi. This is the 
center of the lead mining district. Another 
is about Old Mines, and another is foimd at 
Palmer, in the western part of the coimty. 
In the early times, mines were worked on 
the Mineral fork of Big river. 

The production of lead is no longer as large 
as it once was, but in 1910 nearly 1,000 tons 
of lead ore were shipped from the county. 
Besides lead, barytes, zinc, iron, copper, clay, 
limestone and sandstone are found in paying 
quantities, and all of them are being mined 
and exported. In 1910, 25,000 tons of 
barytes were shipped from the county. In 
1910 there were manufactured in the county 
products to an amount of $308,096. The 
large items were cooperage, floiar, mineral 
products and lumber. 

The only railroad in the coimty is the St. 
Louis, Iron Moimtain & Southern, which 
touches the western edge, and a branch of 
this .system extending from Mineral Point to 
Potosi. The coimty has a fine system of roads 
which extend in every direction from Potosi. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



527 



There are more than sixty miles of good rock 
roads within the limits of the county. 

There are a number of streams, the most 
important being Big river, but Indian creek, 
Fourche a Renault and Mine a Breton creeks 
are also important streams. There is an op- 
portvmity for the development of water 
power on some of these. 

Potosi, the county seat, is the principal 
towTi in the county. Its population is 840. 
It has a flour mill, stave factory and mining 
interests. Irondale is a mining town in the 
east pai-t of the county, and Caledonia, the 
old seat of IMarvin institute, has flour mills 
and mineral interests. Other towns are Bel- 
grade, Richwoods, Shirley and Blackwell. 
The population of the county is 13,378, and 
its total taxable wealth is $3,250,-1:10. There 
are 71 school districts, employing 84 teachers. 
The nearness to St. Louis makes possible the 
growing of vegetables in a profitable way, 
and also makes residence in the county much 
more pleasant than it would otherwise be. 

At one time Wayne county embraced about 
one-fourth of the area of the state. It has 
been reduced by the formation of other coim- 
ties until its area is now about 500,000 acres. 
Of this only a small part, less than one-fifth, 
has been put into cultivation. The remain- 
der is largely timbei'ed land. At one time 
the whole county was covered with an im- 
mense forest, principally pine, oak, cotton- 
wood, gum and maple. The greater part of 
the valuable timber has been removed, though 
there is still some pine and oak to be fownd. 
The land is hilly, being mountainous in the 
northwest part where the coimty joins Iron 
county. There are some river valleys, ap- 
proximating about 15,000 acres, that are ex- 
ceedingly productive. The other soil in the 
county consists of upland and is of two kinds. 



limestone, which is free from surface rock 
(this centers around Patterson), and then 
there is a gravelly clay, where considerable 
rock occurs, foimd in most other parts of the 
county. All the land in the county which 
may be farmed at all is fairly productive. 

The principal interests in the coimty are 
farming and lumbering, though mining em- 
ploys a considerable number of men also. 
The principal crops are corn and wheat. At 
one time the county produced more pine lum- 
ber than any other county in the state. There 
were then immense mills at Greenville and 
Williamsville, employing thousands of men. 
With the practical exhaustion of pine timber, 
however, these large mills have ceased to 
exist, and the timber is worked up by smaller 
mills which can be moved from place to place. 
The value of the eoimty's manufactured pro- 
ducts in 1910 was $396,770. The largest item 
was lumber. Other important products were 
flour and cooperage. 

The largest town is Piedmont, which is a 
division point on the main line of the Iron 
Mountain. It is in the western part of the 
county. The county seat, Greenville, is on 
the St. Francois river and is connected with 
the Iron Mountain system by the Williams- 
ville, Greenville & St. Louis Railroad, an in- 
dependent line, built in order . to carry the 
immense quantities of lumber manufactiired 
at Greenville to the railroad at Williamsville. 
Williamsville is the third town in the coimty. 
It has timber and farming interests, and 
there are also some iron mines in the vicinity. 

The population of the county is 15,181, 
and its total taxable wealth $2,979,166. There 
are 73 school districts, employing 95 teachers. 

The transportation facilities are good in 
the western and southern parts of the covmty. 
The main line of the Iron Moimtain runs 
near the western line, and the south part of 



528 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the county is crossed by the 'Frisco and the 
Missouri Southern extends from Leeper into 
Reynolds county. There are a number of 
streams, the principal one being the St. Fran- 
cois river, which runs through the county 
from north to south, dividing it into practic- 
ally equal parts. Black river is in the west- 
ern part of the coiuity, and is paralleled 



through a considerable part of its length by 
the Iron ilountain railroad. 

The population of the coimty is very 
largely American born. In 1905 there were 
only 126 foreign born persons and only 115 
negroes. The value of manufactured pro- 
ducts in 1010 was .$396,770. Of this amount, 
lumber and flour represented about three- 
fourths. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
THE NEWSPAPERS 



Cape Girardeau — The First Paper — Bollinger — Butler — Carter — Dunklin — 
Iron — Jefferson — ]\Iadison — Mississippi — New Madrid — Pemiscot — Perry — 
Reynolds — Ripley — St. Francois — Ste. Genevieve — Scott — Stoddard — Wash- 
ington — Wayne — The Great Work of Newspapers. 



This chapter is intended to give an account 
of the newspapers of this district. It is 
hardly possible that it is entirely full and 
accurate, because of the difficulty in ascer- 
taining all the facts concerning some of the 
early papers. It does include within it, how- 
-ever, a mention of the principal papers that 
have been published from time to time in this 
part of the state, and it is believed that it 
has a record of all the papers now being pub- 
lished. Newspaper enterprise began in South- 
east Missouri at a very early date. The 
settlers soon felt the need of some medium 
for the exchange of news, and a forum for 
the discussion of public questions. It was, 
perhaps, this latter need that led to the 
founding of the earliest papers, for it was 
not until the great discussion which arose 
from the admission of the state into the 
Union, and the formation of its constitution, 
that a paper was published here. 

So far as can now be ascertained, the first 
paper in Southeast Missouri, and the second 
one published outside of the city of St. Louis, 
was the Missouri Herald, the publication of 
which was begun in 1819, at Jackson, by T. 



E. Strange. Strange soon transferred the 
paper to James Russell who, in 1825, sold it 
to William Joluison. Johnson changed the 
name of the paper to the Independent Pa- 
triot, and later to The Mercury. In 1831 it 
passed from Johnson to R. W. Renfroe and 
Greer W. Davis, who published it for a short 
time imder the title of the Jackson Eagle. 
In 1835 its name was changed to the South- 
ern Advocate and State Journal. It was 
moved to Cape Girardeau and published 
there at first by Dr. Patrick Henry Davis, 
and later by Robert Burns. In 1845 it was 
returned to Jackson and was now called the 
Jackson Review, being published by Wagner 
and McFerron. In 1849 its name was again 
changed to the Southern Advocate, the pub- 
lisher being H. S. McFarland. McFarland 
published it only until 1850 when it went into 
the hands of J. W. Limbaugh, who renamed 
it the Southern Democrat. It was Democratic 
in politics, and its motto was "The constitu- 
tion in its purity, the bulwark of American 
liberty." Limbaugh continued its publica- 
tion until his death in 1852. At that time 
the name was changed to the Jeffersonian, 
and the publication continued by Robert 



Vol. 1—3 4 



529 



530 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Bro^^Ti. In 1853 it was succeeded bj' the 
Jackson Courier, of which Joel "Wilkinson 
was editor and proprietor. "Wilkinson con- 
tinued its pubHcation nntil the breaking out 
of the Civil war, when the newspaper was 
suspended. 

On August -ith, 1871, ther appeared the 
first issue of the Missouri Cash Book at Jack- 
son. It was foimded by "W. S. Malone, and 
he continued as eoitor and proprietor luitil 
June, 1875. For a time it was conducted by 
the Cash Book Publishing and Printing Com- 
pany. They sold it to D. D. Hampton, who 
died within a year of his purchase. It was 
then published by A. S. Coker, and later by 
Coker & Honey, until January, 1882, when 
Coker sold his interest to F. A. McGuire. In 
June, 1883, McGuire became the sole propri- 
etor, and has continued the publication up to 
this time. 

The Cash Book is imique among the older 
papers of this section in that it has never 
changed either in name or political faith. It 
was established as a Democratic weekly and 
ha.s continued as such up to the present. It 
is one of the oldest papers in this part of the 
state issued under its original management, 
and is an influential and ably conducted 
journal. Mr. McGuire 's long association in 
the newspaper world has given him a fimd 
of information about newspapers and news- 
paper men that is exceedingly valuable. 

The Deutscher Volks Freiind was estab- 
lished in 1886, the fii'st number appearing on 
March 11th. Its editor was Frederick Kies, 
and it was published in the German lan- 
guage. The publication has continued do-\vn 
to the present time. Mr. Kies still conducts 
it with distinguished ability, and the paper 
has a large circulation among the German 
population of Cape Girardeau and surroimd- 



ing counties. For several years Mr. Kies has 
published in connection with it an English 
paper called the Jackson Items. 

The Comet Avas issued at Jackson for a 
short time, about 1895, by W. S. "Wilkinson. 
It was a Populist paper and soon disap- 
peared. 

The first newspaper printed in Cape 
Girardeau was Tlie Patriot, established in 
1836 by Edwin H. "White. "White was a 
"^^hig and published his paper in the interest 
of that party; however, he experienced the 
usual difficulty attendant upon newspaper 
publication in Southeast Missouri and sus- 
pended his paper after a short time. In 1843 
John "W. Morrison established another "Whig 
paper called The South Missouri. The West- 
ern Eagle and Marble City News were pub- 
lished in 1866, and Democracy; by "William 
Gruelle. James Lindsay for a few years . 
edited a paper called The Censor about 1846, 
and a paper called The Argus was estab- 
lished in 1869 and published for a short time. 
The first German paper was the Westliche 
Post, established in 1871. The Courier began 
to be published in 1878 and the Mississippi 
Valley Globe in 1872. The Cape Talk was 
published for a while in 1856 and a religious 
paper called The Baptist Headlight in 1896. 

In 1876 a paper called The Democrat was 
established as a weekly and later made a 
daily about 1888, and published for many 
years by Benjamin H. Adams. Publication 
of The Democrat was discontinued in 1907. 
The SoutJieast Gazette, a weekly, was estab- 
lished in 1898 by Joseph Flynn and con- 
tinued by him for several .years. In 1893, 
The Neiv Era began but was published only 
for a short time. It was published by Minton 
& Shelton. In the same year D. L. Hoffman 
published a paper which he called the Be- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST AlISSOURI 



531 



view. It was independent in politics. In 
1895, Larey & Hoffman issued a few numbers 
of a paper called the Spice-Box. It was a 
Democratic weekly. In 1899, C. D. Tresen- 
writer established the Progress. He con- 
tinued its publication until 1908. The Pro- 
gress was Democratic in political affiliations. 
In that year, too, D. L. Hoffman issued some 
numbers of the Optimist. 

In 1901, the Cape Girardeau News Pub- 
lishing Company began to publish a daily 
and weekly called the News. Its publication 
was soon discontinued. 

In 1900, The Republican was established. 
One year later it came into the hands of 
Naeter Bros. They began to issue it as both 
a daily and weekly and soon established it 
as the leading newspaper in Cape Girardeau. 
At the present time it is issued from a well- 
equipped plant and is one of the leading 
papers of the state. 

In 1911, the Herald, which had been pub- 
lished at Jackson since its establishment in 
1899, by B. F. Lusk, M-as removed to Cape 
Girardeau and it is now edited by Fred 
Goyert. 

In 1907 Dix Walker established the Oak- 
ridge Indicator and continued it for a num- 
ber of years. In the same year The White- 
water Times began to be published at "White- 
water. It had a brief existence. 

It seems that the first paper in Bollinger 
coimty was the Standard, which was estab- 
lished abomt 1868 by a Mr. Osborne. He con- 
tinued its publication for only a short time 
and then sold it to Col. Lindsay Murdoch, 
the Civil war veteran. Col. Murdoch con- 
tinued in charge of the paper until 1874, 
when he sold it and it was removed to Fred- 
ericktown. It was, of course, a Republican 
paper. The first Democratic paper was the 



Herald. Thomas Johnson was the owner and 
editor of the Herald and he strongly opposed 
Murdoch and the Standard. In 1883 this 
paper was also sold and was taken to Iron- 
ton. 

In 1881, George W. Harrington estab- 
lished a paper which he called the Reflector. 
After a short time he sold it to James G. 
Finney, who published it for many years as 
the Press. At the present time the Press is 
owned by Hill & Chandler and edited by 
Dean B. Hill. It is a Democratic paper and 
has an established place. 

The Palladium was a paper established in 
1878 by P. T. Pigg. After two years he sold 
it to the Herald. After J. G. Finney dis- 
posed of the Press he published the Times for 
several years, beginning in 1896. All the 
papers mentioned were conducted in Marble 
Hill, the county seat. 

The only other paper in Bollinger county 
is the Lutesville Banner. It was established 
in 1891. It was edited by a number of per- 
sons, among them Thomas R. Green. The 
present editor is F. A. Wiggs. The Banner 
is Republican in politics. 

The first paper in Butler coumty was the 
Black River Neivs, established at Poplar 
Bluff in 1869, under the management of G. 
L. Poplin and G. T. Bartlett. Bartlett's con- 
nection with the paper was soon terminated 
and it was then called Poplin's Black River 
News until 1874. W. T. Kitchen and George 
H. Kelly purchased the paper at that time 
and changed the name to the Headlight. It 
became the Poplar Bluff Citizen in 1877 
under the management of George H. Crumb, 
and still continues under that name. Two 
new papers were established in Poplar Bluff 
in 1875, one the Black River Country and 
the other the New Era. They lasted for only 



532 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST ]\nSSOURI 



a few months. In 1879 the Soutlieast Mis- 
sourian was begun, but was later sold to the 
owners of the Citizen. Judge John G. Wear, 
a lawj'er, began the publication of the Reno- 
vator in 1882, but he, too, sold to the Citizen 
about two years later. In 1887 the office was 
purchased by W. L. Oury, and in April, 1888, 
George H. Crumb issued the first number of 
the Reimblic. The publication of this paper 
was continued for only a short time. 

After Mr. Crumb's retirement from the 
Citizen it was conducted by a number of 
editors. George H. Kelly held the place for 
a time. He was succeeded by Thomas M. 
Johnson, and he by George H. Thomas. In 
1882 the paper came into possesion of Hedges 
& Batterton, with Batterton as editor. Dur- 
ing their owTiership Richard L. Metcalfe, 
later a famous newspaper man of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, was a writer for the paper. Joe 
C. Berner became the owner in 1895 and 
established the daily edition in 1897. Later 
it absorbed a paper called the Democrat and 
the consolidated paper is known as the Citi- 
zen-Democrat. The present publishers are 
Ferguson & Adams and the paper has both a 
daily and weekly edition and is a prosperous 
and flourishing enterprise. 

There were many other newspaper ven- 
tures dviring the years that the Citizen was 
being developed. One of these was a real 
estate trade journal called the Southern Land 
Owner, which was conducted for a time by 
E. R. Lentz. It was devoted to the intere.sts 
of the real estate business in surrounding 
communities. Another was the Advocate, 
published in 1893 by W. L. Oury. 

The Republican was founded in 1890 by 
J. T. Davidson. It was devoted to the inter- 
ests of the Republican party in opposition to 
the Citizen, which was Democratic in politics. 
For a number of years it was conducted by 



L. F. Tromley. At present the Republicaii 
is published by D. L. Burnside and has both 
weekly and daily editions. It is one of the 
progressive and influential papers in this 
part of Missouri. 

There is only one paper published in Car- 
ter comity. This is the Current Local, which 
was founded in 1884. It is a Democratic 
weekly and is owned and edited by Oliver W. 
Chilton. 

In 1907, when Grandin was perhaps the 
greatest saw-mill town in the state if not in 
the world, Elbert C. White established a Re- 
publican paper there which he called the 
Grandin Herald. It received considerable 
support for a time but was not permanently 
successful and finally had to be discontinued. 

The first newspaper published in Dunklin 
county was the Dunklin County Herald, es- 
tablished in 1872 at Kennett. In the same 
year the Missouri Democra<:y was removed 
from Cape Girardeau to Clarkton and these 
two were afterward consolidated and pub- 
lished at Kennett. 

In 1872 a paper called the Advertiser was 
established at Clarkton by Albert & Baldwin. 
It later became the property of Charles E. 
Stokes who changed its name to the Enter- 
prise and improved it in many ways. In 
1876 this paper was moved to Kennett. but 
like the previous veutiires it was discontinued 
after a short time. 

The next paper published in the county 
was called the DunMin County Advocate and 
was established in October, 1877, at Clark- 
ton, by AV. R. ]McDaniel. It later came under 
control of John W. Baldwin and was moved 
to Kennett. In 1879 it was purchased by 
Charles E. Stokes and removed to Maiden. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



533 



Here its name was changed to Maiden Clip- 
per. It was then taken to Kennett in 1886, 
and its publication discontinued in 1887. 

The publication of the Kennett Clipper 
was begun in March, 1888, by R. H. Jones, 
who had had previous newspaper experience 
in Dexter and in JIalden. After some years, 
Ligon Jones, a brother of R. H., became in- 
terested in the paper and they continued it 
until in April, 1903. when it was sold to the 
Dunklin Coiuitj^ Publishing Company, a cor- 
poration. This publishing company con- 
tinued to issue the paper, at tirst under the 
editorship of O. S. Harrison for about five 
months. E. P. Caruthers was then made 
editor and the name of the paper was changed 
to the Dunklin Democrat. Since that time 
it has continued under the management of 
Mr. Caruthers and has been published a total 
of 980 weeks without having missed a single 
number. The Democrat is an able and in- 
fluential paper and is conduqted along busi- 
ness lines. It is published in a well-equipped 
plant belonging to the publishing company. 

In 1902 the Dunklin County Mail was es- 
tablished at Kennett, by Rev. J. H. Peay. He 
continued its publication for a time and the 
office was closed. The property came into the 
hands of a company which issued it for a 
time as the Dunklin County Herald. Later it 
disappeared. 

When the Maiden Clipper was moved to 
Kennett in 1886 John P. Allen and R. G. 
Sandidge began the publication of the Dunk- 
lin County News. Others were interested in 
its management from time to time. T. L. 
Roussin, who had experience with a number 
of southea.st papers, was interested in it for 
a time. One of the men trained luider him 
was Casper M. Edwards, who secured control 
of the News, organized a company called the 
Edwards Publishing Company and carried on 



its publication for a number of years. Ed- 
\\ards was a brilliant and forcible writer. He 
finally disposed of the paper to the Maiden 
Printing Company and Daniel J. Keller be- 
came its editor and manager. Under his 
management the News became a prosperous 
and influential paper. He continued its pub- 
lication until 1910, when he was succeeded as 
editor and manager by Lyman P. Jackson, 
who continues its publication. 

During all its existence until the present 
management the News has been Democratic, 
but it is now conducted as an independent 
paper. 

About 1895 E. G. Henderson, of Arkansas, 
brought a paper to Maiden called the Even- 
ing Shade. He continued its publication as 
a Democratic weekly for a short time and 
then moved it away. Other attempts have 
been made to conduct papers in the town but 
all of them met with very limited success 
until the Merit began to be issued in 1904. 

The first issue was gotten out July 1, 1904, 
by R. L. "White and J. C. Shores. "White was 
editor and manager of the paper and in 
September, 1910, became also the sole owner 
by the purchase of the interest of Shores. 
The Merit is independent in politics, has es- 
tablished a place for itself, and is in a pros- 
perous condition. 

The Campbell Citizen was established in 
1901 by C. D. Bray and Jas. Sanders. It 
was piiblished during the first few years by a 
number of persons, being transferred from 
hand to hand. In December, 1901, it came 
imder the control and ownership of B. "W. 
Overall and son, and they have continued its 
publication ever since that time. The Citizen 
is a Democratic paper and devoted very 
largely to the building up of Campbell and 
the immediate vicinity. A few years before 
the founding of the Citizen D. L. Mabie had 



bU 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



issued a few numbers of a paper he called 
The Independent. It was not successful and 
was soon discontinued. 

Senath, in Dunklin county, has had a 
varied experience with newspapers. About 
1902 Jas. A. Bradley established a paper 
which he called the Star. It was soon discon- 
tinued. Later a paper called the Farmers' 
Union Advocate was issued for a while. Other 
papers followed. Some of them suffered 
financial shipwreck. At present the Leader 
is being issued by John Mann. 

The first paper published in Arcadia was 
The Arcadia Prospect, with A. Coulter as 
proprietor and W. L. Favor as editor. This 
was in 1859. After a short time it was re- 
moved to Ironton and in 1861 the publication 
was discontinued. One year before this time 
The Furnace had been established in Ironton 
by James Lindsay. The Furnace was a Free 
Soil paper, but it, too, was discontinued in 
1861. About the breaking out of the war a 
religious paper known as The Baptist Journal 
was established by Rev. "William Polk, but he, 
too, was forced to discontiniae during the war. 
In 1865 The Ironton Forge was started by 
Eli D. Ake, using the material which had 
formerly belonged to The Furnace. This was 
the entrance upon newspaper life of probably 
the oldest editor in this part of the state. In 
1866 The Forge was sold to G. A. and J. L. 
Moser, who called the publication The South- 
east Missouri Enterprise, but discontinued its 
publication in 1873. In 1866 The Review, a 
Democratic paper, was founded by R. E. 
Craig. The name of the paper was changed 
to the Iron County Register in July, 1867, 
with Thomas Essex and W. H. Winfield as 
editors. This paper was purchased in 1869 
by Eli D. Ake and C. K. Miller. In 1871 Mr. 



Ake became the sole proprietor and since 
that time has owned and edited the Iron 
County Register, perhaps the longest contin- 
uous control of any paper in Southeast Mis- 
souri. Mr. Ake is regarded as the dean of 
newspaper men in this section, not only be- 
cause of his long service, but also because of 
his real ability as an editor. The Register is 
one of the most influential papers of this sec- 
tion. In 1870 Robert L. Lindsay established 
R campaign paper called The Liberal at Iron- 
ton, and The Commonwealth, an independent 
religious paper, was conducted by Crawford 
and Duncan for a few months in 1874. The 
Herald, a Democratic paper established in 
1884, b.y John Smith, which suspended publi- 
cation in a short time, was another Ironton 
enterprise. 

In 1897 the Rcpuhlican was established by 
G. H. Broadwell. It was later edited by C. 
A. Byers and was discontinued about 1902. 
Byers transferred the office to Arcadia and 
established the Arcadia Valley Enterprise. 
The Enterprise is a Republican paper and is 
at present imder the control of Fuller Swift. 

A non-political paper called Columbian 
Reciprocity was published for a short time in 
Ironton about 1893. It had no particialar 
patronage and was soon discontinued. 

The first newspaper in Jefferson coimty was 
established at DeSoto in 1859 by E. E. Fur- 
ber. He continued its publication until 
forced to suspend by the breaking out of the 
war. No attempt was made to conduct an- 
other paper in DeSoto until 1869, when C. D. 
Clarke established a paper which he called 
The Republican. It was Republican in pol- 
itics, but its publication was suspended within 
a short time. 

In 1890 a company was organized at 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



535 



DeSoto to publish a paper called the DeSoto 
Fads. Just as in other cases it was discon- 
tinued after a time. 

In 1893 the Mitehim Publishing Company 
began to issue a paper which they called the 
Press. The editor was J. F. Mitehim, who 
was for a long time connected with news- 
paper enterprise in Southeast Missouri, edit- 
ing at various times a number of papers. 
The Press is still published and is edited by 
C. C. Mitehim, who became editor in 1906. It 
is a Democratic paper with a wide circulation 
and considerable influence. 

The only other paper now published at 
DeSoto is the Jefferson County Rcjnihlican, a 
Republican paper edited and published by W. 
E. Crow. 

The oldest and one of the most inflviential 
papers in Jefferson county is the Jefferson 
County Democrat at Hillsboro. It was estab- 
lished immediately after the war in 1865, and 
has been continuously published since that 
time. A family of newsp)aper men have been 
identified with this paper. The member of 
this family now in control is R. W. McMul- 
lin. Mr. McMullin has a wide acquaintance 
with Missouri history and has a valuable col- 
lection of historical material of various kinds. 

The Jefferson County "Record, also pub- 
lished at Hillsboro is the Republican rival of 
the Democrat. Its editor is John H. Reppy. 
Mr. Reppy is a practicing lawyer, but is a 
man of literary turn of mind, has a wide ac- 
quaintance with the history of the state and 
publishes a good paper. The Record is the 
successor of the New Era, which was estab- 
lished at Hillsboro in 1903 by the New Era 
Publishing Co. 

Festus, in Jefferson county, has two papers 
at the present. The Festus News is a Demo- 
cratic paper published by H. L. Marbary ; the 



Tri-City Independent is Republican in politics 
?nd is published by W. P. Brent. 

For a number of years J. J. Wilson pub- 
lished a paper at Hillsboro, which he called 
the Jefferson County Crystal Mirror. It was 
a Republican paper and for a time received 
considerable support, but finally ceased to be 
issued. 

The first paper in Madison coimty was 
called the Espial. It was established in 1847 
by James Lindsay, and was the first Free Soil 
paper in the state. Its publication ceased 
after a very short time. In 1885 the Fred- 
ericktowH Journal was established by W. H. 
Booth, but was discontinued in September, 
1861, and no other paper was published in the 
town until after the close of the war. S. 
Henrj^ Smith established the Conservative in 
1866, and sold the office to Charles E. BarroU 
two years later, who changed the name to the 
Bee. In a short time this paper was pur- 
chased by E. P. Caruthers, and in 1875 he 
combined it with the Plaindealer, which was 
established by William Gosner in 1874. 
J'rom 1876 to 1882 the paper was published 
by W. J. Collier. At a later date it passed 
into the control of 0. K. Clardy. The next 
paper established in Fredericktown was the 
Standard, the publication of which was be- 
gim in 1887 by E. D. Anthony. Among 
other papers which were published for a short 
time were the Jeffersonian, edited by H. M. 
Williams, the Farmer & Miner, by C. W. 
Dunifer, and the Clarion, by Perry D. Martin. 

A paper called the Advertiser was pub- 
lished at Mine LaMotte for a short time in 
1877. 

The Fredericktown Democrat was estab- 
lished in 1893 by Geo. B. Pressgrove. It was 
later published by Pressgrove & Gale. About 



536 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



1897 R. L. Daniel secured control of the 
paper and it was shortlj- afterward combined 
with the Xeics. This paper was established 
in 18S9. It was a Republican paper and its 
editor was E. L. Purcell, who has been con- 
nected with it since that time. The Democrat- 
News is one of the influential papers of its 
section. 

The Tribune was e.stablished in 1900 by Ed. 
Costello. He was succeeded as editor by T. 
A. Bowman. The next man who controlled 
the paper was E. P. Francis, who still con- 
tinues its publication. The Democrat-News 
is Democratic in politics, while the Tribune is 
Republican. 

The first paper published in Marquand was 
The Echo, which was established by A. V. 
Cashion, now the editor of the Perry County 
Republican. Cashion was the editor and the 
plant was owned by Thomas Estes. The Echo 
appeared for only two years, from 1890 to 
1892. After its discontinuance, Marquand 
was without a paper until in October, 1910, 
when Dean Gibson established the Marquand 
Leader. This paper is independent in politics 
and is devoted to local interest, principally. 

The first newspaper in Charleston, Missis- 
sippi county, was The Courier. It was estab- 
lished by George Whitcomb in the latter part 
of the year 1857. It was ably conducted and 
a very creditable paper. It was established 
as an independent paper and was one of the 
few Southeast Missouri papers that continued 
to be published during the war. Even The 
Courier, however, wa.s subject to frequent in- 
terruptions. From 1858 to 1872, the man- 
agement was in the hands of W. F. Martin, 
who was also during part of the time, its 
editor. The plant was sold in 1872, on the 
death of Mr. Martin, to Frank M. Dyer, who 



published The Courier until 1877, when he 
sold it to C. M. Dimifer. In 1875 The 
CIiarlcstoH Gazette was established by George 
M. Moore, and the two papers wei-e consoli- 
dated under the name of the Charleston Ga- 
zette in 1877. In a .short time Dunifer with- 
drew from the firm and established a new 
paper called The Senti)icl. which two years 
later was removed to Arkansas. Moore sold 
the Charleston Gazette to a joint stock com- 
pany and they sold it to W. H. Campbell. 
Campbell operated the paper something like 
a year and then sold it to Andrew Hill, and 
in April, 1886. the office, material and press 
were removed to Maiden. 

In 1865 George Martin, a son of W. F. 
IMartin. who had published Tiic Courier for 
manj' j-ears, began the publication of a little 
sheet which he called The Enterprise. ]\Iar- 
tin was then only 15 years old and his sole 
help in working the paper was another boy 
about his own age named M. V. Golder. Mar- 
tin continued the publication of Tlie Enter- 
prise until 1892, -sNhen he sold it to his 
brother, John F. Martin. In 1902 the paper 
\\as transferred to Colonel P. B. Moore and 
from that time until 1907 was under the 
management of S. G. Tetweiler. Tetweiler 
combined it with the Democrat, which he 
published since 1887. In the year 1907 R. E. 
Douglas became the editor and proprietor of 
the paper and has continued its publication 
ever since that time. It is Democratic in 
politics and it is probable that The Enterprise 
has had the longest continuous existence 
under the same name of any paper in this 
part of the state. At one time the paper was 
published as a daily. This was during the 
time of the management of John F. ilartin. 

The other paper published in Charleston is 
the Fcpublican, whose editor is G. N. Stille. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



537 



As its name indicates it is a Republican paper, 
and together with The Enterprise, gives 
Charleston a good news service. 

But one other paper is published in Missis- 
sippi county. This is the Ea.^t Prairie Eagle, 
published at East Prairie. It was established 
in 1905 by Guy E. Cooksey as The Leader, 
and is now published by David Bright. The 
Eagle is Democratic in politics. 

There have been other papers published 
from time to time in Charleston. One of 
these was a Democratic sheet called The Call. 
It was published in 1893 by H. D. Lutz. 
Another was Tlie Star, whose editor for a time 
was F. A. Wiggs. 

In 1846 John T. Scott, a lawyer from Ten- 
nessee, came to New ^Madrid and established 
the first newspaper there. It was called The 
Gazette. In 1850 Mr. Scott sold the paper to 
Mr. Barber, and he transferred it a year later 
to Hopkins & Nash. The publication was 
continued by them until 1854, w-hen they 
were succeeded by John C. Underwood, who 
changed the name to Tlie Times. The break- 
ing out of the war caused the suspension of 
this paper, as it did of nearly all others pub- 
lished in the southeast, and the publication 
was never continued. About 1867, Albert 0. 
Allen began the publication of The Eecurd, 
which he has owned since that time, with the 
exception of a few months, when it was 
under the control of Frank Jones. Mr. Allen 
gave up the editorial control of the paper, 
though not its ownership, in 1886, when he 
became swamp land commissioner of the state 
and later state auditor. During these years 
E. A. Wright was in editorial charge. In 
1906 ^Ir. Allen returned to New iladrid, and 
since that time has conducted the paper him- 
self. The Record is not only one of the oldest, 
but also one of the most influential papers in 



the southeast. Mr. Allen's wide acquain- 
tance, his familiarity with state affairs, his 
long residence in the southeast, enable him 
to conduct a paper creditable in every way. 

In 1872 a firjii known as Masterson & Mul- 
key established a newspaper called The 
Chronicle. They continued its publication 
for about eighteen months. 

In 1895 W. W. Waters, a member of one 
of the old pioneer families of New Jladrid, 
began the publication of a paper which he 
called the Southeast Missourian. The venture 
was succe.ssful from the first and "Mr. Waters 
soon acquired a standing among newspaper 
men. He continued its publication until 
about 1904, when he became connected with 
the administration of the State Hospital for 
the Insane at Farmington and was succeeded 
in control of The Missourian by E. A. Wright, 
who had long been associated with The 
Record. Mr. Wright continues the publica- 
tion of this paper and is firmly entrenched in 
the newspaper world. Both The Record and 
the Southeast Missourian are Democratic in 
politics. 

The first paper established in ^Morehouse 
was the Morehouse Sun, which James L. 
Bailey began to publish in 1905. It was later 
transferred to Claude B. Hay and the name 
changed to The Hustler. This was about 
1907. It is now an independent paper and is 
edited by C. Harvey Burgess. The Parma 
Victor was established about 1905 and is now^ 
published by A. L. Stearnes. The Portageville 
Critic was established in 1905 by Charles N. 
Walker. It is a Socialist paper with a large 
circulation. There had been one other at- 
tempt at running a paper in Portageville. 
J. Blake Taylor began to publish a paper, 
which he called The Push, in 1903, but it was 
discontinued after a short time. 



538 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



The first paper in Pemiscot county was the 
Gayoso Democrat, established in 1871 by B. 
H. & T. S. Adams. For a time it was pub- 
lished at Cape Girardeau. In 1872 it became 
the property of W. S. Carleton and Maj. Geo. 
W. Carleton was made editor. It was pub- 
lished then at Gayoso. Its name was changed 
in 1875 to the Southeast Missouri Statesman. 
For a number of years it passed from hand 
to hand, coming back into the possession of 
Major Carleton, who continued it for many 
years. In 1879 it was again called The Demo- 
crat. In 1892 it was finally transferred to 
Caruthersville. Here it was published by a 
number of persons. In 1893 W. D. Schult 
became the editor. He was soon succeeded by 
0. B. Gale. About 1897 Del Loggrear be- 
came connected with the paper and directed it 
for some years. The paper finally, in 1900, 
came into possession of W. R. Lacey, tinder 
■(\hose management it entered upon an era of 
prosperity. It is now published twice a week, 
has its own brick building, and well appointed 
office. It has always been a Democratic paper. 

When W. D. Schult gave up his control of 
The Democrat he established The Press. 
Later, Corridon Garrett became its editor, 
remaining in the position until about 1904. 
The Press was finally discontinued. Previous 
to his connection with The Press Garrett had 
conducted a paper called the Southern 
Scin^etar. 

The EepuUican is published in Caruthers- 
ville in Pemiscot county by Frank Abernathy. 
Mr. Abernathy is also the owner of the paper 
and has been since the first publication, 
August 12, 1910. It is the only Republican 
paper in Pemiscot county. Other Republican 
I>apers have been established from time to 
time, but have been unsuccessful. The pres- 
ent paper, however, has won its place and 
seems to be firmly established. 



The Pemiscot Argus was established at 
Caruthersville by the Argus Printing Com- 
panj^ a corporation. Its editor is Harvey 
E. Averill, and the paper is independent in 
politics and favors temperance. It is the suc- 
cessor of a paper established in 1898 at 
Hayti by C. S. York. From the time of its 
establishment until 1907 it was published at 
Hayti, being at various times forced to sus- 
pend publication. In the latter year it was 
removed to Caruthersville in charge of Amos 
Huffman. It suspended publication again in 
November, 1907, and in February, 1908, it 
came into the possesion of the present propri- 
etors and has been published continuously 
since that time. The Argus is a well edited 
End an influential journal. 

The first paper published in Hayti was 
started in 1897. It was called the Hayti 
Signal, but its publication was discontinued 
after a time. In 1898 another effort was 
made to establish a paper and this was called 
the Pemiscot Argus, which was afterward re- 
moved to Caruthersville, where it is still pub- 
lished. In October, 1908, Mr. York began the 
publication of a paper at Hayti under the 
name of Hayti Herald. It has continued since 
that time, being owned and edited by Mr. 
York and is Democratic in politics. 

The Southern Pemiscot Nexcs was e.stab- 
lished in Steele in the south part of Pemis- 
cot county in 1910 by G. Clarence Smith, 
who still continues its publication. The News 
is independent in politics and is devoted to 
the furtherance of the interests of Steele and 
surrounding country. 

The first paper published at Perryville was 
called The Union. This was formerly the 
Fredericktown Conservative, but was moved 
to Perryville in 1862 by "W. H. Booth, who 
continued the publication for twenty years. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



539 



John B. Robiusou established the next paper 
in 1875, and called it The Forum. A year or 
two later he transferred it to a stock com- 
pany and in March, 1880, it was succeeded by 
the Perry County Sun, under the manage- 
ment of John B. Holmes. The owners of 
this paper subsequently purchased The Union 
and the combined papers were under the di- 
rection of John B. Davis. In 1886 the Perry- 
ville Chronicle was established by E. H. 
EUiff. 

The Sun passed from one control to another 
for several years. At one time it was pub- 
lished by S. Henry and Harry A. Smith, 
the former a veteran of the newspaper field 
in this section as editor. At the present time 
it is published by ZoelLuer & Zoellner. It is 
Democratic in politics and is well established 
in the esteem of a wide circle of readei's. 

The Perry Coiuity Eepuhlican was started 
at Perryville in 1889. It was a Republican 
paper published in opposition to The Sun. 
For a time it was edited by F. W. Hempler. 
At the present time The Bepublican is under 
control of A. V. & C. E. Cashiou and is an in- 
fluential sheet. 

Besides these two papers, which are still 
published, there have been other newspaper 
ventures in Perry count}'. The Democrat 
was established in 1898 and published for a 
time by the Democrat Publishing Company. 
An older paper was called The Chronicle and 
was published for a time by E. H. Elliff, be- 
ginning in 1886. 

The first paper in Ripley county was The 
Doniphan Prospect, established about 1874. 
It was followed at a later date by The News. 
These two were combined in 1883 as the 
Prospect-News. The editor of the combined 
papers for a time was R. E. Douglass. At 
the present time the Prospect-News is pub- 



lished by J. P. Campbell. Associated with 
him is J. P. Morrison. The paper is a weekly 
and is Democratic in politics. 

In 1895 Tlic Headlight was established 
It was conducted for a time by J. W. Presson 
In 1898 D. C. Cunningham began to publish 
a Democratic paper which he called The 
Hustler. The name was later changed to The 
Democrat, and it is still published by Mr. 
Cunningham. Both the Prospect-News and 
llie Democrat are weU conducted papers. 

It was December 8, 1905, that F. A. Vire 
began the publication of the Doniphan Repub- 
lican and has continued as its owner and 
publisher since that time and the paper owns 
a well equipped office and is installed in its 
own building. 

In 1910 Dr. M. M. Lane established the 
Naylor Nail at Naylor, Ripley county, and 
has continued its publication up to the pres- 
ent time. The Nail is Democratic in politics. 

Several other attempts had been made to 
establish a paper at Naylor. Mobley & Com- 
pany published The Advocate for a time in 
1893. This was a Democratic paper. About 
1905, J. E. Slattery began to publish a Repub- 
lican sheet called The Republican. Both were 
later discontinued. 

A Populist paper was published at Bar- 
field, Ripley county, for a time, beginning in 
1895. Mobley & Lilley were the proprietors. 
On the collapse of the Populist movement in 
Missouri the paper was discontinued. 

The first paper established in Reynolds 
covmty was the Reynolds County Outlook. It 
began to be published in 1877 at Centreville 
and its publication has been continued to the 
present time. For a nwmber of years it was 
conducted by A. P. Shriver. It is now owned 
and edited by T. D. Shriver. The Outlook is 
Democratic in politics. The second paper in 



540 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the county is The Headlight. Its editor and 
owner is W. S. Tussey. The Headlight is 
also a Democratic paper. 

The Ellington Press was established in 
1906 at Ellington, Reynolds county. After 
some changes of ownership, The Press came 
into the charge of R. Daniels, who has con- 
tinued to be both editor and proprietor. i\Ir. 
Daniels was for a number of years a teacher 
and also a member of the state legislature. 
He is a Democrat and The Press sustains the 
policies of that party. 

In 1892 Dr. W. C. Bowles was publishing 
a paper in Centreville which was called The 
Reformer. It was discontinued in 1894, but 
revived again in 1898. He published it for a 
number of years, but it was finally discon- 
tinued. 

Tlie first paper published at Farmington, St. 
Francois county, was the Soutliern Missouri 
Argus, which was established in April, 1860, 
by Nichol, Crowell and Shuck. Nichol was a 
native of Kentuckj-, Crowell was from Massa- 
chusetts, and Shuck a ilissourian. Their 
purpose in establishing The Argus was to 
support that ^viug of the Democratic party 
that favored the nomination of Stephen A. 
Douglas. In 1861 they sold the paper to 
Joseph Brad}', who called it The Missouri 
Argus, and published it until 1866, when he 
transferred it to his two sons, J. J. Brady, 
Jr., and S. B. Brady. After a few years they 
changed the name to the Farmington Herald 
and in 1872 they removed the paper to 
DeSoto. In 1871 Washington Hughes began 
the publication of The New Era at Liberty- 
ville in St. Francois county. He soon re- 
moved it to Farmington and continued its 
publication until 1876. He then sold it to 
George W. Herrington. who in a few years 
removed to Marble Hill. The Farmington 
Times was established in 1874 by C. E. Ware 



and I. H. Rodehaver. They published The 
Times imtil 1875, when R. H. Sylvester be- 
came editor of the paper in place of Mr. Ware. 
T. D. Fisher was made its editor in January, 
1879, and in 1881 he purchased the entire in- 
terest in the paper and has been its owner 
and editor since that time. In ]March. 1886, 
I. H. Rodehaver began to publi.sh a paper 
known as the St. Francois County Democrat. 
It was Democratic in politics, but in Novem- 
ber of that year it was .sold to John Hart- 
shorn, who published it in the interest of the 
Republican party. 

About 1903 Tlic Times was combined with 
The Herald under the name Times-Herald, 
and was published with this title for several 
years, but finally the old name was resumed. 
The Times is one of th» oldest and ablest 
papers in this part of the state. Mr. Fisher 
is an editor of unusual gifts as well as an 
able business man. The Herald, which was 
consolidated with The Times was established 
in 1892 by J. J. & S. H. Lews. It remained 
in their hands for some time, being edited for 
a while by C. R. Pratt. 

The Republican paper of Farmington for 
many years was The Ne^vs. This was issued 
for the first time in 1883 by T. P. Pigg. Mr. 
Pigg continued his connection with the paper 
for many years, but finally disposed of it to 
the present proprietors, the Farmington News 
Publishing Company. 

The editors of The News are Harry and 
Clint Denman. The News pursues a some- 
what different policy from most of the county 
papers, as it is a purely local paper and pub- 
lishes no news outside of St. Francois and 
adjoining counties. 

About 1903 R. M. Yost began to publish 
in Farmington a weekly Democratic paper 
called The Progress. He did not long con- 
tinue it, however. The Fannington Eagle 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



541 



was later published for a time by E. C. Bar- 
roll. 

The St. Francois Coiintij Erpiiblican is the 
title of a Republican paper now Iieing issued 
at Parmington by the veteran editor, T. P. 
Figg. He established it in 3911. 

The Bonne Tcrre Star was established by 
H. M. Butler about 1896. Within a short 
time he transferred it to I. L. Page, who has 
continued its publication to the present time. 
The Star is Democratic in politics. 

The Lead Belt News is published at Flat 
River by Melbourne Smith. It is a Demo- 
cratic paper and was established in 1901 by 
Ward & Gibson. Later it was published by 
W. H. Lewis, who became associated with C. 
R. Pratt under the name of Pratt & Lewis. 

The Labor Herald is published at Elvins 
by the Lead Fields Publishing Company. 
The publication of The Herald was begun in 
1905 by the Elvins Printing Company. Later 
the paper was owned by Cameron & Raines. 
The Labor Herald is Republican in politics. 

The Lead Belt Banner is published at 
Leadwood Ijy the .same company which issues 
the Labor Herald. It is Republican in poli- 
tics. 

The Bismarck Gazette is a continuance of 
the Washington County Gazette which was 
established in Irondale about 1904. In 1906 
it was transferred to Bismarck and its name 
changed. In 1908 the paper was sold to 
George II. Bisplinghoflf who continues its pub- 
lication at the present time. Tlie Gazette is 
Democratic in politics. 

In 1907 the DesLoge Sun was established 
by Frank Abernathy at DesLoge in St. Fran- 
cois county. It was sold to Claude E. Ab- 
shier in 1908 and is still published by him. 
The Sun is independent in politics and is de- 
voted principally to the building up of the 
town and surrounding country. 



The Bonne Terre Register was established 
in 1888 by J. M. Kirkpatrick, who continued 
the publication until 1890, when he sold the 
plant to E. H. Elliff. In 1890 B. A. Roy 
bought The Register and combined it with 
The Democrat. He continued its publication 
until 1911, when the paper was sold to its 
present owner and editor, J. H. Wolpers. 
The Register is Republican in politics and is a 
live, active and progressive paper. 

Besides the papers mentioned there have 
been a few others established in St. Francois 
county which did not long survive. A paper 
called The Sunnysidc was issued at Bonne 
Terre for a time in 1905 and 1906. 

In 1821 there was begim the publication of 
a newspaper in Ste. Genevieve. It was called 
the CorresjMndent and Record, and its editor 
was James Foley. The State Gazette was es- 
tablished in Ste. Genevieve in 1833 by Will- 
iam B. Baker. Later, there was published for 
a short time, the Blissouri Democrat in the 
same town. None of these papers was pub- 
lished more than a very .short time. In 1849, 
Concannon and Lindsay began the publication 
of a paper called The Pioneer. They trans- 
ferred it later to James H. Dixon. From 
1850 to 1851 Charles C. Rozier published a 
])aper called The Creole, which was then 
transferred to St. Louis. In 1854 The Inde- 
pendent was established by Amable Rozier, 
and the 3Iissonri Gazette in 1859, by E. K. 
Eaton. 0. D. Harris began the publication 
of the Pleasant Dealer in 1860, and the Pro- 
vost-Marshal caused its discontinuance in 
1861. Halleck and his brother published 
The Representative in 1865 for a short time. 
In 1868 the News Advertiser was established 
by G. L. Setts. Fairplay was published for 
the first time in June, 1872, by S. Henry 
Smith. In 1882 he transferred the paper to 



542 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Valle Harrold, and lie published it from 1880 
to 1884. Henry Shaw then carried on the 
paper imtil 1886, when it was transferred to 
Joseph Flynn. Flyun soon disposed of his 
interest in the paper and it passed into the 
hands of Henry J. Janis, a member of the old 
pioneer French family of that name. It is now 
ably conducted by Jules J. Janis. Fairplaij 
is a Democratic paper and is weU established 
in the esteem of the people of Ste. Genevieve 
and wields an influence there. 

In 1882 Joseph A. Ernst began the publica- 
tion of the Ste. Genevieve Herald. It was 
published in both English and German and 
has continued to the present under the con- 
trol of I\Ir. Ernst. It is a popular and influ- 
ential journal, and is independent in political 
affiliations. 

St. jMarys has had a number of papers pub- 
lished at various times. Among these were 
The Times and The Progress, published for a 
time between 1902 and 1906. At the present 
The Review is the only paper published there. 
It is independent in politics and is edited by 
C. R. Bartels. It was established in 1906. 

The first newspaper in Benton, Scott 
county, was the Benton Record, established 
by George M. Moore in July, 1879. The 
editor was Louis Diehl. He was succeeded by 
Jefferson Shelton. and he by S. Henrj' Smith. 
Smith purchased The Express, a paper which 
had been established by T. S. Adams, and 
combined the two under the name of the 
Express Recorel. He sold the papers in 
August, 1886, to J. F. Mitchim. 

The Dispatch was the first newspaper pub- 
lished in Commerce, and it was established 
in 1867 by Wm. Ballentine and H. P. Lynch. 
The paper was continued, going through a 
number of changes of ownership, until the 
coimty seat was moved to Benton. In IMarch, 



1885, a paper called the Scott County Agri- 
cultural Wlictl was begun with Rev. S. A. 
Mason as editor. Publication was continued 
for only a short time. 

The first newspaper in Sikeston was called 
The Star, and was established by J. F. 
ilitchim in January. 1884. He was succeeded 
as editor by W. S. Mitchim. 

In 1893 Heckam & McClintoek began the 
publication of a religious paper at Sikeston. 
It was called the Methodist Advocate, but 
was discontinued after a short time. 

In 1894 The Democrat began to be issued 
at Sikeston. It was a Democratic sheet and 
was published by E. R. Larey. The Budget 
was established by Guy Cooksey in 1898. 

At present there are two Sikeston papers. 
The Herald is Democratic and is published by 
Jolm B. Huffman. 

The Standard was established in 1911 by 
Naeter Brothers of Cape Girardeau. It is in- 
dependent in politics and is devoted largely 
to local news and to the building up of the 
interests in Scott countj'. 

The Chaffee Signal was established at 
Oran, Missouri, April 15, 1910, as the Oran 
Leader. It was moved to Chaffee on August 
26 of the same year and its name changed to 
Chaffee Signed. The editor and proprietor 
is C. E. Mattocks and the paper is Democratic 
in politics. 

One of the veteran editors of Southeast 
Missouri is Phil A. Hafner, editor of the Scott 
County Kicker at Benton, Missouri. This is 
a Socialist paper published by the Workers 
Printing Company. Mr. Hafner was at one 
time in his life a conductor on the street rail- 
way in St. Louis, and while engaged in this 
business became impressed with the idea that 
he would like to own and edit a newspaper. 
The idea grew upon him and he went so far 
as to select a name for his proposed news- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



543 



paper. He decided that if he ever should pub- 
lish a newspaper it should be called 'The 
Newsboy, the name being suggested by the 
newsboys who are always bright and always 
much in evidence on the street cars. In 
1888 Mr. Hafner was able to carry out his 
plan and established at Benton, Missoui'i, 
The Scott County Newsboy. He continued 
the publication until in 1901 when its name 
was changed to the Scott County Kicker, 
under which name it has since been published. 

The Scott County Banner is published at 
Morley in Scott county, the editors being R. 
L. Buck and R. L. Reed. The paper was es- 
tablished at Oran vmder the name of the 
Scott County Citizen in 1905, and in 1908 it 
was removed to Morley and was continued 
under that name imtil 1911, when it came 
into the possession of Buck and Reed and its 
name was changed to The Banner. It is pub- 
lished as a Democratic paper. 

The Illmo Headlight is published at the 
new and growing to-mi of Illmo. It is a Dem- 
ocratic sheet and is issued by Tim Ilosmer, a 
veteran editor of this section. 

The Scott County Democrat is published at 
Benton by T. P. Rucker. It is Democratic in 
polities and gives the news of the county seat 
of Scott county in general. 

Stoddard county's first paper was called 
The Herald, and was established in 1858 at 
Bloomfield by A. M. Bedford, of Charleston. 
The editor in charge of the paper was J. O. 
Hull. The purpose in establishing this paper 
v/as to further the construction of the Cairo 
& Fulton railroad. The publication was con- 
tinued until the breaking out of the war, 
when the office was destroyed and publication 
stopped. The Argus was established in 
Bloomfield in 1866 by James Hamilton, who 
carried on the paper until 1873. The next 



paper was under the management of George 
H. Criunb and 0. C. Jones. This paper was 
called The Messenger and was published from 
1874 to 1877. At that date it was consoli- 
dated with the Dexter Enterprise. The Vin- 
dicator was established in 1878 by T. L. 
Eoussin. He sold it to Buck and Miller, who 
employed H. N. Phillips as editor. Later, 
the paper was purchased by Charles E. 
Stokes, and it was again transferred in 1882. 
The purchaser at this time was Ligon Jones. 
Jones published the paper for a time and it 
then changed hands several times. At one 
time Connelley & Moseley were in control, 
then J. 0. Turnbaugh, and later it passed to 
the charge of M. S. Phelan. At the present 
time The Vindicator is edited by Stephen 
Chapman. It is a Democratic paper and has 
a well established circulation. 

The first Republican paper in Bloomfield 
was The Cosmos, established in 1896 by Bear 
& OUar. Ollar's interest was later purchased 
by Walter S. Bear, who continued publica- 
tion for some time and then was succeeded by 
N. A. Moseley, an accomplished lawyer and 
one-time congressman of Bloomfield. 

About 1905 Tim Hosmer, who has been 
connected with southeast newspaper enter- 
prises for many years published a paper at 
Bloomfield called The Enterprise. 

The Stoddard County Bepublican is a new 
paper, having been established October 1, 
1910. 0. B. Parrott is the editor and the 
paper is owned by a stock company known as 
the Repixblican Printing Company. It is 
published at Bloomfield and is Republican in 
its politics. 

Charles E. Stokes, whose name is asso- 
ciated with a number of newspapers in this 
section, began the publication of The Enter- 
prise at Dexter in February, 1875. Two 
years later he purchased the Bloomfield Mes- 



544 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



senger and consolidated the two papers under 
the name of the Enterprise-Messenger. He 
continued the publication under this name 
until 1887. when he transferred it to R. H. 
Junes, and then founded a paper he called 
the Xetr SoiitJieast. After a short time he 
removed it to St. Louis. Jones changed the 
name to Tin Dexter Messenger and the paper 
was afterwards bought by Hill and Watkins 
in 1894. The present owner and editor, 
Webb Watkins. bought out the interest of Mr. 
Hill in 1899. The Messenger is Democratic in 
politics and is not only one of the old papers 
of this section, but also one of its influential 
papers as well. 

The Dexter IStatesmaji is published at Dex- 
ter, its editor and proprietor being Edmund 
P. Crowe. The paper is classed as an inde- 
pendent Democratic paper. The Statesman 
was formerly the Sikeston. Missouri. Enter- 
prise, which was established in Sikeston in 
1883. llie Enterprise was published and con- 
trolled by a number of people, the last of 
whom was ]\1. 6. Gresham, by whom it was 
sold to E. P. Crowe in 1910. Crowe re- 
moved the entire plant to Dexter and has 
continued the publication of the paper since 
that time. 

The Piixicd Index was established by E. J. 
Hickman in 1895. Later it was published 
for a time by G. N. Wynenger. It is at pres- 
ent under control of Marion Harty. The 
Index has always been Democratic in its polit- 
ical affiliations. 

The Essex Lender is published at Essex in 
Stoddard county and is owned and edited by 
D. O. C. Brydon. The piiblication of the 
paper was liegun May 15, 1908, by ]\Ir. Bry- 
don, who has owned it continuously since that 
time. It is a live paper and very much de- 
voted to the agricultural and business inter- 
ests of Essex and the surrounding country. 



Advance has no paper at present, though 
for a time one was published there. This was 
the Advance Guard, which was established in 
1903 by G. M. Brydon. He continued it for 
some years. 

The Bernie Star, an independent paper, 
■was established in 1905 by J. B. Daniels. 
Later John Russell published it. Others in- 
terested in it were DeWitt Henderson and 
0. B. Parrott. The present editor is Claud 
Wilkins, and The Star is independent in its 
politics. 

The first newspaper published in W^ashing- 
ton county was The Miners' Prospect, estab- 
lished at Potosi September, 1846, by Phillip 
G. Ferguson and F. A. Dalla. It was an in- 
dependent paper and passed out of existence 
in 1849. The next paper established in the 
county was The Wasliington County Miner, 
which was published by N. P. Buck, begin- 
ning in 1856 and was discontinued in 1861. 
After the war, George B. Clark established 
The Washington County Journal, in 1867, 
and transferred it to Eli D. Ake in 1872. He 
soon removed it to Ironton. The Potosi Inele- 
pendent was establislied in 1873 by Frank 
Harris, who published it until his death in 

1886. It was sold to Henry C. Bell in 1888. 
The Potosi Free Press was started by Jesse 
W. Homan in 1886, but was soon discon- 
tinued. In 1888 The Potosi Eagle began a 
publication as an independent paper and had 
a struggle for existence for a few years and 
finally passed out of existence. Another 
paper was The Republican, established in 

1887. and published for a short time. The 
Washington County Journal was established 
in August, 1894, by F. M. Deggendorf. The 
Independent and The Journal have had an im- 
u.sual history. Since Henry C. Bell pur- 
chased TJie Independent in 1886 he has con- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



545 



tinued its publication without change, and 
Mr. Deggendorf has been in charge of The 
Journal since he became connected with it in 
1894. These long terms of service bespeak 
unusual success in the conduct of papers, as 
measured by the standards of Southeast Mis- 
souri. The Independent is Democratic while 
its rival. The Journal, is Republican in pol- 
itics. 

There have been some other ventures in the 
newspaper field in Washington eoimty, which 
have not proved so successful. About 1901, 
Will D. Wright began to issue two papers at 
Belgrade. One of these was an independent 
pctper called The Messenger, and the other 
was religious and was named the Farmington 
District Messenger. They were soon discon- 
tinued. Soon afterward Dean Gibson began 
the issuance of the Washington County Ga- 
zette at Irondale. The office was later re- 
moved. 

The first newspaper published in Piedmont, 
Wayne county, was called The Banner. It 
was founded in 1872 by Banks and Crawford. 
They soon sold out, however, to S. B. Sprowl, 
who removed the paper to Patterson and pub- 
lished it under the name of Patterson Times 
until 1876; he then came back to Piedmont 
with the paper and after a few months dis- 
continued its publication. In March, 1878, 
The Vindicator was established by B. E. H. 
Warren. About the close of that year The 
Vindicator was sold to T. L. Roussin and 
moved to Bloomfield, where it was published 
under the title of the Bloomfield Vindicator. 
In 1885 G. T. Gale established The Piedmont 
Ranihlcr and somewhat later the paper be- 
came Icnown as The Piedmont Leader and 
was published by W. B. Harris. The office 
with all of its material was destroyed by fire 
in 1888. In 1892 The Piedmont Weekly 
Banner was established by Dr. J. N. Holmes, 

Vol. 1—3 5 



who continued its publication for a time and 
then sold out to Charles Mitchim. After 
Mitchim's ownership the paper was published 
for a time by Rev. Mr. Wilson, W. H. Lewis 
and others. In 1905 Lewis sold The Banner 
to the present owner and editor, Bristol 
P'rench. Mr. French proceeded to put the 
office in good condition, equipping it with 
modern machinery and presses. The Banner 
is a Democratic paper. 

Some other ventures at Piedmont have been 
Crucible, a religious paper published by the 
Christian Publishing Company. This was in 

1893 and the enterprise came to an end within 
a few months. John Marsh at about the same 
time published The Herald, which was a Re- 
publican paper. It, too, soon disappeared. 

A number of papers have been published 
in Greenville, Wayne county. The first of 
these was The Reporter, established about 
1869, by C. P. Rotroek and afterward pub- 
lished by Prank C. Neely & Company. A. W. 
Banks began the publication of the Greenville 
Democrat in March, 1872. This paper, how- 
ever, was afterwards removed to Piedmont in 
1876. The Weekly Journal was established 
by J. N. Morrison, who continued its publi- 
cation about two years and was succeeded by 
John T. Rhodes. Rhodes sold the paper in 
1881 to A. T. Lacey and he in turn trans- 
ferred it to John G. Settle in 1886. It then 
passed into the control of J. N. Holmes, who 
at the same time conducted with great suc- 
cess the Piedmont Banner. It was afterward 
transferred to a number of persons. Clarence 
Carleton published it for a time, as did C. C. 
Mitchim. 

It is now owned by G. W. Stiver and Will- 
iam B. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy is the editor 
of the paper, which is Democratic in politics. 

The Greenville Sun was established in 

1894 by S. A. Bates. It was issued as the 



546 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



organ of the Republicans in Wayne county, 
the rival paper, The Journal, being Demo- 
cratic. Later the paper was published by J. 
S. Marsh. At the present time its editor is 
Chas. Barrow. It is still Republican in 
politics. 

The Williamsvillc Iron News was estab- 
lished in 1905. The principal purpose in pub- 
lishing the paper was to push the iron ore in- 
dustry in the county, which had its center at 
Williamsville. It is independent in politics. 
Before The News, W. D. Wright had pub- 
lished an independent paper called the Buzz- 
Satv, which was soon discontinued. 

The record of newspapers in this section, 
incomplete as it must be, is a long one. It 
includes the names of many papers, some of 
them at present prosperous and active, many 
others long since discontinued and almost, if 
not quite, forgotten. Such a list indicates 
the strong attraction which newspaper work 
has for many men, and the feeling of the 
necessity of the establishment of papers in 
this part of the state. 

To the men who have labored at the great 
task of giving this section adequate news- 
paper facilities is due a great debt. The task 
cf circulating newspapers here was a hercu- 
lean one. The wrecks which strew the path 
of journalistic progress is sufficient attesta- 
tion of that fact. It was a task which must 
be performed. Few appreciate the tremen- 
dous importance of the local paper in the de- 
velopment of the life of a comnnmity. Too 
often it is referred to with a sneer and com- 
pared to its great disadvantage with the met- 
ropolitan daily. Its limitations are apparent. 
Much less apparent, but far greater is its use- 
fulness to the community. It is safe to say 
that the newspapers of Southeast Missouri 
have been one of the strong forces for up- 



building this section. No great movement 
for public improvement has been pushed to 
success or doubtless could have been pushed 
to success without the aid and support of 
the local papers. They have formed the 
medium of exchange for ideas, a forum for 
discussion, a means of comparison of one part 
of the territory with another. Drainage, rail- 
roads, education, religion, all of these and 
scores of other enterprises have received help 
from the papers. 

Too often this contribution to the good of 
the public has been gift for which no ade- 
quate return has been received. The papers 
which have ceased to exist here did not go out 
of existence because their editors desired to 
give up their work. In most cases the failure 
was due to a lack of financial support. Small 
subscription lists and little advertising have 
caused the downfall of mo.st of the papers 
that are no longer published. 

As one goes over the roll of the papers he 
is struck by the number of times that a few 
names occur. Certain members of the pro- 
fession have had experience in many places 
and on many papers. These wei-e the men 
."or whom the life of the editor had an at- 
traction too strong to be resisted. Not meet- 
ing with the desired success in one place they 
have sought it in another. The conclusion is 
forced upon us in many cases that some really 
qiiit the profession because of lack of returns 
from it and then found its lure too strong. 
Sometimes they have at last found the op- 
portunity for which they sought and achieved 
that prosperity which their talents and in- 
dustry richly deserved. Others were less for- 
timate and finally drifted away from the 
work they loved, into other fields. 

It is not possible to review the work of all. 
the worthy men whose names live on the 
pages of the papers of this section. From T. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



547 



E. Strange, that first member of the profes- 
sion in this part of the state until this pres- 
ent time, there have always been men whose 
lives and work have adorned the profession 
of letters. Whitcomb and Martin, of Charles- 
ton, McGuire and Kies, of Jackson, Ake of 
fronton, Fisher of Farmington, Bell and Deg- 
gendorf, of Potosi, Allen of New Madrid, 
Caruthers of Kennett, Roussin and Holmes, 
of .Piedmont, Flynn of Cape Girardeau, Wat- 
kins and Stokes, of Dexter, Mitchim of De- 
Soto, MeMullin of Hillsboro, Ernst and 
Janis, of Ste. Genevieve, among the older 
men have been distinguished for ability, long 
service and great usefulness. Other men have 
contributed to the total of journalistic use- 



fulness in great measi;re also. The younger 
men of this day are pressing the work and 
advancing the profession to greater influence. 
Some of the most powerful and successful 
papers are now in the hands of men who have 
not been long connected with the profession 
in this part of the state. 

It remains to be said that it is a matter of 
deep regret that there is not to be found com- 
plete files of all these papers. They contain 
much of the history of the times. Out of them 
must be dug much of that intimate acquain- 
tance with the course of events and lives of 
men which makes the story of a co^mtry's 
progress real and vital. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

SOME BIOGRAPHIES 

Louis Houck — Lownes H. Davis — Robert H. Whitelaw — William B. Wilson — Judge 
John W. Emerson — Samuel S. Hildebrand — Samuel Btens — B. B. Cahoon — James D. 
Fox — J. J. Russell — H. J. Deal — Absalom JMcElmurry — William Dawson — Joseph 
Hunter — John A. Mott — Robert A. Hatcher — Eliza A. Carleton — William Carter 
— Placide DeLassus — James R. McCormack — Milton P. Cayce — Gustavus St. Gem— 
Chakles S. Hertich — M. L. Claedy — Marshall Arnold — James P. Walker — N. B. 
Henry — F. P. Graves — Firmin Desloge. 



A separate volume of this histoi-y is given 
to the biographies of men and women who 
have had to do with making history in this 
part of the state. It is concerned largely with 
those who are still in active life. A few men 
whose work has ended, and a few who for spe- 
cial reasons have been prominently connected 
with the development of Southeast Missouri 
by reason of official or business relations, are 
mentioned in the following pages. The list 
includes only those connected with the his- 
tory of the period since the war. Others who 
were active before that time have been dis- 
cussed in other sections of this work. 

Perhaps Southeast Missouri owes more to 
Louis Houck, of Cape Girardeau, than to any 
other one of its citizens for it was due to his 
energy and ability that this section of the 
state was supplied with railroad facilities. 
The impulse toward development given by 
the network of railroads constructed by him 
has had a remarkable influence in building up 
the country and in causing the construction 



of other lines and systems of railroads. Mr. 
Houck is a native of Illinois and is now sev- 
enty-one years of age. His early life was 
spent in Illinois and part of it in his father's 
printing office. He received two years ' train- 
ing at the University of Wisconsin and then 
published a paper for a time, but later began 
the study of law in 1862 in the office of Wil- 
liam H. Underwood. Until 1868 he practiced 
law at Belleville and in that year removed to 
St. Louis and became assistant United States 
attornej' under General John W. Noble. He 
became a resident of Cape Girardeau in 1869, 
engaging in the general practice of law until 
1881. Mr. Houck became known as one of 
the most active and resourceful attorneys in 
Southeast Missouri. He was a diligent stu- 
dent and a man of unlimited energy. In ad- 
dition to his work as a practitioner he pub- 
lished a number of legal texts and was also 
the editor of the 15th volume of Missouri Re- 
ports. 

Although his profession had absorbed his 
energy to a considerable extent and although 



548 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



549 



he found himself amply fitted for its work, 
Mr. Houck turned to other fields of labor. He 
had become interested in the resources of this 
section of the state and determined to begin 
the building of railroads. From 1881 up to 
the present time he has been engaged in this 
work. In the chapter on railroads an account 
is given of his activities. Southeast Missouri 
owes to him, however, more than simply a 
debt for railroad building. It is due as much 
to his ability as a writer as to any other one 
cause that the resources and opportunities 
of Southeast Missouri have been made known 
to the state at large. Numbers of articles 
haA'C been contributed by him to papers and 
magazines in which he has set out with force 
and skill the situation actually existing in 
this part of the state. During all the years 
of his active life here he has given most in- 
telligent attention to collecting material re- 
lating to the history of the state. His private 
library is one of the best and largest in ]\Iis- 
souri and in spite of the numerous occupa- 
tions which have engaged him, he has devoted 
himself to the preparation of an adequate ac- 
count of the early days in Jlissouri. His his- 
tory of Missouri from the earliest time to the 
formation of the state government is a monu- 
mental work which represents years of study, 
the accumulation of a great deal of material, 
and the expenditure of large sums of money. 
It is not a mere composition from second-hand 
authorities but has resulted :'om patient in- 
quiry into sources of early history. A com- 
panion work, The Spanish Regime, is an ac- 
count of the Spanish rule, containing transla- 
tions of all the old dociunents relating to the 
government of Missouri during the Spanish 
period, many of these having never before 
been translated. 

It is doiibtful, however, if the gi-eat work 
which Mr. Houck has wrought both as a rail- 



road builder and as a student of history out- 
weighs his service to the state as a regent of 
the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau. 
For more than a cjuarter of a century he has 
been president of the Board of Regents and 
during that time has been active and untir- 
ing in his work for that great institution. To 
him perhaps, more than to any other one man 
is due the credit for its buildings and con- 
tinued growth. He has given it the best serv- 
ice of his life and his wide experience, his 
untiring energy and the respect and confi- 
dence in which he is held by a large circle of 
acquaintances throughout the state have en- 
abled him to secure a consideration for the 
claims of the school not possible otherwise to 
be obtained. 

Lownes H. Davis was born at Jackson De- 
cember 14, 1836. He received a good educa- 
tion, being graduated at Yale College in 1860, 
and at the Louisville Law School in 1863. 
After his graduation he began the practice of 
law at Jackson, and in 1868 was elected pros- 
ecuting attorney, sending for four years. Later 
he was a member of the State Legislature and 
in 1878 was elected to the 46th Congress and 
was twice reelected. He is a Democrat and 
recognized by his as.sociates as a man of abil- 
ity and uprightness of character. 

Robert H. Whitelaw is a native of Virginia, 
coming to Cape Girardeau with his parents 
in 1862. He was educated in the public 
schools and in the law school of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan. He began the practice of 
law at Cape Girardeau and in a short time 
became interested in politics. He was prose- 
cuting attorney of Cape Girardeaii from 1874 
to 1878, and from 1881 to 1885 was a repre- 
sentative in the general assembly. In 1890 
he was elected to congress serving one terra 



550 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



and then returning to Cape Girardeau to take 
up the practice of law. Since 1899 he has 
been city attorney of Cape Girardeau. 

William B. Wilson was born near Apple- 
ton, January 12, 1831, his family having been 
residents of Cape Girai'deau county since 
1808. Dr. Wilson was educated in private 
schools and in the medical school of the Uni- 
versity of New York, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1852. After his graduation he be- 
gan the practice of medicine in Cape Girar- 
deau and continued it until his death in Oc- 
tober, 1900. He was a very prominent citi- 
zen of Cape Girardeau and was well known 
especially for his connection with the Masonic 
order, in which he held high rank. He was 
regarded as a very upright and able man and 
■while never engaging in politics, held a num- 
ber of positions, having been a member of the 
council, school director, and member of the 
board of regents of the State Nomial School. 

Judge John W. Emerson, a native of New 
England, came to Missouri as a millwright ; he 
made his home in Arcadia and after a time be- 
gan the study of law with Judge Pipkin ; after 
his admission to the bar he became a very 
successful lawyer. He was a soldier during 
the war and at its close was appointed a judge 
of the 15th .judicial circuit, serving for only 
a short time, however. Judge Emerson was 
not only a good lawyer but possessed consid- 
erable literary ability, having written several 
poems and a number of essays and addresses. 
His former home in Arcadia is one of the most 
beautiful places in Missouri and it was under 
a tree at this place that Grant received his 
commission as a brigadier general. 

The troublesome period of the Civil war and 
the times immediately following it produced 



a number of men whose names became widely 
known on account of their exploits as leaders 
of bands, sometimes of soldiers and sometimes 
of guerrillas. No man in Southeast Missouri 
achieved a wider reputation of this sort than 
Samuel S. Hildebrand, who was a member of 
a pioneer family of Missouri, the Hildebrands 
being some of the earliest settlers of Jeffer- 
son county. At the time of the breaking out 
of the war a brother of Samuel Hildebrand, 
named Frank, was hanged by a vigilance 
committee in Ste. Genevieve county. This 
and other wrongs stirred the sense of injus- 
tice in Hildebrand and he set out to achieve 
a desperate revenge. The men who were in- 
stiiunental in hanging his brother Frank, 
were shot and killed one after another. He 
took part in the war on the southern side and 
became very famous on account of his oper- 
ations; he held a major's commission in the 
Missouri State Guard, issued by General Jeff 
Thompson. At the close of the war he con- 
tinued his depredations and finally left Mis- 
souri and made his way to Arkansas and then 
to Texas. His later history is in doubt ; some 
say he became a resident of Illinois where he 
was killed, other accounts have it that he is 
still living. Hildebrand was tall, rawboned 
with high cheek bones, a pallid complexion 
and blue eyes that were cold and expression- 
less. He was a man who probably had no 
fear, possessed great determination and was a 
most excellent marksman. He became thor- 
oughly acquainted with the country in which 
he operated and possessed some of the Indian 
ability to know the country and to make his 
way about it from one place to another. There 
is a cave on Big river near the north line of 
St. Francois county, known as Hildebrand 's 
cave ; its entrance is about 40 feet above the 
head of the stream and it can be approached 
by only one man at a time. It is said that 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



551 



liildebraud made this cave his headquarters 
at various times, especially on one occasion 
vfhen he was recovering from a gun shot 
wound. 

Samuel Byrns. a native of Jefferson county, 
was born March 4, 1848. He was reared on the 
farm, received a good English education, stud- 
ied law, was admitted to the bar and began 
the practice of his profession at Hillsboro. 
He soon became known as a good lawyer, es- 
tablished a practice, and took an active part 
in politics. In 1876 he was a presidential 
elector and east a vote for Tilden and Hen- 
dricks. In 1877 he was a member of the 
house of representatives of the legislature. 
In 1878 he became a member of the senate 
and served four years. He was a member of 
the Democratic state committee from 1886 to 
1888, and in the latter year was again a presi- 
dential elector, voting for Cleveland. He be- 
came a member of congress in 1890 and served 
with distinction. At the close of his first term 
he returned to the practice of law. He was 
always interested in public affairs and a lead- 
ing figure in everything looking to the up- 
building of the community. 

Benjamin Benson Cahoon was born in 1846, 
in Delaware. After receiving a common 
school education and being admitted to the 
practice of law in tlie District of Columbia, 
he came to Fredericktown in 1868. Shortly 
after his arrival he was married to Miss Bell 
LeCompte of Ste. Genevieve, who was a mem- 
ber of one of the old French families of ilis- 
souri. Mr. Cahoon built up a large law prac- 
tice and was soon recognized as one of the 
leading attorneys in Madison county. He 
was elected prosecuting attoimey in 1870, but 
after the close of his term he declined to be- 
come a candidate for anv other office. lie has 



always been interested in party movements, 
being a Republican but is a man of liberal 
views. It was due in part to his work that 
the liberal movement in Missouri to enfran- 
chise former Confederate soldiers was success- 
ful. One of his interests is in connection with 
the development of water transportation and 
the improvement of the Mississippi river. 

James D. Fox was born in Madison county 
January 23, 1847. He was educated in the 
common schools at Fredericktown and at St. 
Louis University, was admitted to the bar in 
1866, and began the practice of law at Fred- 
ericktown. He came to be known as a good 
lawyer and established a large practice. He 
was elected judge of the 27th judicial circuit 
in 1880, and held the position until 1904, 
when he was elected a member of the supreme 
court, a position which he still holds. Mr. 
Fox is a Democrat. 

Joseph J. Russell, of Charleston, Missouri, 
was born August 23, 1854, and is a native 
of Mississippi county. His grandfather, 
James A. Russell, came to Mississippi county 
from Maryland in 1836. Joseph J. Russell 
was reared on a farm and attended a country 
school ; at the age of nineteen he began to 
teach and continued his education at the 
Charleston Academy. In 1876, after having 
studied law in the office of Moore and 
Hatcher, he was admitted to the bar and was 
aftenvard graduated from the law depart- 
ment of the University of Missouri. He was 
successful in the practice of law from the be- 
ginning and acquired a large and valuable 
practice. 'Slv. Russell was school commis- 
sioner of Mississippi county for two years and 
prosecuting attorney from 1880 to 1884. In 
1884 he wa.s a presidential elector on the Dem- 
ocratic ticket and in 1886 he was a representa- 



552 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tive from Mississippi county in the general 
assembly of the state and served as speaker 
of the house. In 1900 he was elected to con- 
gress as a representative of the 14th congres- 
sional district and was again elected to the 
same position in 1910. He has won for him- 
self a place in congress by his ability and 
close attention to the duties of his position. 
He is held in high esteem by those who know 
him well and is regarded as one of the ablest 
men in this part of the state. 

One of the pioneer families of Southeast 
Missouri is the Deal family. The oldest one 
of this family to live in this part of the state 
was Colonel H. J. Deal, who was born in 
Pennsylvania in 1829. He learned the tan- 
ner's trade and worked at this until he was 
nineteen years of age when he went west. At 
first he was employed for a time in Famiing- 
ton, Iowa, then for two years he lived in St. 
Louis. In 1856, after his marriage, he came 
to Charleston in Missi.ssippi county. At first 
he engaged in the business of building levees 
and digging ditches, but in 1857 he took a 
contract for building the Cairo & Fulton 
Railroad. At the breaking out of the war he 
had finished building twenty-seven miles of 
this road, but nothing further was done in 
contract work during the war. The repre- 
sentative in congress from this district at that 
time was Ro])ert A. Hatcher, who resigned 
his position, however, and attached himself 
to the fortunes of the South, ilr. Deal was 
elected to succeed him ; he served for one year 
and then became a member of the state sen- 
ate. In 1868 he was elected representative 
from ^Mississippi county in the legislature, 
and was later re-elected for another term. 

During the war Colonel Deal was ap- 
pointed by the governor to enlist men in a 
number of counties in Southeast Missouri : he 



was given the rank of colonel of enrolled 
militia and served in the capacity of a re- 
cruiting officer during the war. On the close 
of the war Colonel Deal once more took up 
his former work of contracting. In 1866 he 
began the work of building fifty miles of the 
St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad ; this 
work he completed within a year. In 1867 
he finished up the work of the Cairo & Ful- 
ton Railroad to Poplar Bluff. In 1881 he took 
a contract for building one hundred and ten 
miles of the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Rail- 
road, which he completed in 1882 ; after that 
time he turned his attention to farming and 
stock raising. He secured large tracts of land 
in Mississippi county which became very val- 
uable and up to the end of his life he was in- 
terested in farming in all of its branches. 
Colonel Deal was a public spirited citizen and 
always interested in whatever work was to be 
done for the improvement of his community 
and his count}^ ; his interest was manifested on 
more tlian one occasion by building public 
roads at his own expense. 

In 1806 Absalom ]\IcElmurry, a native of 
Kentucky, moved from that state to South- 
east Jlissouri. In a sliort time he removed to 
Little Rock, Arkansas, but returned to Mis- 
sissippi county, Missouri, in 1813. He was 
the first judge of the county, lieing appointed 
in 1843. His eldest son, Thomas S. McEl- 
muriy, was born near Charleston, in 1815 ; he 
was reared on the farm and attended the 
public schools in the vicinity. After becom- 
ing a man, he interested himself in politics 
and held a number of offices in the county, at 
one time he was interested in the mercantile 
business, but during the latter part of his 
life he devoted himself to farming. Judge 
McElmurry lived to a great age and was one 
of the best known citizens of the county. He 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



553 



had an unusual experience in that he lived 
in a territory under the Federal government, 
under the Confederate government and in 
three different counties and yet all the time 
on the same farm. 

The Dawson family has been for many 
years one of the most prominent in New Mad- 
rid county. Dr. Robert D. Dawson, a native 
of Maryland, who came to New jMadrid coun- 
ty in ISOO, was the founder of the family in 
Missouri. He was one of the most prominent 
citizens in this part of the state. William 
Dawson is his grandson; he was educated in 
the Christian Brothers College of St. Louis. 
After some experience as a teacher he was ad- 
mitted to the practice of law and engaged in 
the practice in New Madrid. He was elected 
sheriff in 1870, and re-elected in 1872, he then 
served three terms in the legislature, and in 
1884 was elected to congress as a representjj- 
tive of the Fourteenth Congi'essional district. 
Mr. Dawson is a Democrat and holds the es- 
teem of those who are acquainted with him. 

One of the most prominent citizens of New 
Madrid county was Joseph Hunter. He was 
a native of Scott county, a son of Hon. Abra- 
^ ham Hunter, he was born in 1823, coming to 
New Madrid in 1843. His second wife was 
Elizabeth Russell of Cape Girardeau county, 
a member of one of the pioneer families of 
that county. Mr. Hunter was engaged in 
farming until the breaking out of the Civil 
war, when he joined the Second Missouri Cav- 
alry and served until its close. He then re- 
turned to New Madrid county, wheVe he re- 
sided until his death. His descendants are 
prominent in the county until this time. 

John A. Mott was a native of Kentucky 
and came to New Madrid in 1852. He was 



bom in 1826 and grew to manhood in Hick- 
man, Kentucky, si:)ending his youth in school 
and in his father's store. In 1850 he went 
to California and spent two years in the min- 
ing region returning to New Madrid in 1852. 
For several years he was engaged in the mer- 
cantile business and as an employee of the 
American Express Company and also as a 
farmer. In 1858 he was api^ointed clerk and 
recorder of the circuit court, a position which 
he held for more than thirty-five years. He 
died in 1908. 

In 1848 Robert A. Ilatclier came to New 
Madrid and took a position as clei-k on the 
steamer Selma.; within a short period, how- 
ever, the boat was sold for debt and Mr. 
Hatcher began the study of law with William 
S. Moseley, who had been the captain of the 
Selma. He was a man who made friends rap- 
idly and had a turn for political life as is 
shown by the fact that two years after com- 
ing to New Madrid he was elected representa- 
tive in the legislature. After serving one 
tenn he resigned and engaged in the mercan- 
til business with D. V. LeSieur ; he found this 
employment uncongenial, however, and sold 
out his business and began the practice of his 
' profession. He was very successful and es- 
tablished a good practice. During the war 
Mr. Hatcher's sympathies were with the South 
and he became a member of the Confederate 
congress. At the close of the war he returned 
to the practice of law at New Madrid until his 
election to congress in 1872, a place he held 
for four years. In 1877 he removed to 
Charleston where he lived until the time of 
his death. 

One of the women who during this period 
of our histoiy exercised a good influence on 
affairs, was Eliza A. Carleton. She was born 



554 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



in Montgomery county, Virginia, in 1826. She 
received a common school education in Vir- 
ginia and was afterwards sent to school in 
South Bend, Indiana. She came to Missouri 
with her gi'andfather and in the spring of 
1843 began her work as a teacher. This was 
in district No. 31, at Hickory Cabin school- 
house in Perry township, St. Francis count.y. 
]\Iiss Carleton received $3.00 in trade or $2.00 
in cash for each pupil taught. With the pro- 
ceeds of her teaching she attended Arcadia 
College and was graduated with the degree 
Master of Arts. IMiss Carleton was a teacher 
at heart, and after her graduation contin- 
ued the work. She was impressed with the 
necessity of some further opportunities for 
education than were offered then to the youth 
of Southeast Missouri. Being a woman of 
initiative and development. Miss Carleton de- 
termined to build sijch a school herself. Ac- 
cordingly, in April, 1854, she opened a school 
eight miles north of Farmington, under the 
name of Carleton Institute, it being so called 
in honor of her father. About thirty pupils 
attended this school which was incorporated 
by an act of the legislature, March 4, 1859. 
To the work of this institution she gave her 
entire time and attention. In 1878 this school 
was moved to Farmington where was erected 
a large and commodious brick building in the 
midst of attractive surroundings. Up till her 
death IMiss Carleton remained in close con- 
nection with the school and lived to see it be- 
come a prosperous and influential institution. 
She was a consistent and devoted member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church and through 
her work undoiibtedly influenced for good the 
lives of many young people in this part of the 
state. 

The Carter family came to ^Missouri from 
South Carolina. The head of the family was 



Zimri Carter, who made a settlement on Cur- 
rent river, in what is now Carter county, 
about 1813, Zimri Carter was oue of the most 
influential and prominent men in Southeast 
Missouri, He was judge of the county court 
and the county was named for him. One of 
tlie children of the family was Hon. William 
Carter, born in 1830, He was educated in the 
common schools and also at Arcadia College, 
He then attended a Louisville law school and 
was graduated in law in 1855, beginning his 
practice at Potosi and then removing to 
Farmington in 1862. In 1864 he was elected 
circuit judge of the 20th circuit, which in- 
cluded the counties of Washington, Iron, St. 
Francis, iladison. Perry and Ste. Genevieve. 
He held this office until in 1874 ; he was then 
elected a member of the general assembly of 
the state where he was made chairman of the 
judiciary committee. Since that time he has 
devoted himself to the practice of law, but 
has held other positions of honor at the same 
time. For a number of years he was one of 
the curators of the University of ilissouri. 

Placide DeLassus was born in Xew Orleans 
June 28, 1839, and was the grandson of 
Charles de Hault DeLassus. who was lieu- 
tenant governor of Upper Louisiana at the 
time of the transfer to the United States, 
Governor DeLassus received many grants of 
land from the Spanish government; one of 
these was a tract in St, Francois county, Mis- 
souri, on which the village of DeLassus was 
located. The family was a very prominent 
one in Missouri, some of them living in St, 
Francois" county and others in Perry county, 
Placide DeLassus was educated in New Or- 
leans and in France, He served throughout 
the war in the Confederate army. He lived 
for a time after the war in St. Louis where he 
married Miss Mary Clark, the daughter of 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ooa 



Henry L. Clark. In 1868 he moved to De- 
Lassus in St. Francois county, where he con- 
tinued to live until his death. He owned dur- 
ing all his life the greater part of the grants 
made by the Spanish government to his grand- 
father. 

One of the prominent persons of Southeast 
Missouri during this period was General 
James R. MeCormack, of Farmington, ilis- 
souri. He was born August 1, 1824, in 
Washington coiinty. He was ediieated in the 
common schools and in Transylvania Institute 
in Kentucky. He was graduated from the 
Memphis Medical College and practiced medi- 
cine for a time in Wayne county and in Perry 
count3^ On the breaking out of the war he 
was appointed surgeon of the Sixth Infantry 
of Missouri. These men were enlisted for a 
term of six months and at the expiration of 
their term. Dr. MeCormack was made briga- 
dier general for Southeast Missouri. The 
brigade consisted of seven regiments and 
General MeCormack remained in command 
until the close of the war. He was regarded 
as a good officer and was held in esteem liv 
his superiors. At the close of the war he 
practiced his profession for a time at Arcadia 
and later became a citizen of Farmington, 
Missouri. General MeCormack had some ex- 
perience in politics, having been a member of 
the constitutional convention in 1861 and 
later serving in the state senate and in 1867 
being elected to till a vacancy in the United 
States congress. He was interested in pub- 
lic affairs in his community and was regarded 
as one of its most prominent and influential 
citizens. 

Milton P. Cayce was a Virginian, having 
been born in that state in 1804. He was 
reared on a farm and then served as a sales- 



man in a store. He came to Farmington in 
1832 and began the conduct of a general 
store. He continued as a merchant for more 
than fifty years and during that time accu- 
mulated considerable property. Besides his 
mercantile business he was also a contractor 
and the owner of a flouring mill. He had 
other interests, among them a tan yard and 
several farms. The first ice house in St. 
Francois county was built by Mr. Cayce, and 
he is said to have owned the first piano. Mr. 
Cayce was a Democrat and served for more 
than twenty years as county treasurer. He 
was also a sherifi: at one time in the county and 
was a member of the constitutional conven- 
tion in 1861. Few men in the history of 
Farmington occupy a higher place in the es- 
teem and respect of the citizens than did Mr. 
Cayce. 

One of the interesting men of this period 
was Captain Gustavus St. Gem. He was a 
member of the old St. Gem family, one of the 
earliest families to emigrate from France to 
America. They seem to have located in Ste. 
Genevieve about 1780, and that during all 
the rest of the history of the town were among 
its prominent citizens. Gustavus St. Gem 
was educated at St. Vincent 's College at Cape 
Girardeau. On returning from college he 
engaged in business in Ste. Genevieve for a 
time and then removed to Washington coun- 
ty, where he became interested in mining. 
During the war he was an officer in the Fed- 
eral army and served with credit during the 
entire time. He was captain of Company K 
of the Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry. In 
1878, President Hayes appointed him collector 
of customs in St. Louis. Captain St. Gem 
lived to be very old and died having the uni- 
versal respect of his friends and neighbors in 
Ste. Genevieve. 



N 



556 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Dr. Charles S. Hertich was the son of Jo- 
seph Hertich, a native of Switzerland. He 
was bom in Ste. Genevieve in 1821. His fa- 
ther was the master of the famous school in 
Ste. Genevieve known as The Asylum. It has 
been jjointed out in another place that this 
school was the first in Missouri to put into 
practice the principles of education set out 
by Pestalozzi. Dr. Hertich was educated in 
this school himself and afterwards became a 
teacher in it, assisting his father. He then 
studied medicine at Burlington. Iowa, and 
later at the St. Louis Medical College. He 
was for a time a United States surgeon to 
the Indians at Long Prairie, Minnesota. Dur- 
ing the war he served as post surgeon of Ste. 
Genevieve. From the close of the war until 
1878, he continued the practice of medicine 
in Ste. Genevieve, at that time he was afflicted 
by a stroke of paralysis which kept him par- 
tially helpless until his deaath. His wife was 
a daughter of Ferdinand Rozier. 

Martin L. Clardy was born in Ste. Gene- 
vieve county April 26, 1844, and was edu- 
cated in the common schools, in St. Louis Uni- 
versity and in the University of Virginia. 
After his graduation he began the study of 
law and devoted himself to its practice, mak- 
ing his home for a number of years in De- 
Lassus in St. Francois county. He acquired 
considerable political experience and in 1882 
was chosen a member of congress as a Demo- 
crat and was twice reelected; after the con- 
clusion of his third term in 1888, he removed 
to St. Louis, where he became one of the prin- 
cipal attorneys for the Missouri Pacific Rail- 
road Company. Mr. Clardy is recognized as 
one of the leading lawyers and politicians of 
the state. 



^Marshall Arnold, one of the best known 
lawyers in Southeast Missouri was born in 
St. Francois county on October 21, 1845. He 
lived the usual life of a farmer boj-, received 
an education in the common schools and in 
Arcadia College. In 1870 he was a teacher 
in Arcadia College. He sei-ved for a time as 
deputy clerk of the county, circuit, and pro- 
bate courts of St. Francois county and dur- 
ing this time began the study of law. He 
later removed to Scott county where he opened 
a law office and soon established a reputation 
as an able lawyer. He was elected prosecut- 
ing attorney and later ser\'ed two terms in 
the legislature of the state. In 1884 he was 
presidential elector on the Hancock ticket and 
in 1890 was elected to congress from the 14th 
congressional district as a Democrat. He was 
reelected in 1892 bj' a very large majority, 
but was defeated in 1894 by N. A. Moseley, 
a Republican. Since that time Mr. Arnold 
has devoted most of his energy to the prac- 
tice of his profession. He is recognized as 
one of the ablest criminal lawyers in this 
section of the state and is a forceful and 
eloquent speaker. 

James P. "Walker was born in Lauderdale 
county, Tennessee, Max'ch 4, 1851. He came 
to Missouri early in his life and made his 
home in Stoddard county. Mr. Walker soon 
won the confidence of the people and came to 
be known as a man of marked ability. In 
1886 he was nominated by the Democrats for 
congress from the 14th district and was 
elected by a large majority. In congress he 
made a splendid record for himself and 
seemed to be entering upon a career of great 
usefulness and influence. Before the close of 
the term, however, he died, putting an end 
to a very promising life. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



557 



Nelson B. Henry, a minister of the ileth- 
odist Episcopal Cliurcli South, was born July 
23, 1848, near Burfordville, Missouri. He is 
a grandson of John D. Cook, one of the pio- 
neers of Missouri and for a number of years 
a circuit judge of this state. The father of 
Nelson B. Henry was also a Methodist 
preacher and for many years one of the most 
prominent in Southeast Missouri. Mr. 
Henry, who is now pastor of the Methodist 
church at Bonne Terre, was reared on the 
farm, received a good education, being grad- 
uated from the State Normal School at 
Kirksville in 1876. After his graduation he 
became principal of the high school at Oak 
Ridge, serving two years. In 1878 he be- 
came a member of the faculty of the State 
Normal School at Cape Girardeau, teaching 
English and literature and holding the po- 
sition until 1886, when he was elected to the 
chair of pedagogy in the University of North 
Carolina. Prom this position he resigned to 
become president of the Pueblo Collegiate In- 
stitute at Pueblo, Colorado, in 1888. Here 
he remained until 1892 when he was elected 
president of the Bellevue Collegiate Institute 
at Caledonia. He filled this position two 
years and then resigned to become the pre- 
siding elder of the Farmington district. He 
held this position one year and then became 
president of the Marvin Collegiate Institute 
at Predericktown. Mr. Henry assisted in the 
organization of this school and did much to 
develop it. He resigned, however, after a few 
years and entered upon the work of the min- 
istry, which he still continues. While he was 
teacher of the high school at Oak Ridge in 
1876 he began an agitation which resulted in 
the organization of the Southeast Missouri 
Teachers Association of which he became the 
first president. 



Another man who has been closely asso- 
ciated with the development of the lead in- 
dustry in Southeast Missouri is P. P. Graves, 
who was born in Rochester, New York, in 
1849. After receiving a good education he 
came to Missouri and found employment in 
the St. Joseph lead mines at Bonne Terre ; 
this was about the year 1869. Before coming 
to Missouri he had had some experience in 
lead mines in Massachusetts. When he first 
became connected with the St. Joseph Lead 
Company he worked in the mill and the shops, 
but after two years was made cashier of the 
company and held this position for seventeen 
years. In 1887 he became connected with the 
Doe Run Lead Company, assisting in its or- 
ganization and becoming its secretary and as- 
sistant superintendent. Under his direction 
the company prospered greatly and the Doe 
Run mines became one of the chief lead pro- 
ducing centers in this part of the state. Mr. 
Graves has found time from his connection 
with the lead industry to take an intelligent 
and active interest in public affairs. He served 
as postmaster at Doe Run from 1887 to 1891 
and has been a consistent party worker though 
never a candidate for public oifice. Mr. 
Graves gathered one of the finest collections 
of minerals in the state, and it has been a 
feature of a number of great expositions in 
this country. 

Pirmin DesLoge, whose name is connected 
with the development of the mining district 
of Southeast Missouri, was born at Potosi in 
Washington county. His father was a na- 
tive of Nantes, France, who came to Potosi 
while a young man and engaged in a mercan- 
tile and lead-mining business. Pirmin Des- 
Loge was educated at Potosi and at St. Louis 
University, and began his business career as 



558 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



a clerk for the firm of John B. Valle & Com- 
pany of St. Louis. In 1867 he gave up his 
position and turned his attention to mining 
operations at Potosi. He was one of the first 
men to become interested in the mining pros- 
pects of St. Francois county. He purchased 
land adjacent to the plant of the St. Joseph 
Lead Company and built a smelting plant 
for the corporation known as the DesLoge 
Lead Company. Mr. DesLoge managed this 
company until it was sold in 18S7 to the St. 
Joseph Lead Company. During his connec- 
tion with this corporation he helped to build 
the first railroad, the Bonne Terre & Missis- 
sippi Valley Railroad, which penetrated the 
lead regions to St. Francois county. Later 



3Ir. DesLoge bought property which had be- 
longed to the Bogj' Lead Mine Company and 
the St. Francois Mining Company and organ- 
ized a new eoiporation known as the DesLoge 
Consolidated Lead Comjiany. The Bonne 
Terre Railroad was extended to these mines 
which were operated on a large scale. Not 
only was he interested in the development of 
the mining industry in which he acquired con- 
siderable wealth, but ilr. DesLoge was inter- 
ested in public affairs ; he served as treasurer 
of Washington county and on various occa- 
sions was a director of public schools. The 
town of DesLoge, now one of the prosperous 
mining communities of St. Francois county, 
was named in his honor. 




q/ (^^y3a^du^^.c^ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



559 



Judge Thomas Edward BALowaN. There 
is one mystery in tliis brief lil'e and that 
mystery is deatli. Wliat we call history is a 
long procession of hitman beings, reaching 
back into the ages, who an-ive on this earth, 
act, hate, love, accumulate, strive and then 
go back. Each one of us has one spark of 
life and then death, the mystei\y of the un- 
known. The thought of death should stimu- 
late a man to better work and harder work, 
that he may shine in some way while his 
little spark is still a light. Whether Thomas 
Edward Baldwin ever reflected just along 
these lines or not, the fact is that he made 
the most of his life while he w'as here and 
when the spark went out, reflections from it 
still remain. 

He was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 
October 23, 1849, and died May 27, 1904, at 
Kennett, Missouri. His father, Thomas 
Baldwin, was born in Scott county, Missouri, 
November 16, 1810. He married Elizabeth 
Lobdell, and both died in 1859, when the 
Judge was but ten years of age. John Bald- 
win, father of Thomas, was born in Berkeley 
county, Virginia, October 26, 1771 ; and mar- 
ried Rachel Wellbourne, January 28, 1796, in 
Washington county, Georgia. The family 
came from Georgia to Missouri in 1803, lo- 
cating at what, in the early days was known 
as Baldwin's Landing, in Scott county. Mis- 
souri. John Baldwin was a descendant of 
one of three brothers who, in 1643, came 
from England and settled at New Haven, 
Connecticut. One of these brothers later 
removed to Virginia and is the progenitor 
of this branch of the family. 

Judge Baldwin was as a boy thrown ujDon 
his own resources and got what education 
was possible in the schools of Cape Girardeau, 
where he remained uutil twenty-one years of 
age. He then came on the old road to Clark- 
ton. Dunklin county, Missouri, where he 
clerked in a store owned by Mr. Whitelaw. 
Previous to that time, however, he had clerked 
for Leech and Company at Cape Girardeau. 
Young as he was, he was appointed Circuit 
and County Clerk to fill a vacancy soon after 
coming to Clai-kton, which necessitated his 
living in Kennett. Subsequently in 1878, he 
was elected and in 1880 re-elected to the same 
office and by that time had decided to re- 
main in Kennett. In 1882 he was elected 
probate .judge, serving four years, during the 
last two of which he was also county 
treasurer. 

Judge Baldwin became a partner of W. F. 
Shelton in a general store at Kennett in 



1886, under the firm name of W. F. Shelton 
& Company. 

For four years he remained in the store 
as book-keeper and credit man, at the end 
of which time he sold out his share to his 
partner, buying a drug store on the site of 
the present Baldwin Drug Store. The store 
had formerly been owned by the late Dr. A. 
B. Mobley. After conducting the di'ug store 
for two or three years he erected a brick 
block, in which he installed his drug store. 
His building and the one erected by W. F. 
Shelton about the same time, 1892, were the 
first brick buildings in Kennett. He con- 
tinued to manage the drug store until 1896, 
when he sold out to 0. S. Harrison, who had 
been his druggist. He next became inter- 
ested in real estate and was for years agent 
of the Great Chouteau lands, but in addi- 
tion to this he bought and sold on his own 
account. At one time he owned several thou- 
sand acres of swamp land, four thousand 
acres in one tract. At the time of his death 
he owned two thousand acres and a three 
hundred and twenty acre farm near Kennett 
that he had cleai-ed. He laid out Rose Park 
Addition to Kennett, selling the lots himself. 
He was an organizer of the Bank of Kennett, 
being its president until a few- months be- 
fore he died, his interest still remaining in 
the bank. He was always ready to do any- 
thing he could for the betterment of the 
town and also served the county as its rep- 
resentative in the state legislature. He was 
a Democrat, always active in county and local 
campaigns. 

In 1872 he married Mary J. Pankey, 
daughter of Dr. G. Pankey. Her father was 
born at Richmond, Virginia, where he re- 
ceived his education, being brought up on 
the farm. He became a tobacco grower and 
dealer in the south, owning a great number 
of slaves to cultivate and pick the tobacco. 
He always treated them in the most con- 
siderate manner and they were devoted to 
him. He married Miss Sally Jones, a charm- 
ing Southern woman, a native of Richmond 
like himself. All business was beginning to 
be very much demoralized in the south and 
Mr. Pankey was losing money on his planta- 
tion. He therefore sold off everything he 
possessed, except his slaves. These he 
brought with him to Missouri, settling at 
Clarktou, where he bought a small farm and 
started a store. In 1861, when the war broke 
out, he raised a regiment for the Confederate 
army, he being its Colonel. He served 
throughout the war, at the end of which time 



560 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



he set his slaves free, but they never lost the 
feelings of affection and devotion towards 
him, but would have cheerfully laid down 
their lives for him at anj' time. One of thein, 
Charles Birthwright, with his wife Bettie, 
live in Clarkton and are leaders among the 
colored people of that town. Colonel Pankey 
lived in Cardwell, ^lissouri, later, where he 
died in January, 1910, at the age of seventy- 
four, his wife having died many years before. 
The Colonel served the county as county col- 
lector. He was a man who had served the 
country both in the army and in civil affairs. 
He was very well known all over the state 
and was universall}' respected. D. B. Pan- 
key, the son of the Colonel and brother to 
]Mrs. Baldwin, is well known in Kennett, hav- 
ing served it in many capacities. He was 
clerk of the county and one time mayor. He 
was one of the organizers of the bank and is 
its cashier still. He has seen it grow in 
wealth and reputation. He is president of 
the electric light company, having helped 
to organize it. He is president of the Ken- 
nett Store Company and of the St. Louis, 
Keokuk & Southeastern Railroad Company 
and is treasurer of the Dunklin Publishing 
Company. Mrs. Baldwin's sphere of useful- 
ness has been her home, but she has been 
every whit as effective as her father and her 
lu'other, though in a more retired way. She 
has brought up a family of six children, all 
of whom are a credit to her.' Sallie May 
Baldwin, the eldest child, is now the wife of 
L. P. Tatum, a merchant in Kennett. Edward 
Y. is cashier of the Campbell Lumber Com- 
pany and a director in the Kennett Bank. 
Ernest Albert is proprietor of the Baldwin 
Drug Store, formerly owned by his father. 
Paul is a physician, having received his de- 
gree of Doctor of Medicine at the Washing- 
ton University, medical department, in 1904. 
He is now practicing medicine in Kennett 
and making a success, as the son of such a 
father and such a mother must needs do. 
Lillian Ballard is just graduated from the 
Synodical College at Fulton, Missouri, in the 
class of 1911. Josephine, the youngest, is 
at present attending the public school of 
Kennett. 

Jlr. Baldwin is a Mason and also a member 
of the Independent' Order of Odd Fellows. 
He was a member of the Presbyterian church, 
having been an elder from the time of its 
organization, twenty-five yeai's ago, when the 
Reverend Beale was its first minister. Dur- 
ing all these years, with all his business activ- 



ities, it was the church which received his in- 
terest above all else. His greatest pleasure 
was in working for the church and it is need- 
less to say that practically the whole re- 
sponsibility of the church rested on his 
shoulders. When a man is both capable and 
willing, he is sure to have more thrust upon 
him than he really ought to carry. He was 
superintendent of the Sunday-school, know- 
ing personally eveiy teacher and scholar. 
Each one felt that in Mr. Baldwin he was 
sure to find a sympathetic confidant, one who 
had the faculty of entering into the feelings 
of others, no matter how much opposed they 
were to his own feelings and beliefs. He 
was a friend to any one who needed his help, 
giving money, time and of himself. It is 
now seven years since he passed on into the 
uukuowu, but the work he organized is still 
going on, the children he guided in the Sun- 
day-school are fast growing up, but they have 
not forgotten him. He has gone, but his in- 
fiuence will never die. That is the thought 
that must have been of comfort to his family 
during these years, as they live the kinds of 
lives that he would have had them live, try- 
ing to be the kind of men and women that he 
would have had them be. 

Otto Kochtitzky, as he commonly writes 
his name, or Otto von Kochtitzky, as he is en- 
titled to write it, is perhaps the best authority 
on swamp laud values and drainage in South- 
eastern iMissouri. He was born iu South Bend, 
Indiana, May 4, 18.35, and comes of a family 
well-known both in this country and abroad. 
His father, Oscar von Kochtitzky, was for 
some years state auditor, and was connected 
with many public enterprises. 

The son Otto was educated in the public 
schools and the Jefferson City high school. 
Upon taking up active work for himself he be- 
came interested in surveying and qualified 
himself for the work of a civil engineer. He 
was for a time surveyor of New iladrid coun- 
ty, and thus lieiame acquainted with the great 
opportunities offered by the swamp lands of 
the section. He was interested in building the 
Little River Valley and Arkansas Railroad 
from New Madrid to Maiden, the beginning 
of the present St. Louis Southwestern System, 
He was one of the first men in the section to 
see the possibilities of drainage in the swamps 
of Little River and made a thorough study of 
the topography of the country and of the his- 
tory and development of drainage in similar 
sections, especially in Indiana and Illinois. In 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



561 



spite of great discouragements arising from 
the inherent difficulties of the situation, the 
iudift'ei'enee of tlie people of the district, Mr. 
Koehtitzky persevered in his efforts to estab- 
lish a system of drainage which should re- 
claim the overflowed lands of Little River. Ho 
carried on a campaign of education, becaiMc 
associated with the Luce family, which made 
the first attempts at constructing drainage 
canals on a large scale, and was finallj' success- 
ful in having much of the swamp land terri- 
tory organized into districts and the work of 
drainage actually begun. Under his direction 
many miles of canals were constructed and 
much land reclaimed. His efforts in this re- 
spect resulted in the organization of the Little 
River Valley Drainage Company, which has 
for its ob.iect the construction of a diversion 
channel which shall turn the waters of White- 
water, Crooked Creek and other streams which 
enter the lowlands from the Ozark plateau 
into the ilississippi river .iust south of the 
city of Cape Girardeau, thus preventing this 
water from spreading over the lowlands ; and 
the digging of a large drainage canal to carry 
off the water which falls on the swamps of 
Little river. This is a most ambitious scheme, 
which calls for the expenditure of several mil- 
lion dollars and which will probably result in 
reclaiming large bodies of land. IMr. Koeh- 
titzky was for a time the chief engineer of this 
company and did most of the preliminary 
work of organization. 

His chief attention at the present time is 
given to the development of large tracts of 
valuable lands which he has acquired and to 
the work of contracting in the digging of 
drainage ditches. 

ilr. Koehtitzky has never been greatly in- 
terested in politics, though he was a delegate 
to the Democratic convention in 1896 that 
nominated Palmer and Buckner, being the 
only representative from the Thirteenth Con- 
gressional district of Missouri. 

For a number of years he has made his 
home at Cape Girardeau, having formerly 
lived at a number of places in this section. 
He. with his family, is a member of the Pres- 
byterian church. 

Mr. Koehtitzky has done much for South- 
eastern Missouri. He is intimately acquainted 
with the country, is a clear and convincing 
writer, and has rendered very valuable service 
in making this section of the country known 
in other places and its opportunities appre- 
ciated. Few citizens of Missouri have con- 
tributed as much to the upbuilding of his 
great section of the state. One of the matters 

Vol. 1—3 6 



about which he has strong convictions is the 
New Madrid earthquake of 1811- '12. He 
does not believe that in any way affected the 
level of the country, changed its water- 
courses, or left other permanent effects. He 
di.ssents from the views expressed in another 
part of this work, holding that they are based 
on imperfect data. 

C. E. Burton. It is one of the rarest oc- 
currences in this commercial age that a man 
of marked business ability takes a place in 
the ranks of our educators. The teaching 
profession engages citizens of the loftiest in- 
tellectual and moral qualifications, but those 
who follow it seldom find opportunity to ex- 
ercise their talents in the business world 
Wayne county is singularly fortunate in hav- 
ing at the head of her school system a man 
who is at once a born teacher and conspicu- 
ously successful in commercial pursuits, Mr. 
C. E. Burton, of Piedmont. 

C. T. Burton, the county superintendent's 
father, was born in Tennessee August 1-3. 
1852. At the age of twenty he left his native 
state and went to Kentucky, where he con- 
ducted a store and engaged in farming. His 
marriage to Miss Ellen Walker, a native of 
the Blue Grass state, took place in 1874. Mrs. 
C. T. Burton was born in Carlisle county in 
the year 1854. Seven years after their mar- 
riage Mr. and Mrs. Burton moved to Mis- 
souri, locating first on a farm near Piedmont 
and later moving into the town. Here Mr. 
Burton established a mercantile business, 
which he conducted until 1908, when he re- 
tired. He and his wife are now living in 
Piedmont and it is their good fortune to have 
the four children who are now living of the 
six born to them all residing in Piedmont 
and its environs. These are: Maud, Mrs. 
Charles McFarland: Artie, Mrs. C. F. Shel- 
ton, and Daisy, still at home, besides C. E. 
Burton, of this sketch. 

Kentucky was the birthplace of Mr. C. E. 
Burton and the year of his nativity was 1877. 
Until he was four, he lived on the Kentucky 
farm. After his parents came to Missouri, 
he attended the Piedmont high school, from 
which he graduated at the age of sixteen. The 
next year he began teaching. At nineteen, 
Mr. Burton graduated from Wayne Acad- 
emy and has continued his work of teaching 
and studying ever since. He has tatight in 
the grades and in the high school, and is fa- 
miliar with every part of the work of the 
entire curriculum from the primary grade to 
the university. 



562 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Three years ago, Governor Folk appointed 
Mr. Burton to fill out four mouths of J. K. 
Clubb's unexpired term as county commis- 
sioner. In the spring of 1909 he was elected 
a county commissioner and in August, 1909, 
Mr. Burton qualified as county superintend- 
ent. In 1911 he was again elected to the su- 
perintendenej' without opposition. ]Mr. Bur- 
ton has unusual equalities both as a man aud 
as an instructor. He is a born teacher and 
an eminently progressive one. His efforts to 
elevate the standard of the Wayne county 
schools are unremitting. Under his regime 
some of the rural schools have added the first 
year of high school work to their course of 
study, and the high school graduates are ad- 
mitted to several colleges \vithout examina- 
tion. Mr. Burton's educational training be- 
yond the common schools has been acquired 
bv his own efforts. 
" On Christmas day of 1896 Mr. Burton was 
married to Miss Lula Bell Shelton, of Irou 
county, Missouri. Four children have bless-^d 
this union, all of whom are still in their par- 
ents' home; Celeste Cynthia, Inez Emory, 
Donald Clarence and Marjorie Florence. 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Burton are members of 
the Methodist church. South. In politics ^Mr. 
Burton is a Democrat and in a social way, a 
member of the IModern Woodmen's lodge of 
Piedmont. 

In a business way Mr. Burton has been a 
successful dealer in real estate. He is also a 
property holder of some prominence in the 
county.' His holdings include a residence in 
Fiedn'iont and two hundred and ten acres of 
land near the town, on which he has a sum- 
mer cottage. In addition to this he has a 
residence in Greenville. 

Luther P. Tatum, a succes.sful merchant of 
Kennett, was born in Howard county, Mis- 
souri. January 3, 1863. He is the son of A. C. 
and Susan Franklin Tatum, who were natives 
of Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. L. 
P. Tatum, after acquiring an education in the 
schools of his native county, came to Kennett 
while a young man and immediately engaged 
in business. He had even then the natural 
ability which makes men successful merchants 
and was successful from the first. The Ken- 
nett of that day was very different from the 
city of today. It was a struggling town of 
four or five hundred people and only a few 
men among them. Mr. Tatum, however, saw 
the great possibilities of the town. 



In 1883 he formed a partnership with an 
older brother, James F. Tatum, under the firm 
name of Tatum Brothers. This soon became 
one of the leading mercantile firms of Dunk- 
lin county. It acquired the most desirable 
corner in the town, erected a commodious 
brick building, and was in a position to profit 
by the great growth of the town and its in- 
creased prosperity which followed the build- 
ing of its first railroad. The business is still 
conducted by Mr. Tatum under the firm name, 
although the senior partner is dead. Out of 
this business Mr. Tatum has acquired a com- 
fortable fortune and is a man of influence in 
his community. 

In September, 1893, he was married to J\Iiss 
Sallie il. Baldwin, daughter of Judge Tliomas 
Baldwin, one of the most prominent and in- 
fluential men of the county. They live in one 
of the most beautiful and costly homes in the 
county, and have the respect and esteem of all 
their acquaintances. . 

Lee Shelton. One of the most successful 
aud enterprising merchants of Southeastern 
Missouri is Lee Shelton, of Kennett, a member 
of the firm of Shelton & Companj-. He was 
born at Kennett, January 11, 187.5, and is the 
son of Joseph Jackson Shelton, who was born 
in 1836. He was educated in the public 
schools, in Bellevue Collegiate Institute at 
Caledonia, in college at Farmington and St. 
Louis and received a good business training at 
a business college in Quincy, Illinois. 

Mr. Shelton 's father died many yeai-s ago 
and he was reared by his uncle, W. F. Shel- 
ton, the shrewdest and most successful busi- 
ness man of Dunklin county. Under his train- 
ing Lee Shelton acquired a knowledge of 
actual practical business which has enabled 
him to carry on the large establishment of his 
firm in a most successful manner. This firm 
probably sells as many goods as any other in 
the soiitheast and probably buys more cotton 
than any other. In addition to his interest 
in this mercantile business he is heavily in- 
terested in many other enterprises, many of 
the larger undertakings in Dunklin county 
being financed by his firm. He has recently 
erected a large office building on a prominent 
corner in Kennett, which is as well equipped 
as those found in the large cities. 

Mr. Shelton finds time from his large enter- 
prises to give attention to public matters. He 
has served as a member of the board of alder- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



563 



men of Kennett, and has been for many years 
one of the most valued members of the board 
of education. 

Mr. Shelton is married and has a beautiful 
home in Kennett. 

Washington S. Dearmont. There is much 
of consistency in the paraphrase of a familiar 
quotation wliieh is made to express the senti- 
ment that "education makes the man, the 
want of it the fellow," for the entire basic 
dift'erentiation between the various social 
grades is made through the training of men- 
tal powers. The progress of civilization has 
been accomplished by men of strong men- 
tality and well disciplined faculties, and 
there is no vocation which is of so great 
importance and that imposes so great re- 
spousilnlity as that of the teacher, whether 
his work be in the more rudimentary grades 
or in the broad field of exalted scholarship. 
Numbered among the able and valued fac- 
tors in educational work in the state of ilis- 
souri is Professor Washington Strother 
Dearmont, who is the honored president of 
the Missouri State Normal School at Cape 
Girardeau and whose career in the domain 
of pedagogic endeavor has been one of sig- 
nal success. He has proved a most able ad- 
ministrative officer in his present position, 
in which also he has found ample scope for 
the most effective work along scholastic lines. 
None of the normal schools of the state has 
a higher reputation than that at Cape Girar- 
deau and at no period in its history has its 
standard been higher than under the regime 
of its present chief executive, who has at 
all times held the confidence and high re- 
gard of the student body and who has been 
able to infuse the utmost enthusiasm into all 
departments of the work of the institution, 
by gaining the zealous co-operation of the 
various members of the corps of instructoi-s 
and earnest and appreciative application on 
the part of the students who have availed 
themselves of the advantages of this admir- 
able school. 

Dr. Dearmont finds a due mede of pride 
and satisfaction in reverting to the historic 
Old Dominion as the place of his nativity 
and he is a scion of a family that was 
founded in that commonwealth in the colon- 
ial epoch. He was born in Clarke county, 
Virginia, on the 22d of September, 1859, 
and is a son of Peter and Mary (Bell) Dear- 
mont, both of whom were bom and reared 



in Virginia, the former being of staunch 
English lineage and the ancestral line of 
the latter being traced back to staunch Irish 
stock. 

Peter Dearmont was a successful agricul- 
turist in his native state until the ravages 
of the Civil war wrought disaster to him, 
as to so many other citizens of Virginia, 
which was the stage of action on the part 
of the contending forces for many weary 
months, as history well records. In 1871 he 
sought a new field of effort and removed with 
his family to Holt county, Missouri. There 
he purchased a farm in the vicinity of Mound 
City and with the passing of the years he 
was enabled, through industry and good man- 
agement, to again gain independence and sub- 
stantial prosperity, though he did not acquire 
wealth. He is now venerable in years and 
is living virtually retired on a farm near 
Mound City, Holt county, Missouri. His 
sterling integrity of character has given him 
the confidence and high regard of his fel- 
low men and his life has been one of use- 
fulness and honor in all its relations. He 
is a staunch advocate of the principles of 
the Democratic party and his religious faith 
is that of the Presbjterian church, of which 
his wife likewise was a zealous member. The 
latter was summoned to the life eternal in 
1900, at the age of sixty-three years, and 
her memoiy is revered by all who came within 
the sphere of her gentle influence. Of the 
children five sons and one daughter attained 
to yeai-s of maturity, and of the number Dr. 
Dearmont, of this review, is the eldest. 

Dr. Dearmont clearly recalls the scenes and 
incidents of his boyhood days on the old 
homestead plantation in Virginia, and he is 
indebted to the conmion schools of his na- 
tive commonwealth for his rudimentary edu- 
cational discipline. He was a lad of twelve 
years at the time of the family removal from 
Virginia to Holt county, jMissouri where he 
was reared to adult age under the sturdy and 
invigorating discipline of the home farm, in 
the work of which he gave effective assistance, 
the while he availed himself of the advan- 
tages of the public schools of the locality and 
period. His ambition to secure a liberal edu- 
cation was early quickened and was one of 
definite action.. The financial resources of 
his parents were limited and thus he de- 
pended upon his own exertions in gaining 
the funds which enabled him to complete his 
higher academic education. When nineteen 



564 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



years of age Dr. Dearmont gained, in a dis- 
trict school, his first practical experience m 
the pedagogic profession, and by his con- 
tinued and effective labors as a teacher in 
the public schools he provided for the ex- 
penses of his collegiate courses. In 1880 he 
was matriculated in the University of Mis- 
souri, at Columbia, in which he was grad- 
uated as a member of the class of 1885 and 
from which he received the degree of Bache- 
lor of Arts. He continued to teach in the 
public schools after his graduation and fin- 
ally completed an effective post-graduate 
course in his alma mater, the state univer- 
sity, which confen-ed upon him in 1889 the 
degree of Master of Arts. For eight years 
he taught in the schools of Mound City, in his 
home county, and during the last five years 
of this period he held the position of prin- 
cipal. Prom 1893 until 1899 he was super- 
intendent of the public schools of Kirkwood, 
St. Louis county, and no better evidence of 
his success in his chosen profession could be 
given than that afforded in his selection, in 
1899, for his present important office, that 
of president of the Missouri State Normal 
School at Cape Girardeau, where his labors 
have been admirably directed and where he 
has gained unquestioned distinction and 
prestige as one of the leading factore in 
connection with educational activities in the 
state which has been his home from his boy- 
hood days and in which he has secure van- 
tage ground in popular confidence and es- 
teem. He has made of his profession not a 
nu'ans to an end but a distinctive vocation 
which he has deemed worthy of his unequi- 
vocal devotion, with the result that his suc- 
cess has been marked and his rewards 
unstinted in the sense of good accomplished. 
In recognition of these services, the degree 
of Doctor of Literature was conferred on him 
by Westminster College. 

Subordinating all other interests to the 
demands of his chosen vocation. Dr. Dear- 
mont naturally has had no desire to enter 
the turbulent stream of practical politics, 
though he takes a broad-minded interest in 
public affairs and gives his allegiance to the 
cause of the Democratic part}'. He is a 
valued member of the Missouri State Teach- 
ers' Association and many other educational 
organizations and both he and his wife are 
zealous and devoted members of the Presby- 
terian church. He is affiliated with the 
Knights of Pythias. Dr. and Mrs. Dearmont 



are valued factors in connection with the l)est 
social activities of their home city and their 
influence in this connection is refined and 
benignant, as is it also in the various other 
relations of life. Their circle of friends is 
coincident A^dth that of their acquaintances 
and their home is a center of gracious hos- 
pitality. 

On the 31st of May, 1890, was solemnized 
the marriage of Professor Dearmont to ]\Iiss 
Julia Lee McKee, of Mound City, Holt 
county. Mrs. Dearmont was born at Mary- 
ville, ilissouri, and is a daughter of Plorace 
N. and Sarah (Scott) McKee. He now main- 
tains his home with a daughter at Bigelow, 
Missouri, and is living retired. The mother 
died in 1899. Dr. and Mrs. Dearmont have 
three children, — Russell Lee, Julian Scott and 
Nelson Strother. 

Arthur C. Bowman. Prominently identi- 
fied with a line of business enterprise that 
ever has important bearing on the civic and 
material progress and prosperity of any com- 
munity, Mr. Bowman is one of the leading 
I'epreseutatives of the real-estate business in 
the fine section of country to which this his- 
tory is devoted. He is manager of the South- 
east Realty Company, of Cape Girardeau, 
and he has shown marked discriuiination and 
initiative and administrative ability in di- 
recting the affairs of this company, whose op- 
erations have reached a broad scof)e, involving 
the handling of farm, city and village prop- 
erties throughout the various sections of 
southeastern Missouri. Mr. Bowman is a man 
of ambition and resourceful energy, as has 
been amply demonstrated in his independent 
career. He depended upon his own resources 
in the securing of higher academic education, 
and became a successful and popular factor 
in the work of the pedagogic profession, to 
which he devoted his attention for several 
years. He is a scion of one of the sterling 
pioneer families of southeastern Missouri and 
he has well upheld the prestige of the hon- 
ored name which he bears. Tims there are 
many points that render most consonant his 
recognition in this publication — especially on 
the score of his being at the present time one 
of the representative business men of the 
yoiinger generation in Cape Girardeau, where 
his circle of friends is coincident witli tiiat 
of his acquaintances. 

Arthur Caswell Bowman was born on a 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



565 



farm in Lawrence township, Bollinger 
county, Missouri, on the 2'ith of October, 
1880, and is the third in order of birth of the 
ten children born to Miles W. and Catherine 
(Snider) Bowman, both of whom were like- 
wise born and reared in Bollinger county, 
where the respective families were founded 
in the early pioneer days. Groves Washington 
Bowman, the paternal grandfatlier of him 
whose name initiates this review, was a native 
of North Carolina and he became one of the 
early settlers in Bollinger county, in south- 
eastern Missouri, where he engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits and where he passed the 
residue of his life. He contributed his quota 
to the development and upbuilding of this 
favored section of the state and was a niaii 
who ever commanded unqualified popular es- 
teem. The lineage of the Bowman family is 
traced back to staunch Holland Dutch origin 
and representatives of the name were num- 
bered among the early settlers of North Car- 
olina, where they took up their abode in the 
colonial epoch of our national history. 

Miles W. Bowman was reared to maturity 
in Bollinger county and was afforded the ad- 
vantages of the common schools of the local- 
ity and period. He was there identified suc- 
cessfully with agricultural pursuits for many 
years and for thirty years he also conducted 
a general mei'chandise store in the little 
hamlet of Glen Allen. Bollinger county, 
where he was a citizen of prominence and in- 
fluence and where he continued to reside un- 
til about 1894, when he removed to the city 
of Cape Girardeau, where he has since main- 
tained liis home and where he is now living 
virtually retired from active business, lie is 
a staunch Democrat in his political proclivi- 
ties and his religious faith is that of the Jleth- 
odist church, of which his noble wife likewise 
was a zealous member. Mrs. Bowman was 
born and reared in Bollinger county, where 
tier father, the late Josiah Snider, established 
his home in tlie pioneer days. Mrs. Bowman 
was summoned to the life eternal in 1895, se- 
cure in the affectionate regard of all who had 
come within the sphere of her gentle influ- 
ence, and of her four sons and six daughters 
two sons and one daiighter died in childhood. 
Concerning the .surviving children the follow- 
ine brief record is entered : Clara is the wife 
of Will E. Walker, of Timpas. Colorado: Lee 
L. is a representative member of the bar of 
Cape Girardeau: Arthur C. is the immediate 
suhiect of this review : William O. is assistant 
cashier of the First National Bank of Cape 
Girardeau ; Mollie C. is the wife of Theodore 



E. Head, who is engaged in the real-estate 
business in the city of Dallas, Texas ; May is 
a popular teacher in the public schools of 
Timpas, Colorado; and Vesta, who remains 
with her father, is attending the Normal 
school of Cape Girardeau. 

Arthur C. Bowman passed his boyhood 
days in his native county, where he gained his 
initial experience in connection with the 
sturdy discipline of the farm and where he 
was afforded the advantages of the public 
schools of the little village of Glen Allen. 
Later he continued his stuilies in the public 
schools of Cape Girardeau, and for the pur- 
pose of securing funds to pursue higher aca- 
demic .studies he worked on farms and at 
other occupations during vacation seasons. 
Thus his ambition was one of definite pur- 
pose and action, and after completing the ele- 
mentary course in the Missouri State Nor- 
mal School at Cape Girardeau, he engaged in 
teaching in the coimtry schools, to which line 
of work he devoted his attention for two 
years, and in connection with which he re- 
ceived a compensation of forty dollars a 
month. From this diminutive salary he saved 
sufficient amount to permit the completion of 
his regular academic course in the state nor- 
mal school which he had previously attended 
and in which lie was graduated as a member 
of the class of 1902. For one year thereafter 
he held the position of first assistant principal 
of the public schools of Sikeston, Scott 
coiinty. after which he served two years as 
principal of the high school at Norwood, 
Wright county. During the following school 
year he continued his effective pedagogic 
work, in charge of the grammar department 
of the Douglas County Normal School. In 
the meanwhile he had passed about one year 
in travel through various sections of the 
Avest. 

In 1907, believing that otlier fields of en- 
deavor would afford better opportunities 
than continued service in the pedagogic ]iro- 
fession. Mr. Bowman turned his attention to 
the real-estate business, in which he became 
associated with his brother Lee L., at Cape 
Girardeau, under the title of the Bowman 
Brothers Realty Company. He continued as 
active manager of the business until Septem- 
ber, 1910. when he sold his interest in the 
same to his father, and assumed his present 
office, that of manager of the Southeast 
Realty Company. He has made a close study 
of real-estate values and is an authority in 
this line, so that he has been mo.st successful 



566 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



in his operations iu the handling of realty of 
all kinds. The company with which he is 
now identified has built up a large and im- 
portant business, the ramifications of which 
extend throughout the various counties of 
southeastern Missouri, and he is showing 
marked circumspection and discrimnation in 
the adminstration of its affairs, the while his 
sterling character and correct methods have 
gained to him the implicit confidence of those 
with whom he has had dealings. He is pro- 
gressive, alert and aggressive as a business 
man, and as a citizen is loyal and public- 
spirited. A man of broad mental ken, and of 
genial personality, he has gained a wide cir- 
cle of friends in this section of the state, and 
has a secure place in the esteem of all who 
know him. 

In politics Mr. Bowman accords a staunch 
allegiance to the cause of the Democratic 
party and he takes a broad-minded interest 
in public affairs, especially those of local or- 
der. He is affiliated with Cape Girardeau 
Lodge, No. 639, Benevolent & Protective Or- 
der of Elks, and for two years has been secre- 
tary of the Commercial Club of Cape Girar- 
deau. In religion he is a Methodist. Mr. 
Bowman still remains in the ranks of eligible 
bachelors and is a popular factor in both 
Dusiness and social circles in his home city. 

William Lee Barrett. In the many im- 
portant lines in which southeastern Missouri 
has made great strides in the past decade, 
none is more noteworthy than that of educa- 
tion, and one of the chief factors in the at- 
tainment of this supreme benefit is Profes- 
sor William Lee Barrett, superintendent of 
the schools of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. He 
is by no means one content with "letting 
well enough alone," but is a constant stu- 
dent of the best educational methods and 
has succeeded in keeping abreast of the most 
modern and enlightened thought and im- 
pressing this upon the schools in his charge. 

Mr. Barrett was born near Nevada, Story 
county, Iowa, December 27, 1870, the son of 
John Thomas and Margaret (Seabold) Bar- 
rett. He was one of a family of two chil- 
dren, his only brother, Jesse Cross Barrett, 
living at Poplar Bluff, ]\Iissouri. He spent 
his youth in his native county, receiving his 
preliminary education in the district schools 
and subsequently matriculating at Drake 
University, from which institution he was 
graduated in 1895 with the degree of Bach- 
elor of Scientific Didactics. 



Sir. Barrett taught in the district schools 
of Ringgold county, Iowa, for three years, 
and iu 1893 assumed the principalship of the 
Primrose, Iowa, public schools, in which posi- 
tion he continued until elected superintend- 
ent of the Birmingham, Iowa, schools in 
1896. 

In 1899 he was chosen principal of the 
Fort Madison (Iowa) high school, building 
up one of the most remarkable secondary 
schools in the state, and continued in that 
capacity until elected to his present position in 
1905, having successfully served in the ensu- 
ing six years as superintendent of the Poplar 
Bluff schools. He is well and favorably known 
not only in this part of the state, but in those 
sections of Iowa in which he has lived and la- 
bored as a particularly enlightened instructor 
and one who ever makes it his object to keep 
the highest ideals constantly before the mind 
of the student. He is one of whom it ma.y be 
said that he was born as well as made to 
the high calling to which he has chosen to 
devote his life. 

Mr. Barrett has taught in summer normals 
and institutes for years and attends regu- 
larly the district, state and many of the na- 
tional educational associations. He is at the 
present time a memlier of the state educa- 
tional council and also of the executive com- 
mittee of the State Teachers' Association. 

Mr. Barrett is a member of the Christian 
chui'ch, and is one of the most valued and 
useful of its members, serving at the pres- 
ent time as Bible school superintendent and 
member of the church board. He is a loj'al 
i\Iason and exemplifies in his life those ideals 
of moral and social justice and brotherly 
love for which the order stands. He is a 
member of several of the Slasonic orders and 
has served in several official capacities. He 
belongs to the R. R. Y. M. C. A. and is at 
the present time a member of the local board 
of directors. 

Mr. Barrett established a happy household 
by his maiTiage. on August 11, 1902, to 
Bertha E. Lightfoot, of Fort ]\Iadison, Iowa, 
their two young sons, John Willis and Paul 
Burdette, having been born September 4, 
1909, and May 30, 1911, respectively. Profes- 
sor and Mrs. Barrett are highly esteemed 
members of society and play a useful part in 
the many-sided life of the community to 
whose interests they are signally loyal. 

William L. Tucker. Talented and cul- 
tured, William L. Tucker, of Bloomfield, pro- 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



567 



bate judge for Stoddard county, has won pres- 
tige as an attorney-at-law and has been an im- 
portant factor in i^roinoting the highest inter- 
ests of town and county, his influence having 
been especially marked in educational affairs. 
He was born January 31, 1871, in Shelby 
county, Indiana, and was educated, princi- 
pally, in Ohio, completing his eai-ly studies at 
the National Normal University at Lebanon 
and taking a special course under Professor 
Albert Holbrook, a noted educator. 

Mr. Tucker subsecjuently taught school 
three j'ears in Indiana, from there coming, in 
April, 1895, to Stoddard county, Missouri, 
where he continued his pedagogical labors for 
five years, teaching first at Advance, then at 
Idalia, and later being for two years princi- 
pal of the Bloomfield Public School. He was 
really the founder of the Bloomfield High 
School as it now stands, having systematized 
the course of study, introduced new methods, 
and having secured as its first superintendent 
one of his classmates in the Ohio Normal Uni- 
versity, Professor I. H. Hughes, an able and 
progressive teacher, who did much to elevate 
the standard of the school, placing it on a high 
plane of achievement. 

While teaching Mr. Tucker began reading 
law, and after his admission to the Missouri 
bar, in 1900, was associated with the well 
known Judge Thomas Connellcy. He made a 
specialty of laws relating to real estate and 
land titles, becoming an authority on lands 
and on drainage, and for ten years carried on 
a fine civil practice. Being elected judge of 
probate, ilr. Tucker assumed the duties of his 
office on January 1, 1911, and is performing 
them with characteristic ability and fidelity. 

Politically Mr. Tucker is prominent in the 
Democratic ranks, and in addition to being 
aetive in campaign work has served as a dele- 
gate to judicial, congressional and state con- 
ventions. He has rendered efficient service 
both on the local school board and in the city 
council. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of the 
Modern Woodmen of America; and of the 
Knights of Pythias, in which he is especially 
aetive in lodge work. 

Mr. Tucker married, in Bloomfield, in 1897, 
Minnie Cone, a successful school teacher ancl 
a half-sister of Ralph Wammack. Mr. and 
]\Irs. Tucker have five children living, namely : 
Vivian, Kent, Ralph, William L. and Evange- 
line. Mrs. Tucker is a woman of culture and 
refinement, and a consistent member of the 
Baptist church. 



Hon. James L. Fort. Bringing to the 
practice of his profession a well trained 
mind and habits of industry, which have won 
for him genuine success, Judge James L. 
Fort, of Dexter, for twelve years judge of the 
Twenty-second judicial circuit, took his seat 
upon the bench exceptionally well ecjuipped 
for its duties, not only by scholarship and 
ability, but by natural gifts and temper- 
ament, and his wise decisions in various cases 
of importance have had a permanent bear- 
ing upon the development of Southeastern 
ilissouri. A native of Illinois, Judge Fort 
was born February 18, 1854, in Johnson 
county, where he received his rudimentary 
education. 

Judge Fort comes of a family whose tradi- 
tions date back to the early history of Vir- 
ginia and Maryland. According to the tales 
handed down from father to son the family 
was founded in this country by three brothers 
who came over from Ireland and settled in 
these two states. The paternal great-grand- 
father of Judge Fort was a native of Vir- 
ginia, who had crossed the mountains and set- 
tled in Kentucky as a planter at a very early 
day. He settled in Christian county, and 
there his son Garrie was born. Garrie Fort be- 
came a planter and spent the whole of his life 
in Kentucky, though he never became very 
prosperous. He married Miss Condor, and died 
during middle age, while his wife survived 
him many years, dying at the age of seventy- 
five. The father of Judge Fort was ilears 
P. Fort and was born in Christian county, 
Kentucky. There he was reared and there he 
married, removing to Johnson county, Illi- 
nois, in 1853. He became a farmer, and pur- 
sued that occupation up to the time of his 
death, which occurred in 1882, when he was 
fifty-eight years of age. His wife was Anna 
Hester, who was a native of Virginia. Her 
father was James Hester, and her mother's 
maiden name was Keaton. Both of them 
were natives of Virginia, and they removed 
to Kentucky in 1837. There, in Trigg 
county, they settled, and the husband became 
a planter. Mrs. Fort and her husband were 
the parents of twelve children, five of whom 
are living today. She lived to be seventy- 
four years old, dying in 1898. 

Migrating to Stoddard county. ^Missouri, in 
February, 1880, James L. Fort taught school 
during the long winter seasons, and worked 
on the farm during seed time and harvest, for 
four years. In 1884 he began reading law, 
and in 1886, soon after his admission to the 



568 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^MISSOURI 



Missoiu-i bar. was elected prosecuting at- 
torney of Stoddard county. In this capacity 
he won a fine reputation for professional 
knowledge and skill, and when, in 1898, he 
was nominated for .judge of the Twenty-sec- 
ond judicial circuit he was elected over his 
Republican opponent by a plurality of votes 
amounting to nearly five thousand, nine hun- 
dred. This circuit consisted at that time of 
Carter, Ripley, Butler, Stoddard and Dun- 
klin counties. In 1901 the legislature placed 
Carter county in another circuit, and in 1904 
a new circuit, which included Ripley and 
Butler counties, alone, was made, and two 
remaining counties constituting the Twenty- 
second judicial circuit since that time. On 
the 1st of January, 1899, Judge Fort assumed 
the duties of his new office, and during the 
ensuing twelve years served his constituents 
ably and faithfully, the truth of facts and 
the principles of law involved in the cases 
brought to his notice seldom eluding his 
keen perceptions, while justice was ever the 
constant motive of his wise decisions. The 
twelve years that Judge Fort was on the 
bench formed one of the most important 
periods in the history of Stoddard county and 
of Southeastern Missouri. During that time 
t the great drainage system that is such an im- 
portant factor in increasing the property 
value of this region was successfully inaugu- 
rated, and many legal ciuestions arising from 
its development were adjudicated before him, 
his rulings thereon being invariably wise and 
just. Many important criminal eases were 
likewise tried before Judge Fort, he having 
been called upon at different times to pass 
sentence upon men convicted of capital 
crimes. 

In tlie well remembered case of the Illinois 
and Missouri Bridge Company versus Smith, 
the new question of the right of the bridge 
company to construct beyond the point where 
the bridge proper touched solid ground at 
grade above high water mark, came before 
the Judge, who decided that no such right 
existed. The supreme court reversed the de- 
cision by a divided court, but in a trial for 
damages for land taken for such a purpose a 
jury, under Judge Fort's instructions, 
awarded $10,000 for damages sustained, and 
the award was also allowed by both the State 
Supreme Court and the United States Su- 
preme Court. 

In 1908 Judge Fort, at the earnest solici- 
tations of his friends, became a candidate for 
the Democratic nomination for governor of 



Missouri, his platform being one of the best 
and cleanest ever constructed, its three prin- 
cipal planks having been as follows: "Ag- 
gressive honesty in public affairs; strict en- 
forcement of all laws ; and suppression of the 
liquor traffic by constitutional prohibition." 
He made a vigorous campaign, which re- 
sulted in the Democratic platform coming out 
very strong for local option. 

On January 1, 1911, Judge Fort retired 
from his position as Judge, and has since 
been prosperously engaged in the practice of 
his chosen profession at Dexter, where he 
has an extensive and lucrative clientele. 
Progressive and iDublic spirited, lie lends his 
influence towards the establishment of benefi- 
cial projects, I)eing in favor of the good roads 
movement, and in advancement in every line 
of improvements, believing firmly in a won- 
derful future for Stoddard county, the "Gar- 
den Spot" of Jlissouri. 

Judge Fort was married on the 2nd of 
August. 1874, to ^liss Lizzie Whitesides, a 
native of Johnson county, Illinois. She is a 
daughter of John S. and Peinnina (Harrel) 
Whitesides, and she was reared and educated 
in her native county. Her mother was a na- 
tive of Johnson county, and her father was 
born in the state of Kentucky and came to Illi- ■ 
nois during pioneer daj's, becoming a wealthy 
farmer. Jixdge and Mrs. Fort have had seven 
children : Anna is the wife of Byron Cham- 
])ion. of Dexter; "Will J. lives in Dexter; Can- 
dace married Judge Green, of Bloomfield. 
Missouri : Gertrude lives at home ; Myrtle 
died at the age of three ; "Winifred married 
J. E. Mulvey. of St. Louis; and Reverdy, the 
youngest, is still at home. Both the Judge 
and his wife are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. South. 

William C. Stady, postmaster at Essex 
and mayor of the city, is a man who by his 
untiring efforts and indomitable energy has 
done much toward the improvement and ad- 
vancement of the city, and has alwa.vs availed 
himself of the advantages of his position as 
a public man to influence the people to act 
for the liest interests of the community. A 
native of ^Missouri, he was born January 20, 
1871. in Bollinger county, and was there 
reared on a farm. His father. Christian 
Stady, was born in Germany, while his 
mother, whose maiden name was IMary Miller, 
was born in America, of German parentage. 

Leaving home on attaining his majority, 
"William C. Stady worked out by the month 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



569 



for a time, and was afterwards engaged in 
general farming on his own account until 
1903. Locating then in Essex, he was clerk 
in the store of William J. IIux, continuing 
in mercantile pursuits for several years. Be- 
ing appointed postmaster at Essex on March 
20, 1909, Mr. Stady assumed charge of the 
ofSce about two weeks later, on April 7, suc- 
ceeding the former postmaster, James R. 
Grant, who had been forced to resign the 
position on account of ill liealth. He has 
since devoted himself carefully to the duties 
devolving upon him in this capacity, having 
charge, in addition to the local service, of 
one star route going out from the Essex 
office. 

Mr. Stady has ever evinced a warm in- 
terest in the promotion of the leading in- 
terests of town and county, and has served 
three years in the village Council, and is now 
a member of the Board of Education, and 
with his fellow-associates has done good work, 
the public schools of Essex being exception- 
ally fine for a town of its size. In April, 
1911, Mr. Stady was elected mayor, and is 
not only pushing the improvements already 
inaugurated, including the laying of cement 
walks, but has paid off the indebtedness of the 
town and has money credited to the village 
in the local bank. 

Mr. Stady has been twice married. He 
married first, in Bollinger county, jMarj' A. 
Henderson, who died in early womanhood, 
leaving one child. Mettle M. Mr. Stady mar- 
ried for his second wife, in Stoddard county. 
Electa E. Page, and to them three children 
have been born, namely: j\Ierrill, Lillian 
and Kathleen. Fraternally ]\Ir. Stady is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows ; and of Essex Lodge, No. 705, A. F. 
& A. M., in which he has passed all the chairs 
excepting that of worthy master. Mrs. 
Stady is a woman of devout Christian prin- 
ciples, and a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. 

William Henry Miller, one of the most 
.successful lawyers in southeastern Missouri 
is also president of the Southeast Missouri 
Tnist Company at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. 
The men of his acquaintance are so accus- 
tomed to thinking of him as being away up 
at the top notch that they almost forget that 
he was not born that way. We fall into or 
climb up to close fitting positions in the ac- 
tivities of life, according to our varying sizes 
and values. All cannot be generals; most of 



us find our places in the ranks of soldiers. In 
either capacity there is full incentive for our 
best endeavors as well as fitting recompense 
for the highest grade of service. Civiliza- 
tions in their early stages maintained a 
premium on brawn and perseverance. As 
they grow older physical supremacy gives 
wa.y to intellectual. America is rapidly 
emerging from the rule of muscular force and 
untutored intelligence to the sway of trained 
minds. In this age men who labor are val- 
ued by the amount of cash they can produce. 
The amount of wealth is largely governed by 
the intelligence brought to bear upon it. ]\Ir. 
Miller has produced and is producing cash. 
He has acquired and is acquiring prominence 
amongst the men who know. This condition 
has not been brought about by accident, but 
is due to Mr. Miller's natural abilities and 
his unbounded capacity for work. 

William Henry ]\liller was born in Cape 
Girardeau county, Missouri, September 28, 
1856. His grandfather, Henry Miller, was a 
native of North Carolina and he came to Cape 
Girardeau county in 1808, locating on a farm 
twenty miles west of Cape Girardeau. He 
was one of the pioneers of the county and 
saw it grow from a collection of scattered 
hamlets into the cities and towns of which it 
is now composed. The Miller family orig- 
inally came from Germany and were early 
settlers in North Carolina. Andrew Miller, 
son of Henry and father of William Henry, 
was born December 20, 1825, on the farm in 
Cape Girardeau county, on which his father 
first located on his arrival in Cape Girardeau 
county. The farm is situated near Millers- 
town, which was named in his honor. He 
is now eighty-six years old and has spent his 
entire life on the farm, first where he was 
born and later on his wife's farm, where he 
now lives. He married and later managed the 
farm on which his wife was born and where 
he now lives. She died in 1856, the year that 
her son William Henry was born. Of her 
three sons and one daughter who all grew to 
maturity, only two are living now, William 
Henry and his brother E. S. who is a farmer. 

AVilliam Henry Miller's boyhood days were 
spent on the farm on which his motlier was 
born, adjoining the fann on which his father 
was born and where his grandfather lived. 
He attended the public schools of his district 
until he was eighteen years of age, when he 
spent two years at the Southeastern Normal 
School. He then determined to become a 
lawyer and to that end he entered the state 



570 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



university and graduated from the law de- 
partment in 1879, immediately commencing 
the practice of law. He located at Jackson. 
Mis.souri, and became the first president of 
the Cape Girardeau County Savings Bank at 
Jackson, Missouri. For fourteen years he 
was attorney for the Cotton Belt Railroad 
and was also attorney for the Southern Illi- 
nois and Missouri Bridge Company at the 
time of its organization. He still holds this 
office. He served four years as member of the 
state board of law examiners of ilissouii 
He is a director of the street railway com- 
pany. 

October 5, 1881, was a notable one with 
him, as on that day was solemnized his mar- 
riage with Elizabeth Bollinger Welling a na- 
tive of Jackson, Missouri. One son was born 
to this union, Julien Gale, who followed law 
as his profession and is now practicing in 
Cape Girardeau. 

William Henry ililler is a member of the 
Masonic order, is a Knight Templar and also 
a Shriner. He is a member of the Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks in which or- 
ganization he is past excellent ruler. Mr. 
Miller is still president of the bank in Jack- 
son, having held that office since 1893. There 
is now a capital of fifty thousand dollars in 
the bank with sixty-five thousand dollars sur- 
plus. He is also president of the Southeast 
Missouri Trust Company, which has a paid 
up -capital of five hundred thousand dollars, 
and one of the directors of the Sturdivant 
Bank, being chairman of the discount com- 
mittee. He is a loyal member of the Demo- 
cratic party, but has never desired public 
office. As a life long resident of .southeast- 
ern Missouri it is natural that he should be 
intensely interested in any enterpri.se that 
affects the welfare of his native state. He has 
made a decided success of his life, both finan- 
cially and from a higher standpoint, for he 
has been of use to his fellow men. He is a 
citizen of whom the eountj'' is proud and one 
whom it delights to honor. 

Alexander Thomas Douglass, who was 
at the head of the family in Dunklin county, 
was a native of Virginia. He was born in 
Bedford county in that state April 5. 1811. 
being the son of Robert Henry and Permelia 
(Noel) Douglass. The family was originally 
from Scotland and it seems that the second 
"s" in the name was added in this country to 
distinguish different branches of the family. 

The children of Robert Henrv' and Permelia 



Douglass besides Alexander Thomas, were 
Louvina, who became the wife of a man named 
Penny in Callaway county, Kentucky; Cath- 
erine, who married Matthew Seuter of Ten- 
nessee and removed to Southeast JMissouri; 
and Alfred Hill Douglass, who afterward 
lived in Cheatham county, Tennessee. 

Alexander T. Douglass was married at Mos- 
cow, Kentucky, to Elizabeth Mott in 1838. 
The entire family moved from Virginia to 
Montgomery county, Tennessee, in 1830. At 
various times they lived near Fulton, near 
Union City, Tennessee and in Callaway 
count.y, Kentuckj'. The family was related to 
the Callaways in whose honor Callaway 
county was named. While living in Kentucky 
they were associated with the family of Daniel 
Boone and at one time Sue Callaway, a cousin 
of Alexander T. Douglass, and Daniel Boone's 
daughter ilay, were captured by the Indians 
and after a thrilling pursuit were rescued. 

In 1850 the family consisting of father, 
mother and children moved to Dunklin county 
where they engaged in farming, the land 
which was settled by them was near the site 
of the present town of Caruth. Mr. Douglass 
made his home at this place until the time of 
his death in 1876. 

Dunklin county was at this time a frontier 
county. The first settlers were still living 
and the population was exceedingly small ; 
conditions of life were hard in many respects; 
but ilr. Douglass was a bold, vigorous, hardy, 
and enterprising man and soon accumulated 
a competence. He was held in the highest 
respect and confidence by his neighbors, and, 
while never a politician or candidate for office, 
was appointed to positions of trust, at one 
time being made a s|)eeial commissioner for 
the sale of county lands and at another time 
being vested with authority to adjust certain 
difficult matters in the early history of the 
county. In person he was a tall well pro- 
portioned man of commanding presence and 
bearing and possessed a wonderful strength 
and power of endurance ; he died in 1876, as 
previously stated, from an attack of erysip- 
elas. 

His wife, Elizabeth Mott, was born in Ken- 
tucky, June 12, 1821. Her family was one 
of the pioneer families of that state and many 
of its members are still living there. One of 
her sisters, Mrs. W. H. Helm, lives at Ken- 
nett. Mrs. Douglass died at Senath, Febru- 
ary 1, 1899. To Mr. and Mrs. Douglass 
there were born the following children: Rev. 




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S^^,9?o. '^.i'l-t^^^^t^ 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



571 



R. H. Douglass, who died at Cariith iu 1904; 
William, who died as a young raau ; J. j\l. aud 
A. W. of Seuath; Mrs. Hettie Satterfield of 
Helena, Arkansas; Mrs. Jennie Lawson of 
Cape Girardeau; Mrs. C. P. McDaniel and 
Mrs. Lucy Baird of Senath. 

Judge James M. Douglass, of Senath, 
Missouri, was born in Fulton county, Ken- 
tucky, October 27, 1847. He is the" son of 
Alexander T. and Elizabeth (Mott) Douglass 
He came with his parents to Dunklin 
county in the year 1850. The family set- 
tled on Grand Prairie, not far from the site of 
the present town of Caruth. DunkJiu county 
was only spai-sely settled at that time aud tlie 
life was. largely that of a frontier country. 
Schools were few then and opportunities for 
education wei'e very limited. Pioneer life is 
\\c.nderfull.y stimulating to both body and 
mind, however, and it is alwa.vs true that 
some education may be had under the most 
adverse circumstances. The boy who desires 
to learn finds some way opened to him. It 
was true in this case. He had always a desire 
for an education and a just appreciation of 
its importance. This led him to take advan- 
tage of such schools as were afforded and to 
pursue his studies at home. Thus, in spite 
of the limitations of early life, he was able to 
acquire a business ediication, being a life-long 
student, and is a well informed man. 

His principal occupation has been that of 
a farmer and stock raiser, although he has 
always been interested in other things as 
well. In 1879 he was elected countv asses- 
sor, and made a very careful study of prop- 
erty values. The assessment he made was ac- 
cordingly one of the fairest and best ever 
made in the county. A few years later he 
was elected a member of the county court, 
serving two terms of two years each. Here 
his well known good judgment and his knowl- 
edge of conditions in the county made his 
services especially valuable to the people. 
Since the expiration of his term of office he 
has never been a candidate for other official 
positions, but he has always maintained an 
intelligent interest in politics. 

He was one of the organizers of the Cotton 
Exchange Bank of Kennett and served as its 
president for five years. At the expiration of 
tliat time he assisted in the organization of 
the Citizens Bank of Senath, serving as its 
president until he was forced to spend some 
years away from the county on account of 
his health. He is now president of the Bank 



of Senath. His business operations have 
enabled him to accumulate a competency, and 
he owns several hundred acres of fertile farm 
land. 

Judge Douglass moved to Senath in 1881, 
before it was dignified by the name of 
"town." At that time the present site of the 
town of Senath was a dense forest, and many 
are the changes which he has seen worked in 
that place. He has been one of the foremost 
men of the town of Senath since its organiza- 
tion many years ago, and has contributed his 
full quota toward the growth and upbuilding 
of the town, much of the credit for the pres- 
ent standing of Senath as a thriving aud 
prosperous community of i-ight belonging to 
Judge Douglass. 

Ou Christmas day, 1881, he was married to 
Miss Belle Plielan, a daughter of William G. 
and Belle (Randol) Phelan. The father of 
Mrs. Douglass was a native of Irelaud. hav- 
ing been educated there for the Catholic 
priesthood, but became a lawyer instead of 
taking holy orders, and for many years prac- 
ticed law in southeast Missouri. The mother 
was a member of the Randol family of Scott 
county, one of the oldest aud best known fam- 
ilies in the state. 

Judge Douglass and his wife are the par- 
ents of five children : J. Mott, who is a mem- 
ber of the drug firm of Bradley & Dougla.ss 
at Senath ; Thomas G., who is superintendent 
of schools at Senath ; Miss Frances, a 
teacher in the Senath schools; Allen M., who 
is a consulting chemist, now located in Mid- 
land, ]\Iichigan ; and Margaret, a student in 
the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau. 

The Judge is an aetiA^e member of the Bap- 
tist church, and fraternally is a Mason. 

Gilbert Owen Nations was born iu Perry 
county, Missouri, on August 18, 1866. His 
father, James W. Nations, fought under the 
stars and stripes in the Civil war as a pri- 
vate in Company F, Fiftieth ]\Iissouri Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and after the close of the 
war he engaged in the milling business, 
taught school and did considerable survey- 
ing and civil engineering, having held the 
office of county surveyor of Ste. Genevieve 
county, IMissouri, for eight years. In 1861 
James W. Nations was married to Miss Caro- 
line L. Hart, of Perry county, Missouri. Of 
this union seven children were born, five of 
whom, including the subject of this sketch, 
are living. 

Gilbert grew up amid the rugged hills of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Ste. Genevieve county, where his parents 
made their home in his early childhood, lie- 
sides the indifferent educational advantages 
then ofl'ered in the rural schools of that neigh- 
borhood, he did much systematic home study ; 
and at the age of ten years he had gained 
considerable notoriety among the neighbors 
on account of his attainments in arithmetic, 
geography and other common-school branches 
of study. In his eighteenth year he entered 
the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, 
Missouri, and completed the sophomore year 
in ten months. After teaching in the jtuldic 
schools of home county a few terms he be- 
came a student in the National Normal Uni- 
versity at Lebanon, Ohio, then under the 
presidency of Alfred Holbrook, and com- 
pleted the course in the College of Science. 
Returning to Missouri, he resumed the work 
of teaching in the public schools, holding the 
superintendency of schools for several years 
successively at Crystal City and at Farm- 
ington. 

On December 6, 1886, he was married to 
.Aliss Sarah E. McFarland, of Coffmau, Mis- 
souri. Their oldest ciiild, Heber, is a grad- 
uate of the Cape Girardeau State Normal 
School and is married and engaged in the 
real estate business at Flat River. ^Missouri. 
Heber is twenty-two yeai-s younger than his 
father. Six younger children, Zora. aged 
twenty; Gustavus, aged eighteen; Myrtle, 
aged fifteen ; Paul, aged twelve ; Florence, 
aged ten, and Carl, aged seven, complete the 
family circle of Judge Nations and his esti- 
mable wife in their delightful home in Farm- 
ington. The entire family except Carl, are 
members of the Christian church, in Avhich 
the Judge has been an elder for nearly 
twenty years. 

In 1894 the subject of this sketch was ex- 
amined by the State Superintendent of Public 
Schools, assisted by the faculty of the War- 
rensliurg State Normal School, and was given 
a first grade state teacher's certificate, valid 
for life. He also passed successfully the ex- 
amination given by the City Superintendent 
of Schools of St. Louis to those applying for 
prineipalships in that city, besides complet- 
ing a year of regular post-graduate work at 
Hiram College for which he was awarded an 
appropriate degree. 

While teaching at Farmington he studied 
law and was admitted to the bar in the spring 
of 1902. In the same year the Republican 
party nominated him for the office of pro- 



liate .iudge, and he was elected by nearly a 
hundred majority, though the county went 
Democratic by nearl.y three hundred major- 
ity. No other Republican nominee had then 
carried the county- in thirty years. At the 
close of his term he was renominated and re- 
elected in the face of a substantial Demo- 
cratic majority. 

In his habits and tastes. Judge Nations is 
a commoner. He stands uncompromisingly 
for clean politics and the rights of the peo- 
ple. He is opposed to the control of our 
polities and institutions by predatory wealth. 
While favoring the principles of the Repub- 
lican party, he believes it to be the duty 
of voters to favor the election of the men 
who are honest and capable and who will 
render the best service to the public. As a 
lawyer he is rapidly gaining an enviable 
reputation and is building up a clean and 
lucrative practice. Those who know him be- 
lieve intensely in his personal and profes- 
sional honesty. An elociuent and forceful 
public speaker, he has become one of the 
most influential men in southeast ^Missouri. 

Will JMayfield College at Marble Hill, 
^Missouri, is one of the favorably-known, care- 
fully conducted and enlightened institutions 
of learning of the state. It is the outcome 
of what was formerly kno'mi as the May- 
field-Smith Academv and was founded in 
1878 by W. H. Mayfield and Dr. Smith, at 
Sedgewickville, Missouri. In 1880 the school 
was moved to ]\Iarble Hill and chai-tered. 
Professor T. W. Tate was the first principal 
in charge of the school at Sedgewickville and 
twenty-two pupils were enrolled in 1878 and 
1879. Elder A. M. Johnson was the first prin- 
cipal at Marble Hill in 1880 and 1881. 

The school was successively under the ad- 
ministration of Di-s. Graham, Graves, Dob- 
bins. ]\Iingo and F. J. Ileudershot, until 
1903. when it was re-chartered as the Will 
^Mayfield College. It has now at its head 
that excellent educator. Professor A. F. Hend- 
ricks, of whom further mention is made in 
the Hendricks biography on other pages of 
this work. 

The school has been fostered and supported 
by the ^lis.sionary Baptist of South-Eastern 
ilissouri Associations. In 1877 plans were 
projected by ilessrs. Shurtleft", ]\Iercer, Jew- 
ell and ^layfield for the founding of the 
school. On February 10, 1878, a fund of 
one thousand one hundred dollars was pro- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



573 



vided by Elder H. P. Toug;, district mission- 
ary, and another fund or addition to the 
former, reaching the amount of one thousand 
four hundred doHars, was provided at Big 
Creek by the St. Francois Association, in 
September, 1878, and a committee consisting 
of W. H. Mayfield, J. Q. A. Whitener, and 
E. E. Graham was selected to effect an or- 
ganization and select a site. 

The first board of trustees consisted of 
the following gentlemen : J. Frank Sitze, W. 
H. aia.vfield, E. P. Settle, Alexander Jen- 
nings, H. M. Williams and AVilliam Spark- 
man. Those zealous in fostering the college 
were : W. 11. Mayfield, F. M. Wells, J. Frank 
Sitze, A. J. Mayfield, II. F. Tong, E. L. 
Graham, Francis Graham, Henry Cheek,i 
• Enoch Robertson, F. C. Shell, J. Q. A. 
Whitener, J. W. Revelle. J. C. Heinbrey and 
E. R. Graham. F. M. Wells is president of 
the present board of trustees, and -Jesse A. 
McGlothlin, seei-ctaiy. 

The college is supported entirely by tui- 
tion and the Baptists of South-Eastem Mis- 
souri. The Baptists of sixteen counties are 
interested and students are drawn from the 
surrounding counties. Under a re-charting 
clause recently enacted, it is impossible for 
the college to remain in debt, and it is thus 
placed upon a remarkably firm financial 
foundation. A large and attractive boarding- 
hall (Rosemont Hall) in charge of Mrs. 
Hendricks will house thirty-six girl students 
comfortabl.y. 

Professor W. A. Devault is vice-president 
of the college and a faculty of seven teachers 
is employed. Two degrees are conferred, 
namel.v: Bachelor of Science and Bachelor 
of Arts. Twenty-three graduates were re- 
ported for the year 1911 and one hundred 
and seventy students were continuously en- 
rolled in 1910-1911. Strong departments of 
music and elocution are maintained in the 
institution, thus sending forth an appeal to 
students so inclined. A high moral training 
is an important feature, the methods of the 
college proceeding on the thought that mo- 
rality in the best sense can be taught only 
through the inculcation of high ideals eon- 
stantl.v kept before the minds of the student. 

The college buildings, which are commodi- 
ous structures, are situated on a commanding 
wooded height, and are situated in a health- 
ful locality, excellent drinking water of the 
mineral sort similar to that obtained from 
the Marble Hill mineral well furnishinsr a 



strong recommendation to parents to whom 
the health of their sons and daughters is 
dear. 

Professor A. F. Hendricks. There is no 
profession open to man so fraught with equal 
responsibility and opportunity to serve the 
race as that of the educator, for in equip- 
ping the young for their work in life he has 
somehow to combine all professions, and in 
the greater number of individuals that pass 
through his hands at the most pliant periods 
of their careers, he holds the responsibility 
for the mental, moral, and physical vigor 
of each recurring "next generation." One 
of the educators of southeastern filissouri 
w^hose calibre justifies his high calling is 
Professor A. P. Hendricks, the president of 
Mayfield College. He is a man in whom high 
ideals and exceptional vision are happily 
united with a broad exj^erience and keen 
sense of practical values, a combination of 
qualities needed but rarely found in the field 
of education. 

Professor A. P. Hendricks was born Feb- 
ruary 1, 1870, in James county, Tennessee, 
the son of Nathan and Mary J. Hendricks. 
His father was a skilled mechanic, and both 
the parents, knowing the inestimable value 
of a thorough education, were vastl.y inter- 
ested that their son should enjoj' its benefits. 
After having finished his preparatory work 
in the public schools of Birchwood, Tennessee, 
the son attended the seminai-y at Shumach, 
Georgia, and then went to Daj^ton Univer- 
sity in Tennessee. Following that Professor 
Hendricks went to the Valparaiso Universit.y, 
at Valparaiso, Indiana, graduating there in 
the class of 1904. He returned the next year 
and took post-graduate work in the same col- 
lege. In the year 1906 his desire to be thor- 
oughly prepared for his life work led him 
to t-ake graduate work in the Universit.v of 
Chicago. In his career as an educator Pro- 
fessor Hendricks has been in many places. 
In 1905-1907 he was principal of the Lutes- 
ville .schools. His first teaching was done 
in 1893, in Hamilton county, Tennessee, and 
he had charge of the Morgantown schools for 
three years, following by two years at the 
head of the Dayton city schools. In 1907 he 
was elected to the presidency of Will May- 
field College, and his incumbency of this of- 
fice has been such as to bring honor both on 
himself and on the institution whose policies 
he directs. Since his advent, an addition to 



574 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the college buildings has been made at a 
cost of six thousand dollars, and the annual 
repoi't shows an attendance of one hundred 
and seventy students, in all departments, the 
academic course of four years and the col- 
lege departments, both the scientific and the 
classical courses. 

"Will Mayfield College is under the control 
of the Saint Francis Association of the three 
counties. It is supported in its running ex- 
penses by the tuitional fees. Under its new 
charter, recently obtained in the place of 
the original charter, it is not allowed to in- 
cur any indebtedness, so that the college is 
now on a solid financial basis. All the build- 
ings and rooms have been repaired, and all 
are furnished complete. The college confers 
two degrees, B. S. and A. B. In 1911 there 
were twenty-three academic graduates and 
two graduates from the college receiving the 
degree of B. S., and there were seven teachers 
on the instructing corps. Besides its regular 
curriculum, Will Mayfield College has a de- 
partment of music and of elocution. Its dor- 
mitory, of which ill's. Hendricks has charge, 
can accommodate thirty-six girl students. 
The personnel of the student body is made 
up largely of residents of Bollinger and ad- 
joining counties. President Hendricks holds 
both the degrees of B. S. and A. ]\I. He is 
also one of the members of the Southeastern 
ilissouri Educational Association. Much 
might be said of Professor Hendricks' work 
as president. It is certain that the college 
is establishing a reputation of which ]\Iarble 
Hill may well be proud. His efforts are 
building up the institution, and the annual 
attendance has steadily increased since his 
advent. 

On September 22, 1897, was solemnized 
the marriage of Professor Hendricks to !Miss 
Dora Pence, of Ellijay, Gilmer county, 
Georgia. She is a daughter of L. B. and 
Lydia Pence, and was reared and educated 
in the Cracker state. Their marriage was 
celebrated in Dayton, Tennessee. Professor 
and Mrs. Hendricks have no children. jMrs. 
Hendricks has entire charge of Rosemont 
Hall, the students' dormitory. 

Fraternally Professor Hendricks is affil- 
iated with the Ancient Free and Accepted 
ilasons. the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, the Knights of Pj'thias and the jModern 
Woodmen of America. Both he and his wife 
are devout members of the Baptist church. 



Hon. Sterling H. McCaett. Prominent 
among the representative la-wyers and pub- 
lic men of southeastern Missouri stands 
Sterling H. McCarty, member of the law firm 
of Duncan & McCarty, of Caruthersville, ilis- 
souri, one of the strong combinations of legal 
talent in this section. He has also had an 
opportunity to "give a taste of his quality" 
as a legislator, having been elected to repre- 
sent Pemiscot county in the forty-sixth gen- 
eral assembly of the state of ilissouri. He 
belongs not to the class of modern politicians 
whose sole aim seems to be self-advancement, 
but gives his time and energies for the good 
of his fellow men and for securing wise legis- 
lation that Anil benefit the entire state. In 
politics he is of stanch Democratic convic- 
tions and has ever proved ready to do any- 
thing, to go anywhere to support the cause 
of the party to which he pins his faith. 

]\Ir. ilcCarty is a native of Kentucky, his 
liirth having occurred in Henderson county, 
Januarv 8, 1876, the son of John and Belle 
(Hicks) McCarty. His identification with 
ilissouri dates from 1889, when the family 
removed to this state. He was educated pri- 
marily in the common schools and subse- 
quently entered the normal school at Cape 
Girardeau. Later he was appointed a cadet 
at the United States Xaval Academy at Ann- 
apolis. IMaryland, where he had the advantage 
of its splendid discipline. In the meantime 
having come to the conclusion to adopt the 
law as his profession, he entered the law de- 
partment of Washington Univei'sity at St. 
Louis, ^Missouri, and graduated with the de- 
gree of LL. B. When it came to engaging 
in the active practice of the profession for 
which he is so eminently well fitted, he de- 
cided upon Caruthersville and here his ca- 
reer has been of the most satisfactory char- 
acter. 

The Hon. Mr. McCarty has had military 
experience, as well as naval, having enlisted 
and served as a volunteer dui-ing the Span- 
ish-American war, as a member of Company 
C, First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. 
He taught his first school when eighteen years 
of age, in Stoddard county, Missouri, and in 
1901 was elected county school commissioner 
of Pemiscot county, being at the time super- 
intendent of the Hayti (Jlissouri) schools. 
He has been honored in his professional life 
and served as .judge of the probate court 
of Pemiscot county from October, 1904, to 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



010 



January 1, 1911. His election to the state 
legislature from Pemiscot county occurred in 
November, 1910. He took an active part in 
the session, being chairman of the commit- 
tee on constitutional amendments and per- 
manent seat of government ; served as house 
chairman of the committee to investigate the 
fish and game department; as a member of 
the committee on elections; and the commit- 
tee on wills and probate law. 

Jlr. McCarty is a i^opular and prominent 
lodge man, being a thirty-second degree Ma- 
son and a member of the Eastern Star, and 
a member of the JModern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, of the Elks and the Redmen. He has 
not yet become a recruit to the Benedicts and 
maintains his residence in Carutheri5ville. 

William Arthur Cooper. One of the ris- 
ing young attorneys of Washington county 
is William Arthur Cooper, whose brilliant 
gifts and definite achievements thus early 
in life presage a career of more than usual 
usefulness and honor. He has for several 
years held the office of prosecuting attorney 
and is one of the leaders of local Republican- 
ism, being one of the most loyal and un- 
swerving of the adherents of the "Grand Old 
Party." I\Ir. Cooper was born May 26. 1882, 
on a farm in the western part of Washing- 
ton county. 

His father, William Cooper, was an Ohioan 
and was the son of Eugeneous W. Cooper, 
who was a fisherman and collier by trade, a 
Republican in politics and a member of tlie 
Baptist church. At about the time William 
reached his majority he left the parental 
roof-tree and came to ilissouri, where he 
purchased a farm and took his place among 
the state's agriculturists. He was married 
April 16, 1881, to Miss Mary Elizabeth 
Crump, of Washington county, daughter of 
Pendall F. Crump and Margeline (nee San- 
ders) Cramp, and their two sons are Wil- 
liam Arthur and Claude Pendall. He has 
continued engaged in farming throughout his 
life and also acted as postmaster at Brazil 
for a number of years, meeting the duties of 
the office with all faithfulness. He is Re- 
publican in politics and in his religious views 
he is of the Baptist persuasion. " Although 
he is interested in public affairs and gives 
heart and hand to all measures likely to re- 
sult in general welfare, he is by no means 
an office seeker. He and his vAte reside on 



the old homestead farm in the vicinity of 
Brazil. 

William A. Cooper, prosecuting attorney 
of Washington county received his early 
education in the common schools and sub- 
seqiiently attended the Steelville Normal 
School. He taught school for about four 
years. Jleanwhile, however, he came to the 
decision to make the law his life work and 
studied for the profession under the tutor- 
ship of Judge E. M. Bearing, of Potosi, and 
Hon. A. L. Reeves, of Steelville. He was 
admitted to the bar in 1904 and shortly there- 
after hung up his professional shingle at 
Potosi and there entered upon his practice, 
in a short time winning the confidence and 
clientage of his fellow townsmen. He was 
recognized as of the proper material for of- 
fice and served one term as justice of the 
peace ; he was also alderman and city clerk 
of Potosi and his services in those capacities 
made appropriate his appointment })y Gov- 
ernor Hadley (October 1, 1909) to the office 
of prosecuting attorney to fill the unexpired 
term of S. G. Nipper, resigned. In the fol- 
lowing year he was elected to the same of- 
fice on the Repiiblican ticket. In this office 
he has won remarkable distinction as an able 
lawyer and an efficient officer. 

On October 23, 1904, Mr. Cooper was 
united in marriage to Miss Ii-ene Blount, of 
Palmer, the lady of his choice. They have 
one daughter, Helen Mary. Mr. Cooper is 
not a member of any church, although a 
strong supporter of the cause of Christianity. 
His wife and child are members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. South. 

Professor Frederick Arthur Culmer. 
One of the valued members of the faculty of 
Marvin College is Professor Frederick Ar- 
thur Culmer, Ph. B., LL. B., A. M., who 
holds the chair of English and History in 
that institution of learning. He is looked 
upon as one of the most talented and en- 
lightened of the educators of this section of 
the state and he is also a clergyman of the 
Methodist Bpiscoj^al church. South. He first 
assumed his professorship in Marvin College 
in 1907, continued through that year; was 
again appointed in 1910, and has been but 
recently appointed for continued service. 

Professor Culmer was born in the county 
of Kent, England. December 2, 1883, the son 
of Geoi'ge Culmer, gentleman, now retired 



576 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



for many years, and his wife, whose maiden 
name was Nellie Brenchley. The family is 
one of the oldest and most dignified in En- 
gland, its history having been traced back 
to 862 A. D. A part of the family, which is 
of Danish origin, removed to Holland in 
some jiolitical crisis and in that country the 
spelling of the name has been changed to 
Kulmer. 

Professor Culmer received a high school edu- 
cation in his native countrj' and at the age 
of twenty came to America, via Canada. In 
course of time he found his way to Knob 
Lick, Saint Francois county, Missouri, and 
there worked for a short time in a stone 
quarry. Although so young a man, he had 
already been active in church work as an 
exhorter and he now and then, after com- 
ing to the state, engaged in this. He was 
at first content with very humble positions 
and for some time drove a delivery wagon 
for the J. T. Evans department store at 
Elvins, Missouri. He continued thus em- 
ployed until the meeting of the district con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
at Oak Ridge, Missouri, when he was licensed 
to preach. He then filled the pulpit at Ar- 
cadia until the annual conference of the 
cluireli at DeSoto, Missouri. Subsecpient to 
tliat he accepted a home with Rev. T. W. 
Shannon, of Fredericktown, his duties in the 
household being to care for the consei-vatory 
and grounds. Meantime he attended Marvin 
College for two years, and his ability and 
character were so apparent that in the third 
year he was offered the position of assistant 
instructor of mathematics, while at the same 
time pursuing his studies. In 1907 he was 
graduated with the Ph. B. degree, and in 
the ensuing year was elected to the chair of 
mathematics. In the year subsequent h(; 
took a special course in theology at Vander- 
bilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, and the 
next year mati-iculated at Morrisville Col- 
lege, where he pursued studies and at the 
same time taught English. In 1909-10 he 
accepted a call as pastor of the Park Avenue 
Methodist Episcopal church, South, of Rich 
Hill, Missoiiri. His pastorate there Avas of 
the most successful and satisfactory char- 
acter, and during it the present beautiful 
church was erected at a cost of twenty thou- 
sand dollars. Desiring to resume his career 
as a college instructor. Professor Culmer was 
proffered and accepted the chair of English 
and Historv at i\Iarvin College, and he is 



at the present time the incumbent of the 
same. He is a thorough as well as an am- 
bitious student and from boyhood has ling- 
ered willingly at the '"Pierian spring." Like 
so many other students he has found corre- 
spondence courses profitable and finished his 
incompleted studies by means of correspond- 
ence with Oskaloosa College, Oskaloosa, Iowa, 
his A. B. and A. M. degrees being obtained 
in this way. He received his LL. B. degree 
by correspondence work with the Illinois Col- 
lege of Law, and his Ph. B. degree from 
Marvin Collegiate Institute, now Marvin Col- 
lege. He is now pursuing his studies leading 
to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 

Professor Culmer established an independ- 
ent household by his union with Miss AUeue 
Philips, of Higginsville, IMissouri, daughter 
of the late Rev. Laraartine Philips, for thirtj'- 
three years pastor of the IMethodist Episco- 
pal church. South, in the Southwestern Mis- 
souri Conference. The subject and his wife 
share their delightful home with a baby 
daughter, Fredonia Linnell, born December 
7, 1910. 

Rev. Lamartine Philips Vvas a native of 
Roachport, Howard county, Jlissouri, and re- 
ceived his education in the Randolph-Macon 
College of Virginia. He prepared for both 
the law and the ministry, and he remained 
in the work of the latter iintil his death, on 
January 11, 1908, at the age of fiftj'-four 
years. This reverend gentleman, whose work 
was cut short when almost in the prime of 
life, is interred in Mt. Washington ceme- 
tery. Kansas City, Mis.souri.. The Philips 
fannly is one of the oldest in Missouri. Mrs. 
Culmer 's mother, whose maiden name was 
Verlinda Norfleet, was a native of Kentucky. 
Mrs. Culmer was reared in southwestern 
Missouri and is a cultured and admirable 
young woman. She received her musical edu- 
cation at Sedalia College of Music, where she 
spent four years and at Independence, Mis- 
souri, where she pursued her studies for three 
years. She devoted seven years to advanced 
piano study and is an ai'tiste. 

Edward D. Anthony, whose name occu- 
pies a conspicuous place on the roll of Mis- 
souri's eminent lawyers, during some three 
decades' connection with the bar of the state 
has won and maintained a reputation for 
ability that has given him just preeminence 
among his professional brethren. In the law, 
as in pverv other walk of life, success is 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



577 



largely the outcome of resolute purpose and 
unfaltering industry, — qualities that are pos- 
sessed in a large degree by Mr. Anthony. The 
otiticial headquai'ters of Mr. Edward D. An- 
thony are in the Telephone Exchange Build- 
ing, at Frederiektown, Missouri. He is at- 
torney for the Security Bank of this city and 
at one time was attorney for a number of 
mining companies in this section of the state, 
in addition to which he is also interested in 
the Citizens" Telej^hone Company at Fred- 
eriektown. 

A native son of Missouri, Mr. Anthony 
was born in Madison county, this state, the 
date of his bii'th being the 8th of July, 1856, 
and he is a scion of a fine old pioneer family 
in this state. His parents, Joseph F. and 
Martha J. (Stevenson) Anthony, were like- 
wise born in JIadison county, Missouri, the 
former in 1818 and the latter in 1835. The 
father was a son of William J. Anthony, a 
native of Tennessee, whence he removed to 
Missouri in the year 1816, locating on a farm 
three miles east of Frederiektown. The 
mother is a daughter of Hugh B. Stevenson, 
who came to Missouri from North Carolina 
in the year 1820. Mr. Stevenson was a farm- 
er and stockmau by occupation and his fine 
old estate is still in the possession of his de- 
scendants. Mrs. Martha J. Anthony survives 
her honored husband and she is now residing, 
at the age of seventy-six years, at Frederick- 
town. Joseph F. Anthony was summoned to 
the life eternal in 1883, at the age of sixty- 
six years. He gained distinctive prestige as 
a farmer and stockman. In 1849 he made the 
overland trip to Califoi'nia and subsequently 
was a lieutenant in the Mexican war, in which 
he participated in a number of important en- 
gagements. During his life time he made 
three trips to California, where he owned 
considerable mining property and some val- 
uable real estate in San Francisco. He suf- 
fered a very heavy loss in the San Francisco 
fire of the early 50s. The various members 
of the Anthony family in Missouri are all de- 
vout members of the Christian church, and 
it is interesting to note at this juncture that 
pioneers of the name in Madison county, 
Missouri, established a church of that de- 
nomination as early as 1824. A beautiful 
new Christian church is now being built at 
Frederiektown. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. An- 
thony became the parents of five children, 
Eliza, the wife of Charles Remmert, of St. 
Louis, Missouri ; Julia, l\Irs. Theo. Underrine, 



of Madison county, Missouri; Sterling P., a 
merchant at Webb City, Missouri ; James F. 
maintains his home in Madison county, Mis- 
souri ; and Edward D., the immediate subject 
of this review. 

Edward D. Anthony was reared to maturity 
in jMadison county, where he has always re- 
sided, and his rudimentary educational train- 
ing consisted of such advantages as were 
afforded in the public schools of Frederick- 
town. Subsequently he attended the state 
normal school for two years and eventually 
he began to read law under the able precep- 
torship of B. B. Cahoon, of Frederiektown. 
He was admitted to practice at the Missouri 
bar in March, 1881, and since that time has 
won renown as a versatile trial lawyer and 
well fortified counselor at Frederiektown, 
where he has been engaged in the active prac- 
tice of his profession for fully a score of 
years. Mr. Anthony is a stockholder in the 
Security Bank, for which substantial mone- 
tary concern he is attorney, and he is gen- 
eral manager and principal owner of the 
Citizens' Telephone Company, at Frederiek- 
town. He is a business man and lawyer of 
unusual ability and as such his services are 
in great demand in this section of the state. 
In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the 
time-honored Masonic order, the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Wood- 
men of America and the Modern Brotherhood 
of America. In religious matters he is a 
devout member of the Christian church, to 
whose philanthropical work he is a most 
liberal contributor. In politics he is a 
Democrat, warmly advocating party princi- 
ples, although he is not an active politician. 
He has devoted himself assiduously to his 
profession and has not sought political office. 
As a man he is thoroughly conscientious, of 
undoubted integrity, affable and courteous in 
manner and has a host of loyal and devoted 
friends. 

Mr. Anthony was happily mari'ied in 1880, 
to Miss Laura Nifong, a native of Frederick- 
town, Missouri, and a daughter of J. T. and 
Amanda (Caruthers) Nifong, the former a 
general merchant and farmer. An uncle of 
Mrs, Anthony's, Mr. Samuel Caruthers, was 
congressman from this district. Mr. and Mrs. 
Anthony have two daughters, namely : Edith, 
wife of S. S. Clarke, a mining engineer of 
Saint Francois county, Missouri; and Anna, 
wife of H. H. Martin, engaged in mining op- 
erations in Saint Francois county. Mr. Mar- 



578 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tin has mined in British Columbia and many 
other districts. They have one son, Edgar 
Anthony Martin, born September 14, 1911. 

Charles Pope Poston, il. D. Other men's 
services to the people and state can be meas- 
iired by definite deeds, by dangers averted, 
by legislation secured, by institutions built, 
by commerce promoted. The work of a doc- 
tor is entirely estranged from these lines of 
enterprise and yet without his capable, health- 
giving assistance all other accomplishments 
would count for naught. Man's greatest 
prize on earth is physical health and vigor. 
Nothing deteriorates mental activity as 
quickly as prolonged sickness — hence the 
broad field for human helpfulness afforded 
in the medical profession. The successful 
doctor requires something more than mere 
technical training — he must be a man of 
broad human sympathy and genial kindli- 
ness, capable of inspiring hope and faith in 
the heart of his patient. Such a man is Dr. 
Charles Pope Poston, who for the last quar- 
ter of a century has enjoyed distinction and 
success as a skillful physician and surgeon 
of Bonne Terre and vicinity. The years 
have told the story of a useful career due 
to the possession of innate talent and ac- 
quired ability along the line of one of the 
most important professions to which a man 
may devote his energies, — the alleviation of 
pain and suffering and the restoration to 
health. The Poston family is one noted for 
its gifted physicians, the father of the sub- 
ject, Dr. Henry W. Poston, of Irondale, hav- 
ing been a well-known pioneer doctor, and 
one of his sons. Dr. Harry Poston, well 
maintaining the honored prestige of the 
name. As a citizen he is interested in the 
success of good government and aids in the 
promotion of business and social harmony 
by a straightforward course as a citizen. 

Dr. Poston is a native of the state, his 
birth having occurred at Irondale, Washing- 
ton county, on the 28th of September, 1854. 
He is a son of Dr. Henry W. and Casandria 
(Ashburn) Poston, natives of Missouri and 
Kentuck>% respectively. Dr. Henry W. Pos- 
ton practiced at Irondale for about thirty- 
five years and was a credit to his profes- 
sion. He died when sixty-four years of age, 
and he was also a farmer, active Democrat 
and Presbyterian. Dr. Henry Poiston was 
a native of St. Francois county, Missouri, 
and his father, Henry, was a native of North 



Carolina and came to Missouri, St. Francois 
county, in 1806. He was a civil engineer 
and farmer, and owned quite a large tract 
of land, operating same with slaves. When 
it came to choosing a life work young Charles 
Pope Poston decided, \\ith little difficulty, 
to follow in the paternal footsteps. He had 
received his preliminary education at Iron- 
dale and Westminster College at Fulton, Mis- 
souri, and took his medical course at AVash- 
ington University in St. Louis. Since his 
graduation he has practiced at Bonne Terre, 
and there and in the surrounding country 
he enjoys the highest general confidence. It 
is of such men as he that Alexander Pope 
penned his famous couplet, "A wise jjhysi- 
cian, skill'd our wounds to heal, is more 
than armies to the public weal." Dr. Pos- 
ton specializes in gynecology and internal 
medicine and has been chief surgeon for the 
St. Joseph Lead Company, and for the Mis- 
sissippi River & Bonne Terre Railwa.y Com- 
pany for thirty-five years, when he resigned, 
and his son Harry P. was appointed to that 
position. 

Dr. Poston married on the 26th day of 
September 1883, the young woman to become 
his wife and congenial life companion be- 
ing Miss Mahala Cunningham, of Farming- 
ton. Their union has been blessed by the 
birth of nine children, seven of whom are 
living at the present time. The.v are as fol- 
lows: Hany P., M. D., of whom mention 
is found on other pages of this woi-k), Marie 
Louise, Charles H., Florence N., Virgil, Frank 
D. and Stanly. The older children are all 
college graduates. 

Dr. Poston subscribes to the articles of 
faith of the Democratic party, with which 
he has been affiliated since his earliest vot- 
ing days. He is a prominent member of 
the Masonic fraternity and emulates in his 
own living those fine ideals of moral and 
social justice and brotherly love for which 
the order stands. 

Andrew T. Schultze. In these days of 
intensified farming agricultural reports tell 
us that a comfortable living may be made 
from ten acres of good land, planted to ad- 
vantage. Whether our average farmer would 
agree to this we know not, but all will agree 
tliat a comfortable living, with some for lux- 
uries, can be obtained from several hundred 
acres of rich southeastern IMissouri land, than 
which there is no better in the Ihiion. The 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



579 



subject of this sketch, Andrew T. Sclmltze, 
is not only owner of a large farm tliree miles 
east of Washington, in Fi-anklin county, Jlis- 
souri, but he is closely allied with several 
other successful business enterprises. 

The father of Andrew T. Schultze was An- 
drew Schultze, Sr., who was a native of Ger- 
many, his birth having occurred at Leun- 
burg in 1810. It was the wish of his par- 
ents that he enter the ministry, and aecord- 
ingl.y he supplemented the education ob- 
tained at the common schools in his native 
land by a course in the theological depart- 
ment of the University of Berlin, from which 
he was graduated. Being especially fond of 
the languages, he devoted all his spare time 
to mastering Greek, Latin, French and sev- 
eral other European tongues, all pi-eparatory 
to his engaging in the ministry of the Evan- 
gelical church. However, "the best laid 
plans of mice and men gang aft agley, " and 
Andrew Schultze decided to visit the United 
States and, if this new country pleased him, 
to settle here. Accordingly he immigi-ated 
to the United States, and in 1849 settled in 
Missouri, near the present homestead of his 
son, the aforementioned Andrew T. Schultze. 
He immediately adapted himself to the new 
world methods and manners, and made him- 
self agreeable to all his neighbors, who es- 
teemed and respected him for his splendid 
educational equipment, and at the same time 
loved him for his manly character and strik- 
ing personality. 

At the breaking out of hostilities in the 
Civil war period Mr. Schultze supported the 
flag of the Union, but, being too old to en- 
list in active service, he could do no more 
than enthuse those about him in the cause. 
He was thus strongly Republican in poli- 
tics, but veered off with the liberal element 
of that party during the Greeley campaign, 
later, however, coming back into the fold 
of his parent party. His extreme popular- 
ity and the confidence reposed in him by 
the citizens of Franklin county is best evi- 
denced by the fact that in November, 1872, 
Mr. Schultze was nominated for county 
judge by the Democratic party, and elected, 
chiefly upon the local issue of opposition to 
the payment of the road bonds which had 
been wrongfully saddled upon the county. 
He died the next month, however, December, 
1872, before assuming his official position, 
and this sudden demise delayed for several 
years the final adjustment of the matter. 



Though Mr. Schultze never entered religious 
work as had been originally planned, yet 
his interest in everything good continued un- 
abated, and he did much in a quiet way for 
the betterment of conditions in his immediate 
conununity, and was one to whom much credit 
is due in the building of the present Evan- 
gelical church in Washington. Mr. Schultze 
was married in Germany to Johanna Kaiser, 
born in 1830, and to them were born the fol- 
lowing children : Bertha, the widow of Wil- 
liam Daetweiler, of Franklin county ; Andrew 
T., whose biography follows ; Charles, of Ari- 
zona; Fredrick, who died at fourteen j^ears 
of age ; Adolph, who died at the age of forty ; 
Rudolph, now a resident of Union, Missouri ; 
Otto, living on the old homestead in this 
county ; Ernst, of Union ; Louise, who died 
when fourteen years of age ; and Anna, wife 
of George Hausmann, of Washington. Mrs. 
Andrew Schultze, Sr., is still living in Frank- 
lin county, Missouri. 

The man who has before him a living 
example of honesty, integrity, manliness and 
innate culture is bound to live up to that 
standard. With such a father Andrew T. 
Schultze could not be less a man. His birth 
oecun-ed March 19, 1854, in Franklin county, 
so that he has lived all his life in south- 
eastern Missouri. Though the educational 
facilities in Missouri at that time were not 
what the father had had in Germany, yet 
he determined that his son should be edu- 
cated as well as possible. Young Andrew 
therefore attended private schools and pub- 
lic schools at Washington, the high school 
at Hermann, and later took a commercial 
course in one of the business colleges of St. 
Louis. Having a love for nature and na- 
ture's handiwork, our subject had early de- 
cided that he would follow in his father's 
footsteps a little farther, and would adopt 
farming as his life work, and wath the ex- 
ception of two years passed in Colorado, 
1883-84, in the cattle business, Mr. Schultze 
has carried out his original plans. 

As before stated, the attractive farm which 
was originally the old Bell homestead, three 
miles east of Washington, is now owned and 
operated by Andrew T. Schultze, but IMr. 
Schultze does not confine his interests en- 
tirely to agricultural pursuits. He is presi- 
dent of the Farmers' Jlutual Insurance Com- 
pany of Franklin county; is a stockholder 
in the National Cob Pipe Works of Union ; 
and is president of that thriving institution. 



580 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the Franklin County Bank, established in 
November, 1909, and associated in this busi- 
ness with F. W. Hawley, as vice-president 
and C. M. Ellis, as cashier. The bank has 
a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars, 
and a large clientele among the farmers ad- 
jacent to Washington. During the past years 
Mr. Schultze has served the government as 
carrier for route No. 1, rural mail service, 
which he organized. 

In politics Mr. Schultze was reared under 
the banner of the Republican party, but after 
much reading and study he could not find it 
consistent with his belief to uphold high tar- 
iff, so cast his influence and his ballot with 
the Democratic party, which he still supports. 
He is genial and affable and enjoys many 
social hours with his fellow members in the 
ranks of the Modern Woodmen and the 
Turnverein. The family are members of the 
Evangelical church. 

Mr. Schultze was married in Franklin 
county, December 28, 1888, to Miss Alvina 
Bergner, a daughter of George Bergner, a 
native of Saxony, a man of much mechanical 
genius, being by vocation a lock and a gun- 
smith, and a holder of many patents for in- 
vention. To Mr. and Mrs. Schultze have 
been born the following children, Alvina, 
Nellie H. and Cora V., also Johanna, who 
died when about ten years of age. 

Harry L. Machen. Whether the elements 
of success in life are innate attributes of 
the individual or whether thej' are quick- 
ened by a process of circumstantial develop- 
ment, it is impossible clearly to determine. 
Yet the study of a successful life is none 
the less profitable by reason of the existence 
of this uncertainty and in the majority of 
cases it is found that exceptional ability, 
amounting to genius, perhaps, was the real 
secret of the pre-eminence which many en- 
vied. So it appears to the student of human 
nature who seeks to trace the history of the 
rise of Harry L. Machen, a typical Ameri- 
can of the best class. He is yet a young 
man but has achieved a success that many 
an older resident of Cape Girardeau might 
envy. He is the popular and efficient in- 
cumbent of the office of cashier of the Stui-di- 
vant Bank of this city. 

A native of Sikeston, Scott county, Mis- 
souri, Mr. Harry L. I\Iachen was born on the 
5th of February, 1880, and he is a scion of a 
fine old Bluegi'ass family. His father, Henry 



L. Machen, was born in Lyon county, Ken- 
tucky, in the year 1843. When a lad of eight- 
een j'ears of age, Harry L. Machen enlisted as 
a soldier in the Confederate army, becoming 
a member of a western Kentucky company, 
in Cobb's Artillery, and serving with all of 
valor and faithfulness as a soldier for a 
period of two years. He participated in a 
number of important engagements marking 
the progress of the war and was active in 
the battle of Shiloli, being one of the few 
survivors of that sanguinary campaign. He 
was taken prisoner by the Federal army and 
for a time was held in duress in the Dela- 
ware prison. After the close of the war he 
resided in his native state of Kentucky un- 
til the year 1877, at which time he removed 
to ^Missouri, settling in Scott county, where 
he was one of the largest and most influential 
farmers of the southeastern section of the 
state. He was also largely interested in the 
lumbering business. In 1891 he retired from 
active participation in business affairs and 
removed to Dexter, Missouri, where his de- 
mise occurred on the 1st of Jul.v, 1893, at 
the comparatively early age of fift.y years. 
The paternal grandfather of him to whom 
this sketch is dedicated was Colonel B. 
Machen, who served on the staff of General 
Longstreet in the Confederate army. Col- 
onel Machen was a prominent resident and 
a public-spirited citizen of Lyon county, Ken- 
tucky, and after the war he was honored 
with election to membership in the United 
States senate, in which capacity he served 
with all of honor and distinction. Henry L. 
INIaehen married Emma Wj'att, the ceremony 
having been performed in Lyon county, Ken- 
tuckj^, in 1876. To this union were born 
four children, of whom the subject of this 
sketch is the eldest. The others are : Mar- 
garet, who is now Mrs. James G. Reynolds; 
Edward Kirb.y Machen, who died November 
7, 1902 ; and Mary Florence, who resides at 
home with her mother and brother. 

After the death of the father, the Machen 
family removed to Cape Girardeau, where 
Harry L., who was then a lad of thirteen 
years of age, completed his rudimentaiy edu- 
cational discipline. For a period of three 
.vears he was a student in the State Normal 
School, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and at 
the age of eighteen years he entered the 
Sturdivant Bank, where he has remained to 
the present time. In 1902 he was made as- 
sistant cashier of that substantial and highly 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



581 



reliable finaucial institution and on the 1st 
of March, 1909, he was pi-omoted to the posi- 
tion of cashier. The Sturdivant Bank is the 
oldest monetary concern of its kind in south- 
eastei-n Jlissouri, having been established in 
1866, by Colonel Robert Sturdivant, one of 
the early pioneers in this section of the state. 
The bank has always enjoyed a good business 
and has successfully passed through three 
panics. It has a very conservative policy and 
through shrewd management has won a well 
merited reputation as one of the finest finan- 
cial institutions in this part of the country. 
Prior to Colonel Sturdivant 's acquisition of 
this bank it was a branch of the State Bank 
of Missouri. Up to 1882 it was a private cor- 
poration but in that year it was incorporated 
as a state bank, with a capital stock of thirty 
thousand dollars. Later the capital was in- 
creased to fifty thousand dollars and in 1902 
to one hundred thousand dollars. The sur- 
plus and undivided profits amount to forty- 
five thousand dollars. The stockholders of 
the Sturdivant Bank are some of the wealth- 
iest and most reliable citizens of southeastern 
Missouri and the splendid reputation enjoyed 
by the bank is largely the outcome of the 
sterling attributes of the ofSeials and board 
of directors. Mr. ]\Iaehen is strictly a self- 
made man and in addition to the duties de- 
volving upon him as cashier of the above 
bank he is a director and one of the large 
stockholders in the Elks Realty Company. 
He is also a stockholder in the Cape Girar- 
deau Park Association, and has a fine farm 
in New Madrid county. 

In a fraternal way Mr. Machen is affil- 
iated with the local lodge of the Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks and his relig- 
ious faith is in harmony with the tenets of 
the Presbyterian church. In politics he ac- 
cords an unswerving allegiance to the cause 
of the Democratic party and while he has 
never manifested aught of ambition or de- 
sire for the honors or emoluments of public 
oiBce of any description he was persuaded at 
one time to accept the temporary position of 
city treasurer, after the impeachment of the 
regular incumbent of that office. He is not 
married and resides with his mother and 
sister in their beautiful home at 315 Bell- 
view street. In all the relations of life Mr. 
Jlachen has so conducted himself as to com- 
mand the unalloyed confidence and esteem 
of his fellow citizens and at Cape Girardeau 
he is universally admired and respected for 



his straightforward and honorable business 
career. 

Henry T. West, one of Kennett's promi- 
nent business men, is also identified with the 
political life of the town. It is not often 
that there are united in one man the qualities 
which make a successful farmer, an enter- 
prising business man and a jurist, but Judge 
West is the unusual exception. During the 
thirty years and more that he has been a 
resident of Dunklin county, the Democratic 
party has found in him one of its most stal- 
wart supporters, and a brief review of his 
life will serve to recall to the minds of his 
friends and acquaintances his business and 
public career of faithfulness, ability and 
lionoi'. 

Henry T. West was born November 30, 
1852, in Williamson county, Illinois, where 
his father was a leading merchant and county 
official. After attending the public schools 
of his home locality and obtaining valuable 
experience as a farmer, on December 15, 
1878, the stalwart young man of twenty-six 
left his native state and came to Missouri, 
where he likewise devoted himself to agricul- 
tural pursuits. He located on a farm five 
miles north of Kennett, but at the time of 
his coming the land was in its primitive con- 
dition, covered with a thick growth of tim- 
ber. During the twelve years following his 
arrival Mr. West cleared a great portion of 
the land, brought it under cultivation, built 
good fences and made many other improve- 
ments. In 1890 he established a general mer- 
chandise business at Kennett, vinder the firm 
name of West & Bailey. For six years, under 
able management, the enterprise prospered, 
but in 1896 the store was destroyed by fire 
and the partnership was dissolved. In the 
course of the following years he twice entered 
into business in Kennett, and in April, 1902, 
he opened the store which he owns to-day. 
He carries a complete line of groceries of 
all kinds, but he aims to carry only one 
cpiality, and that the best. Mr. West's third 
and last venture in the mercantile field has 
already l)een of longer duration than either 
of his previous undertakings, and it has met 
with success from the very outset. 

Mr. West has been married twice ; his first 
wife was Miss Pauline Jane Ralls, to whom 
he was united on September 26, 1873, just 
before he had attained his majority. During 
the seven years of married life which fol- 



582 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



lowed three children were born to the couple, 
and in 1880 JMrs. West died in Dunklin 
county. The names of the three children 
are as follows : W. H., the eldest, the present 
assessor of Duiiklin county; Daisy, who died 
at the age of eighteen ; Lul, who did not sur- 
vive infancy. In 1881 Mr. West celebrated 
his second marriage, to IMiss Rosalie T. Greer, 
a native of Scott county, Missouri, where she 
passed her maiden life. Mrs. Rosalie West 
became the mother of nine children, five of 
wliom died in infancy; one, Rosa, survived 
until she was fifteen years of age, and the 
three living children are as follows: Martha 
M., who was educated in the schools of Ken- 
nett, and is now a teacher in that place, af- 
ter having taught two years at Senath, Mis- 
souri ; Grace and Ruth, who are still pupils 
in the public schools. 

]Mr. West is affiliated with the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows, in which society 
he is a past noble grand and its present treas- 
urer. He holds membership with the Chris- 
tian church of Kennett ; for a period of forty 
years has been connected with the Disciples 
and during that time he has ever been an 
active worker for the local church which he 
attended ; indeed, Mr. West is so constituted 
that he is bound to take an active part m 
connection with any enterprise in which he 
believes. This is as true in regard to politics 
as it is with religious matters. He finds in 
the Democratic platform the elements of good 
government, and, sueli being his views, he has 
been constant in upholding the Democratic 
party, which in its turn has shown its ap- 
preciation of his support and of his abilities 
and character by bestowing honors on him. 
It is well to state, however, that none of the 
offices which he has filled have been sinecures, 
but on the contrary have required the in- 
telligent care which they have received at 
his hands. 

In 1902 Mr. West was elected chairman of 
the board of trustees of Kennett; after serv- 
ing on the board for the ensuing five years 
he declined re-election and was released from 
office the following two years. His^. services, 
however, were too valuable for him to be 
allowed to continue inactive in that regard, 
and in 1908 he was re-elected to the board 
of trustees, in which capacity he has served 
continuously ever since. Many of the im- 
provements which have appeared in Kennett 
during the last few yeare are the direct re- 
sult of his influence and efforts. For six 



years he sei'ved as police judge of Kennett, 
performing the duties pertaining to that of- 
fice in the most scrupulous manner; but in 
such a quiet, effective way did he go to work 
that he was able to accomplish splendid re- 
sults without making enemies. At the close 
of his six years' term, he was held in the 
highest esteem by both Republican and Dem- 
ocratic parties alike. He served two terms 
as justice of the peace, the first four years 
from January, 1897, to January, 1901, and 
he was again elected in the fall of 1906, serv- 
ing from Januaiy, 1907, to January, 1911. 
In 1910 Mr. West was the regular Democratic 
nominee for the office of probate judge, and 
was elected by a large majority. He took 
office on the first of January, 1911, since 
wliich time his efforts have been directed to- 
wards tlie fulfilment of the duties of his 
office, of the importance of which he has the 
liigliest realization. 

Judge AVest does not claim to be anything 
of a public speaker, as he believes that for 
him at least actions are more eft'ective than 
words. He is generally to be found on con- 
vention committees, where he can be de- 
pended on to work for the Democratic cause 
and for the public good in general. Per- 
haps the reason that air. West has been able 
to win the confidence of the people to so 
large an extent is because, in his eyes, no 
duties are trivial. Anything which he under- 
takes he performs as if that duty were of the 
utmost importance. A man with such a high 
sense of responsibility is sure to accomplish 
great things in the world, as has been the 
case with Judge West. 

Hiram P. Geaslin, justice of the peace at 
Hornersville, is an ahle citizen of Dunklin 
county whose career of usefulness is highly 
appreciated by his fellow citizens. The en- 
ergj' and ambition which accomplish things 
unaided ]>y outside influences and in spite 
of difficulties have been his throughout his 
life, and relying on these qualities he has 
attained an honored position in his com- 
munity. 

Born on a farm in Lawrence coimtv, Ar- 
kansas, October 19, 1873, he lost his father 
when he was two years old, and he lived at 
home with his mother until he was twenty- 
two. His mother died in 1899, her last years 
having been spent near her son and his "wife. 
Up to the time he was seventeen years old 
he attended the public schools, including two 



HISTORY OF SOUTHExVST MISSOURI 



583 



years in the Sulphur Rock high school, aud 
then began a career as teacher. He taught 
a summer term and during the winter con- 
tinued his education, and taught about four 
months each year for seven years. Wlien 
he was twenty-two he was elected assessor 
of his county, being in this office four years 
or two terms. He lived at Lynn while hold- 
ing this office, which required about three 
months of each j'ear, and part of the re- 
maining time he spent in teaching. 

On the expiration of his last term as as- 
sessor he moved to Dunklin county in 1902 
and established a mercantile business in Bra- 
num. There was one other store in the vil- 
lage, aud he had a good share of the patronage 
of that community, ilr. Geaslin has been a 
resident of Hornersville since 1906. Soon 
afterward he was elected justice of the peace 
and has held this office to the present time. 
In 1910 he was one of the five candidates 
on the Democratic ticket for nomination to 
the office of probate judge, and came in 
second. lie is a potential candidate for 1914. 
In 1911 he established the only collecting 
agency in the southern part of Dunklin 
county. During his official and private busi- 
ness career lie has acquired a practical 
training in the law, and for several years he 
has represented that profession in Horners- 
ville. He is a tactful man of aft'aii-s, resource- 
ful and energetic, and has the confidence of 
the entire community. Fraternally he is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the tribe of Ben Hur. 

In 1895, at the age of twenty-two, he mar- 
ried IMiss Joann L. Penn, who died October 
13, 190-4, leaving three children: Bon, born 
in 1897 ; Paul, born in 1899, and Dessie, born 
in 1903. On Jlarch 2, 1905, :Mr. Geaslin 
manned J\Iiss Grace A. Rodgers, of Horners- 
ville, and they have three children: Sanford, 
bom in 1906; Pleas, Iwrn in 1908; and 
Oliver, born in 1910. 

Arthur V. Cashion. Perry county, Mis- 
souri, figures as one of the most attractive, 
progressive and prosperous divisions of the 
state, justly claiming a high order of citizen- 
ship and a spirit of enterprise which is 
certain to conserve consecutive development 
and marked advancement in the material up- 
building of this section. The county has 
been and is signally favored in the class of 
men who have contributed to its development 
along commercial and editorial lines and in 



the latter connection the subject of this re- 
view demands recognition as he has been 
actively engaged in the news^japer business 
during the greater part of his active career 
thus far. He owns and publishes the Ferry 
County Eepuhlican in connection with his 
cousin Charles E. Cashion and this paper 
is recognized as one of the most enterpi'ising 
and progressive publications in southeastern 
^Missouri. 

A native of Perry^'ille, Missouri, Arthur 
V. Cashion was born on the 29th of Februaiy, 
1868. He is a son of Archibald H. Cashion, 
whose birth occurred on a farm eligibly lo- 
cated some five miles south of Perryville. 
The parents of Archibald H. Cashion were 
William and Sally Cashion, both of whom 
died when their five boys were very young. 
These boys grew up on the old homestead 
farm in Perry county and when the dark 
cloud of Civil war obscured the national hori- 
zon all of them enlisted for sei-vice, their 
sympathies being with the North. Archibald 
H. Cashion was a member of the Fifth jMis- 
souri Cavalry and he participated in a num- 
ber of important engagements marking the 
progress of the war. He served under Gen- 
eral John McNeal and from the office of cor- 
poral was later promoted to the rank of lieu- 
tenant. After the close of the war and when 
peace had again been established throughout 
the country he returned to Perry county, 
where he again devoted his time and energies 
to farming operations. In the election of 
1866 he was elected sheriff and collector of 
Perry county and after serving in those ca- 
pacities for a period of four years he returned 
to his farm where he resided for a number 
of years. Just prior to the outbreak of the 
war between the states he had married iliss 
JIargaret Brewer aud they set up housekeep- 
ing on a farm adjoining the old Cashion es- 
tate. Mr. and Mrs. Archibald H. Cashion 
liecame the parents of eight children and the 
devoted wife and mother was called to eter- 
nal rest in the year 1906. In 1896 Mr. 
Cashion was honored by his fellow citizens 
with election to membership in the state legis- 
lature, as a representative of Perry county, 
serving two terms, and while a member of 
that august body he served on a number of 
important committees. After his retire- 
ment from the legislature he was appointed 
postmaster of Perryville. an office he filled 
with great credit to himself for a period of 
nine years. He is now living retired at 



584 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Perryville and while he has attained to the 
venerable age of seventy-two years he still 
retains in much of their pristine vigor the 
splendid physical and mental qualities of 
his prime. He is a grand old man and one 
well worthy of the high degree of popular 
confidence and esteem accorded him by all 
with Avhom he has come in contact. 

Arthur V. Cashion is indebted to the pub- 
lic schools of Perryville for his early educa- 
tional training and at the age of sixteen years 
he entered upon an apprenticeship to learn 
the printer's trade, working for a period of 
three years in the office of the Perry County 
Sun, under John B. Davis. In 1887 he re- 
moved to JMarquand, in Madison county, Mis- 
souri, where he clerked in a store for a short 
period and where he later managed and edited 
the Marquand Echo. The Echo was a Re- 
publican paper and Jlr. Cashion had charge 
of it during the Harrison campaign. In 
1890 he returned to Perrj'ville where he en- 
tered the office of the Perry Coxinty Repub- 
lican, which was then owned and conducted 
by Charles E. Cashion, a cousin of the sub- 
ject of this review. Later Mr. Cashion 
bought the plant of the Perry County Ee- 
puhJican from his cousin and from 1891 un- 
til 1898 he conducted this paper indi\^dually. 
In 1898 Charles E. Cashion again became in- 
terested in the publication of the paper and 
in that year he was admitted to partnership 
in the conduct of the Perry Coimty Repub- 
lican. 

On the 28th of December, 1889, was re- 
corded the marriage of Mr. Cashion to Miss 
Ida Finger, the ceremony having been per- 
formed at ilarquand, Missouri. Mr. and 
I\Irs. Cashion have three sons, Elbert T., Med- 
ford and Benson, the two latter of whom 
remain at home. Elbert is assistant cashier 
in the Bank of Eudora, Arkansas. The 
Cashion family are devout and consistent 
members of the Presbyterian church in their 
religious faith and they contribute liberally 
of their time and means to all philanthropical 
movements projected in the community. 

^Ir. Cashion is a stanch Republican in his 
political views and it maj- be noted here that 
the Cashion cousins, through the medium of 
their paper, exerted a very strong influence 
in the Imilding of the beautiful Perry county 
courthouse, which is located at Perryville and 
which is a great attraction in the way of 
beautifying the town. For nine years, from 
1899 to 1908, Mr. Cashion was a member of 



the Perryville school board. In a fraternal 
way he is a valued and appreciative member 
of the local lodge of the Modern Brotherhood 
of America and he is a man whose many ex- 
cellent attributes make him a valuable ad- 
junct to the citizenship of Perryville. 

Benjamin Hoodenpyle Marbuby. It is 
said that the poet is born, not made, but the 
successful lawyer has to be both born and 
made — made by close application, earnest ef- 
fort, by perseverance and resolute purpose. 
The abilities with which nature has endowed 
him must be strengthened and developed by 
use, and only by merit can the la\v;y-er gain 
a permanent position. And fui-ther than this, 
it is the tendency of the age to devote one's 
energies to a special line, continually work- 
ing upward and concentrating his efforts to- 
ward accomplishing a desired end, — so in the 
career of Benjamin H. Marbury, who has 
risen above the average in his specialty and 
is one of the most prominent and successful 
of criminal lawyers. He also represents a 
number of important corporations and does 
a general practice. 

Benjamin H. Marbury was born in Warren 
county, Tennessee, October 30, 1865, the same 
being the district of the nativity of his 
father, also Benjamin IMarbury, whose eyes 
first opened to the light of day September 20, 
1840. The elder gentleman, who was a phy- 
sician by profession, was also educated for the 
law. His earlier training was secured in the 
Cumberland University at Lebanon. Tennes- 
see, and to obtain his preparation in medicine 
and surgery he matriculated in the medical 
college which afterwards became the medical 
department of Vanderbilt LTniversity. being 
graduated from that institution in 1868, with 
the degree of M. D. He subsequently became 
surgeon for the Sewanee Coal Mine of Tracy 
City, Tennessee, and there remained until 
1873. in wliieh year he went to Mississippi 
county, Missoui'i, and within its boundaries 
he practiced medicine until his death, which 
lamentable event occurred November 20. 1875. 
He was a communicant of the Metliodist Epis- 
copal church. South, and in politics was a 
supporter of the men and measures of the 
Democratic party. He was married in Scott 
county, Missouri, to Rachel Anne Lusk, 
davighter of William M. Lusk, a farmer of 
that localit.v, and their love story was not 
without the pleasant element of romance. 
Benjamin ^larburv. the elder, was a Confed- 
erate soldier under General Braxton Bragg. 




/2^^;^ TfC^l^^^U^y^ , 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



585 



In the year of the great struggle between the 
states he was captiired at Franklin and was 
put a prisoner on board a boat which was 
landed at Scott's Landing. He escaped by 
jumping off the boat with four messmates, 
and while a fugitive he met Mr. Lusk, his 
father-in-law to be, and, both being Masons, 
a firm friendship was cemented. The elder 
gentleman took him to his home and there 
he met the daughter of the house, the two 
young people falling immediately in love. 
They were married in May, 1862. Three sons 
were born to bless this union, they being: 
Horatio L., editor of the F est lis News at 
Festus, ]\Iissouri ; Ben.janiin H. ; and Dr. Alex- 
ander B., a dentist at Charleston. Dr. i\Iar- 
bury was a prominent and talented physician 
and well merited that term which has come to 
mean all of good, "a Soutliern gentleman." 

Benjamin II. Marbury received his early 
education in the public schools of Mississippi 
county and later matriculated at Bellevue 
College, located at Caledonia, Missouri, and 
was graduated from the same in 1887, with 
the degree of B. S. Like so many of our 
successful men he taught school for several 
years and became president of St. Charles 
College, at St. Charles, Missouri. He com- 
pleted his literary and legal education in 
Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri, 
and was admitted to the bar at Petosi, Mis- 
souri, in 1895. In 1897 he came to Farming- 
ton and here success has awaited him. He 
was elected prosecuting attorney in Novem- 
ber, 1903, and served until 1905. Generally 
recognized as a proper man for public office, 
he was made a candidate for judge of the 
St. Louis Court of Appeals in September, 
1910, but was beaten by Charles Bates. At 
the present time he is attorney for the St. 
Louis Smelting & Refining Company and also 
for the Farmers Bank, the Flat River Ice & 
Cold Storage Company, and the Peoples' 
Bank of Delose. As a member of the firm of 
Marbury & Hensley he conducts a very suc- 
cessful general practice, ^Ir. W. L. Hensley, 
his partner, being United States congressman 
from the Thirteenth Missouri district. jMr. 
Marbury has won considerable fame in this 
loealit.y as a gifted criminal lawyer. During 
the one term in which he was prosecuting at- 
torne.y he convicted over forty men, one for 
the death penalty. The aggregate sentenoe of 
the remaining thirty-nine amounted to over 
one thousand years. He proved a stanch and 
strenuous judge, — the friend of good gov- 
ernment. 



ilr. Marbury laid the foundation of a 
liappy home and ideally congenial life ^com- 
panionship when on September 3, 1895, he 
was united in marriage to Annie Eversole, of 
Caledonia, Missouri, daughter of William G. 
and Rebecca A. Eversole. Mr. and Mrs. Mar- 
bury share their hospitable and attractive 
honie with three children— Virginia. Leonard 
Rutledge and Anna. Mrs. Marbury is a di- 
rect descendant of Chief Justice John Rut- 
ledge, of South Carolina. The subject is in 
direct descent from Felix Grundy, the cele- 
brated Southern statesman. United States 
senator from Tennessee in 1829-1838 and at- 
torney general from 1838 to 1840. "Sir. j\Iar- 
bury is a gifted orator and possibly inherits 
his silver tongue from his distinguished 
foi-ebear. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Knights of Pythias, Cristal Lodge, No. 50, 
of Farmington; politically is a Democrat; and 
he and his family are members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. South. 

George Kkone, formerly of the firm 
of Hooper & Krone, now serving his 
second term as mayor of Senath, has 
public official, his achievements in develop- 
ing and advancing the material interests of 
the comiiiunitv bringing to the people a re- 
alization that the aflairs of the city are their 
affairs, and at all times entitled to their con- 
sideration. A native of Kentucky, he was 
born August 13, 1878, in Calloway county, 
where he resided until eighteen years of age. 

In 1896 Ml-. Krone came to Senath, j\Iis- 
souri, arriving here four months later than 
his mother, and where he also had a lirother 
living, J. W. Hall, who is still a resident of 
this city, and one of its earliest pioneer citi- 
zens, he having come here before there were 
any "railways in this section of the country. 
Forced by circumstances to earn his own liv- 
ing, he worked by the montli as a farm hand 
for two years, and the next two years found 
employment in a shop. Ambitious then to 
embark in business on his own account, Mr. 
Krone bought a team on credit, and began 
draying, an industry in which he was pros- 
l>cr()usly engaged for eight years, doing al- 
most the entire draying for the town. Dur- 
ing the last two years in which he was thus 
engaged he also dealt in feed, ice and coal, 
Iniilding up a trade which demanded eo much 
of liis time that he gave up the draying in 
its favor, since September. 1910, being junior 
member of the firm of Hooper & Ki-one. IMr. 



586 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST INHSSOUKI 



Krone is a keen, far-sighted man of business, 
and throns'li his own efforts has accuniuLTted 
a good property. He has two hundred and 
thirty-eight acres of valuable farming land, 
the greater part of which is under cultiva- 
tion, and is operated by tenants. He has also 
erected several liusiness houses and residences 
in Senath. In April, 1909. Mr. Krone was 
elected mayor of Senath, and served the city 
so ably and faithfully that in April, 1911, 
he was re-elected to the same high position. 
Mr. Krone married, July 28, 1901, Fanny 
Barr, who was born in Texas, but was brought 
up near Senath, Missouri, where her father 
was engaged in farming until his death. The 
union of ]\Ir. and ^Irs. Krone has been blessed 
by the liirth of one child. Jewel. Religiously 
Mrs. Krone is a member of the Christian 
church. IMr. Krone is an active member of 
the Democratic party, and fraternally he be- 
longs to the Benevolent and Protective Or- 
der of Elks ; to the Modern Woodmen of 
America : and to the Woodmen of the World. 

Edward B. Reck. Fourteen years post- 
master of Lutesville with an average absence 
from the office of less than a day a year is 
the enviable record of Edward B. Reek, born 
in Cape Girardeau, September 1, 1869. Both 
his father, Frederick Reck, and his mother, 
Adelina, were natives of Missouri and of 
Cape Girardeau county. The former was 
born near Appleton and the latter near 
Shawneetown. Mr. Reek's grandfather, 
George Reck, was born in Germany, likewise 
his grandmother, Catherine Reck. George 
Reck was a shoemaker in the "fatherland" 
and followed that trade in Cape Girardeau 
county, where he had an extensive business, 
and was also engaged in farming. After 
serving ten months in the militia. Frederick 
Reck enlisted in the Union Army, May 2, 
1863. He belonged to Company C, second 
Missouri Light Artillery. He served in the 
war until December, 1865, and then spent 
six months fighting the Indians. The cam- 
paign was one of incessant activity. Engage- 
ments were numerous and often desperate. 
Mr. Reek was in the tight at Jefferson City 
and the one at Glasgow, besides a number 
of lesser engagements and numberless skir- 
mishes. After being mustered out of service 
in 1866, Mr. Reck married IMiss Adeline 
Wliiteledge and resumed his occupation of 
farming, in which his good management and 
bard work made him more than ordinarily 



successful. Edward B. is one of the three 
children of ilr. and ]\Irs. Frederick Reck, 
the others being: John A. Reck, a physician 
of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Cora, wife 
of Jlason F. Kinder, of IMarble Hill, Missouri. 

Like most of the successful men of his gen- 
eration, Edward B. Reck spent his boyhood 
on his father's farm. He attended the public 
schools and had the additional advantage of 
a course in the Pocahontas high school. He 
remained with his father until he was twenty- 
four years old and then went to farming for 
himself on his father's home place of sev- 
enty acres. In Augiist, 1893, he moved to 
Lutesville and for three years worked there 
as a laborer. In 1897 ^Mr. Reck was ap- 
pointed postmaster, which office he still 
holds. The Lutesville postoffice is no sine- 
cure, as all the mail for the southern part 
of the county must pass through the Lutes- 
ville office. Formerly Mr. Reck handled the 
mail for the following offices. Marble Hill, 
Leopold, Dongola, Zalma, Huxis, Hahn and 
Lutes\'ille. The distribution is now made 
through INFarble Hill, Zalma and Hahn. Mr. 
Reck sorts out the mail for the four or five 
offices for which Zalma is the distributing 
point. The Lutesville office has been bur- 
glarized twice during Mr. Reek's term of 
service. 

Mr. Reek was first married to Rosa Schatte, 
of Cape Girardeau county, on Christmas day 
of 1892. Rosa was the daughter of John and 
]\Iary Schatte, old residents of the county 
but natives of Germanv. The death of Mrs. 
Reck occurred ilarch 14, 1897. In 1898 Mr. 
Reek's union with Mrs. Julia A. Yount took 
place. She is the daughter of Henry Scheni- 
mann, of Cape Girardeau county, where he 
was a successful merchant, also a farmer and 
stock raiser. Henry Schenimann came to 
America from Germany in 1844 with his 
father, D. Schenimann. The boy was but 
nine years old at the time. The family set- 
tled in Cape Girardeau county, where Mrs. 
Reek's father grew up. Mr. Henry Scheni- 
mami served three years in the enrolled mili- 
tia in the Civil war. He afterwards engaged 
in mercantile business at Neely's Landing. 
His daughter Julia became the wife of W. 
C. Yount, a merchant of Patton, Mis.souri, 
on March 27, 1895. One child. Miss Willie 
C, was born of this union, which was trag- 
ically ended before their first annivei-sary, 
for Mr. Yount was shot March 14, 1896. 

The eldest of Mr. and Mrs. Reek's four 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



587 



children, Alpha 0., was boru February 11, 
1899. Their son Fred E. was eleven on 
the sixteenth of December, 1911. Inez Glo- 
rine was born April 27, 1903, and Hope Otelea 
on the seventeenth of the same month, six 
years afterward. 

Though ilr. Reck is so constantly on duty 
at the postoffice, he has other interests in 
which he is active. He is a stockholder in 
the Bollinger County Bank and has been sec- 
ond vice-president of it for eight years. He 
owns a fine residence proi^erty in Lutesville 
and is prominent in the lodges of that town, 
being a member of the Ancient Free and 
Accepted Masons, the Royal Arch Masons 
and the Modem Woodmen. In politics he is 
a staunch adherent of the Republican party. 
His religious preference is for the Presbyter- 
ian church, of which he and his wife are 
both memljers. 

Wilbur M. Welkee, the superintendent 
of the Bollinger county schools, was born in 
this county June 9, 1883. His father, J. A. 
Welker, is a farmer now residing at Bloom- 
field. Randolph Welker. the grandfather of 
Wilbur M., was also bom in the eount.y, 
where his father, Wilbur's great-grandfather, 
came from in North Carolina. 

The second of a family of nine children, 
Mr. Wilbur M. Welker was kept busy on his 
grandfather's farm when not attending 
school. Until he was twenty years old his 
life was spent in this fashion. In 1903 he 
began to teach school and has followed this 
profession ever since. Two years in the dis- 
trict schools, two in the schools of Marble 
Hill and three years in Bessville have filled 
up his seven years' exj^erience. 

As Mr. Welker is ambitious, he has spent 
the time not occupied in the school-room in 
studying. Part of two different years he at- 
tended Will Mayfield College. By taking 
courses in the spring and the summer terms 
at the State Normal at Cape Girardeau, he 
obtained the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy 
from that institution. In April. 1911, Mr. 
Welker was elected county superintendent 
for four yeai*s. He is in charge of eighty- 
nine schools in Bollinger county. 

On December 23, 1906, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Welker and jMiss Clara Walker, 
daughter of Richard A. Walker, of this 
county. They have two children, Vera Vern, 
horn 1907, and Paul Lee Alexander, two 
years younger. The family reside upon a 



place of forty-three acres, which they own. 
Mr. Welker is a member of the INIissouri 
Teachei-s' Association and keeps abreast of 
all educational movements. Fraternally he 
is connected witli the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and with the Modern Woodmen 
of America. 

B. P. BuRNHAM, now serving in his sec- 
ond terra as county superintendent of the 
schools of Iron county, has gained much dis- 
tinction as an educator in this section of 
Missouri, and during his long connection 
with the schools of this locality has succeeded 
in greatly raising the standard of education 
and promoting the efficiency of the system 
as a preparation for the responsible duties of 
life. Indeed, the constant aim and the gen- 
eral character of ilr. Burnham's life work 
are summed up in the famous dictum of Sid- 
ney Smith, — that "The real object of edu- 
cation is to give children resources that will 
endure as long as life endures; habits that 
time will ameliorate, not destroy; occupation 
that will render sickness tolerable, solitude 
pleasant, age venerable, life more dignified 
and useful, and death less terrible." 

A native of Reynolds county, Missouri, B. 
P. Buruham was bom on the 9th of April, 
1875, he being a son of Martin L. and Mary 
(Sloan) Burnham, the former of whom is 
now living at Ellington, Missouri, and the 
latter of whom was summoned to the life 
eternal in 1876. Martin L. Burnham was 
born on Current river, in Missouri, his fa- 
ther, Samuel Burnham, having come to that 
section of the state in the ante-bellum days. 
Samuel Burnham was a native of Indiana, 
while his wife, nee Miss George, was born in 
Missouri, and he was a gallant soldier in the 
Confederate army during the Civil war. He 
died at his home in Reynolds county, Mis- 
souri, about 1870, his old farm near Elling- 
ton being still in the possession of his de- 
scendants. He was an extensive farmer and 
stock-raiser during the greater portion of his 
active career. :Martin L. Burnham was like- 
wise engaged in farming operations for a 
number of yeare but he is now identified with 
the hotel business at Ellington, where he is 
a man of mark in all the relations of life. 
He is a devout member of the Missionary 
Baptist church. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Mary Sloan, was born near Belle- 
view, in Iron county, this state, a daughter 
of Alexander and Mary Elizal)eth (Wvatt) 



588 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Sloan, who came from Tennessee to Mis- 
souri about 1830. Mrs. Burnham died before 
she had reached her thirtieth year and the 
subject of this review was her only child. 

]\Ir. Burnham was reared to the invigor- 
ating discipline of the old homestead farm 
and his preliminary educational training con- 
sisted of such advantages as were afforded in 
the public schools of Reynolds county. Sub- 
serjuently he attended the IMarvin Collegiate 
Institute, at Fredericktown, ilissouri, and 
for a time he was also a student in the state 
normal school at Cape Girardeau. On the 
9th of April, 1902, he was graduated in the 
Gem City Business College, at Quincy, Illi- 
nois. For six years he was engaged in teach- 
ing in Reynolds county and from 1902 to 
1909 he was a popular and successful teacher 
in Iron county. He was elected county 
school commissioner in April, 1909, serving 
in that capacity until he qualiiied as super- 
intendent of the schools of Iron county, as- 
suming charge of the responsibilities con- 
nected ^nth that office on the 16th of August. 
1909. In April, 1911, he was elected as his 
own successor for the office of county super- 
intendent for a tenn of four years, and he 
is acquitting himself with all of honor and 
distinction in discharging the duties of that 
important position. As a teacher I\Ir. Burn- 
ham had charge of the schools at Belleview, 
Annapolis, Granite, Pilot Knob and other 
places in the state. 

On the 9th of August, 1905, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Burnham to iliss 
Letha M. ]\Ioyer, whose birth occurred in 
Iron county and who is a daughter of A. G. 
Moyer, of Belleview. This union has been 
blessed with one child, Edwin B.. whose natal 
day is the 14th of September, 1906. 

In politics Mr. Burnham is a Democrat. 
His interest in political cjuestions is deep and 
sincere and he gives a hearty support to all 
projects advanced for the good of the general 
welfare. In a fraternal way he is affiliated 
with Camp No. 421 of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, at Annapolis, and with the 
Belleview lodge of the ^Modern "Woodmen of 
America. In their religious faith ilr. and 
Mrs. Burnham are devout memliers of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. South, to whos,e 
good works they are most liberal contributors 
of their time and means. The.y are popular 
and prominent in connection with the best 
social activities at Ironton, where their beau- 



tiful home is the scene of many attractive 
gatherings. 

Leon J. Albert. A representative of a 
family whose name has been prominently 
and worthily identified with the history of 
southeastern Missouri for more than half a 
century, Leon J. Albert has long held dis- 
tinctive prestige as one of the active and in- 
fluential business men of the city of Cape 
Girardeau, which place has represented his 
home since his boyhood days and in which 
he holds secure vantage gi-ound in popular 
confidence and esteem. He is essentially one 
of the representative citizens of Cape Girar- 
deau county, his influence has permeated the 
civae and business activities of this favored 
section of the state, and his activities have 
been directed along normal and legitimate 
lines. In point of consecutive identification 
with the more important business interests 
in Cape Girardeau he is now one of the oldest 
business men in this city, where his capital- 
istic interests are of broad scope and impox-- 
tance. He has stood exponent of the high- 
est civic ideals and the utmost loyalty and 
few residents of Cape Girardeau have wielded 
larger or more beneficent influence in the 
promotion of the best interests of the com- 
munity. He served seven years as maj'or of 
his home city and has held other positions of 
public trust, — preferments that bear patent 
evidence of the high regard in which he is 
held in the comnumity that has so long been 
his home and the center of his productive ac- 
tivities. Here he is president of the Sturdi- 
vant Bank, the oldest and most substantial 
financial institution of this section of the 
state, and he has been actively concerned with 
the same for forty years, being the oldest 
banker in Missouri south of St. Louis. He 
is akso a member of the directorate of the 
Southeast ]\Ii.s.souri Tnist Company and has 
other large interests in Cai^e Girardeau. 

Leon J. Albert was born at Portland, Jef- 
ferson county, Kentucky, on the 6th of No- 
vember, 1840, and the village in which he 
was thus ushered into the world is now an in- 
tegral part of the cit.y of Louisville. He is a 
son of Nicholas and Anna (Hoin) Albert, 
both of whom were natives of Fi'ance and the 
marriage of wliom was solemnized in the city 
of Louisville, Kentuckj'. Nicholas Albert was 
born in Alsace-Lorraine, France, a district 
that became a (4erman province as a i-esult 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



589 



of the Franco-Prussian war, and there he 
was reared to years of maturity. He received 
excellent educational advantages and, reared 
on the border between France and Germany, 
he had virtually equal facility in the use of 
both the French and German languages, — a 
knowledg'e that proved of great value to him 
during his subsequent business career in 
America. His mother died in her native land 
and after he himself had established his resi- 
dence in the United States his venerable fa- 
ther, John Albert, joined him and passed the 
residue of his life in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Nicholas Albert gained his initial business 
experience in his native land, where he con- 
tinued to maintain his home until 1830, when, 
as a young man, he embarked on a sailing 
vessel and set forth to seek his fortunes in 
the United States. After a long and weary 
voyage he lauded in the city of New Orleans, 
whence he proceeded to Kentucky and located 
in the city of Louisville. There he was given 
a municipal office, largely due to his famil- 
iarity with the French and German lan- 
guages, and in the '40s he removed with his 
family to Jackson, Cape Girardeau county, 
Missouri, where he engaged in the general 
merchandise business, in company with his 
brother. In 1852 he removed to Cape Girar- 
deau, the judicial center and metropolis of 
the county, and here he soon gained prece- 
dence as one of the leading merchants of the 
county. He was a man of marked ability and 
sterling character, commanded the high re- 
gard of all who knew him and was an influ- 
ential factor in local affairs of a public order. 
He was well known throughout the county 
and was the confidential advisor of its 
French and German citizens, the while he was 
deeply appreciative of the institutions and 
advantages of the land of his adoption, to 
which his loyalty was ever of the most un- 
equivocal type. He was called to various of- 
fices of local trust and at the time of his 
death was incumbent of the position of 
United States gauger for his district. He 
was summoned to the life eternal in August, 
1874. at the age of sixty-eight years, and his 
name merits enduring place on the roster of 
the sterling citizens who have aided in the 
development and upbuilding of this favored 
section of the state of Missouri. In politics 
he gave his support to the cause of the Demo- 
cratic party and both he and his wife were 
devout communicants of the Catholic church, 
in whose faith they were reared. Mrs. Albert 



died in 1872. at the age of fifty-six years, leav- 
ing four sous and one daughter, all of whom 
attained to years of maturity, and three of 
whom are now living. 

Leon J. Albert, the second in order of 
birth of the five children, gained his rudi- 
mentary education in Louisville, Kentucky, 
and he was about twelve years of age at the 
time of the family removal to Missouri. He 
continued to attend school at Cape Girardeau, 
this state, and was about twelve years old 
when the family home was established in the 
little city, where he has maintained his resi- 
dence during the long intervening years, 
within which he has risen to a position as 
one of the representative citizens of the sec- 
tion of the state to which this history is de- 
voted. Here he continued his higher aca- 
demic studies in St. Vincent's College. After 
leaving this institution he was for a time em- 
ployed as clerk in his father's mercantile es- 
tablishment and later he was for two years a 
clerk on boats of the St. Louis & Memphis 
Packet Company, operating a line of steam- 
boats between the two cities mentioned. After 
severing his connection with this company 
j\Ir. Albert became associated with his uncles, 
John and Sebastian Albert, in the wholesale 
grocery business at Cape Girardeau, and wdth 
this line of enterprise he was thus identified 
from 1864 until 1871, in which year he as- 
sumed the position of cashier in the bank of 
Robert Sturdivant, which was then a private 
institution. In 1882 the bank was incorpo- 
rated under the laws of the state, under the 
title of the Sturdivant Bank, and Mr. Albert 
continued to serve as its cashier until Janu- 
ary, 1902, when he was elected president of 
the institution, of which ofSce he has since 
continued incumbent. He has wielded much 
influence in the upbuilding of this solid and 
popular banking concern, which bases its op- 
erations on a capital stock of one hundred 
thousand dollars and which now has a sur- 
plus fund of twenty-five thousand dollars. 
From dates designated it will be seen that 
Mr. Albert has been consecutively identified 
with the executive affairs of this bank for a 
period of forty years, and additional signif- 
icance is given to this statement by reason of 
the fact that the Sturdivant Bank is the old- 
est in the state south of St. Louis. Its man- 
agement has ever been along careful and con- 
servative lines and it has successfully weath- 
ered the various financial panics of localized 
or national order, without the slightest ques- 



590 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tioiiing of its ability to liquidate all its obli- 
gations at any period in its history. The bank 
has done much to conserve the best interests 
of the coinnnuiity in which it is located and 
those identified with its management have at 
all times been citizens of the highest stand- 
ing. 

In addition to being one of the principal 
stockholders in the bank of which he is presi- 
dent, IMr. Albert is also one of the leading 
principals in the Soiitheast Missouri Trust 
Company, of Cape Girardeau, which was or- 
ganized "and incorporated in 1906 and which 
has a paid up capital stock of five hundred 
thousand dollars. He was one of the organ- 
izers of this corporation and has been a 
valued member of its directorate from the 
beginning. He is also a stockholder and di- 
rector in the Cape Girardeau AYater AVorks 
Company and the local electric-light com- 
pany. Every enterprise and measure pro- 
jected for the general good of the conunuuity 
has received the earnest co-operation of ^Ir. 
Albert and no citizen of Cape Girardeau has 
shown more distinctive loyalty and public 
spirit. Though he has had naught of ambi- 
tion for public office, he yielded to the impor- 
tunities of his fellow citizens and consented 
to become a candidate for the office of mayor 
of his home city. He was first elected to this 
position in 1877 and he served as mayor for 
seven years, — a fact that offers the best 
voucher for the efficiency and acceptability of 
his administration of municipal affairs, — an 
administration marked by due conservatism 
and wise progressive policies. IMr. Albert 
has shown a specially lively interest in educa- 
tional affairs and he has served consecutively 
as a member of the board of regents of the 
Missouri State Normal School at Cape Girar- 
deau since 1885. He was appointed to this 
office by Governor Francis and has thrice 
been reappointed. During more than a quar- 
ter of a century of such identification \vith 
this fine state institution he has been inde- 
fatigable in the promoting of its interests and 
the maintaining of its facilities at the highest 
standard. Besides serving as mayor of his 
home city Mr. Albert has held other munici- 
pal offices and also county offices, his elec- 
tion to each of which was made entirely with- 
out solicitation or effort on his part and his 
acceptance of which was prompted solely by 
a sense of civic duty. In polities he accords 
unwavering allegiance to the Democratic 
party and both he and his wife are communi- 



cants of the Protestant Episcopal church. He 
is one of the appreciative and valued mem- 
bers of Cape Girardeau Lodge. No. 639, Be- 
nevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 

In the year 186-i was solemnized the mar- 
riage of ]Mr. Albert to iliss Clara Given Hay- 
dock, of Livingston county, Kentucky, and 
she was summoned to eternal rest on the 25th 
of December, 1900. Of the nine children of 
this union six are now living, and concerning 
them the following brief data are given: 
Ilattie is the widow of S. R. Nelson, of Chilli- 
cothe, ilissouri, and she has three children ; 
Leon, Jr., who is engaged in banking at St. 
Louis, Missouri, married iliss Alary Juden, 
and they have three children ; Alma is the 
wife of William W. Wood, of Baltimore, 
Marjdand, and they have thi-ee children; 
Harry, who is a resident of St. Louis, Mis- 
.souri, where he is engaged in the real estate 
business, married Miss Charlotte Peironnett, 
and they have two children; Clara is the wife 
of Henry Coerver, of Olathe, Colorado, and 
they have one child; and Leland is engaged 
in commission business at Cape Girardeau. 
Helen, who is deceased, became the wife of 
i\Ielbourne Smith, of Farmington, Missouri, 
and is survived by one child, so that Mr. Al- 
bert has a total of thirteen grandchildren, in 
whom he takes the deepest interest, as may 
well be inferred. On the 4th of April, 1907, 
ilr. Albert contracted a second marriage, by 
wedding jMiss Lee Cairns, who \vas born and 
reared in ^Missouri and who proves a gracious 
chatelaine of his beautiful home in Cape Gir- 
ardeau. 

Joseph F. Chilton, the present prosecut- 
ing attorney of Madison county, IMissouri, 
has gained a position of distinctive priority 
as one of the representative members of the 
bar of the state and he served for one term 
as representative from his district in the Mis- 
souri state legislature. He has gained success 
and prestige through his own endeavors and 
thus the more honor is due him for his ear- 
nest labors in his exacting profession and for 
the precedence he has gained in his chosen 
vocation. 

A native of Frederickto^\^l, IMissouri, Jo- 
seph F. Chilton was born on the 8th of Febru- 
ary, 1872, a son of Septimus W. and Julia 
(Newberry) Chilton, the former of whom 
is now living in retirement at Fredericktown 
and the latter of whom was summoned to the 
life eternal in 1888. The father was born 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



591 



near the IMissouri-Arkansas state line and he 
passed his boyhood and youth in Jladison 
county. He was early bereft of his parents, 
both having- died on the same day, when he 
was a child of but six months of age. Prac- 
tically rearing himself, his early educational 
training consisted of such advantages as 
were afforded in the public schools of iladi- 
son county. At the age of sixteen years he 
enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate army, 
serving with all of honor and distinction in 
the cause of the South for a period of four 
years. After the close of the war he returned 
to Madison county, locating at Frederick- 
town, where he engaged in commercial gar- 
dening. He has always been a stanch Demo- 
crat in his political proclivities and in his re- 
ligious faith is a devout member of the Metho- 
dist p]piscopal church. In 1867 he married 
]Miss Julia Newberry, and to them were born 
two children, — George, who remains at home 
with his father; and Joseph F., whose name 
forms the caption for this review. 

After completing the curriculum of the 
public schools at Fredericktown, Joseph F. 
Chilton was a student in the ilissouri State 
Normal School, for a time, then turning his 
attention to the study of law. For two years 
he attended the Chicago College of Law, at 
Chicago, Illinois, being graduated therein as 
a member of the class of 1897 and duly re- 
ceiving his degree of Bachelor of Laws. He 
was licensed to practice law in Missouri in 
1898 and in that year initiated the active 
work of his profession at Fredericktown 
where he soon succeeded in building up a 
large and representative clientage and where 
he has gained recognition as one of the lead- 
ing lawyers in iladison county. In 1906 he 
was honored by his fellow citizens with elec- 
tion to membership in the lower house of the 
state legislature, serving in that capacity for 
one term, during which time he was assigned 
to a number of important committees. In 
the fall of 1910 he was elected prosecuting 
attorney of ]\Iadison county and in that con- 
nection he is giving most creditable service. 
He is a man of unusual ability and splendid 
equipment along the line of his chosen voca- 
tion and has already achieved phenomenal 
success in the legal profession. 

In 1900 Mr. Chilton wedded Miss Maude 
May, who was likewise bom and reared at 
Fredericktown and who is a daughter of 
Frank and Amanda (Newcum) May. The 
Newcum family were early pioneers in Madi- 



son county. Mr. and Jlrs. Chilton have four 
children, whose names and respective ages, 
in 1911, are here entered,— Wilma, ten years; 
jMay, eight years; Julia, six years; and S. 
W., three years. 

In politics Mr. Chilton is a stanch Demo- 
crat and in a social way he is affiliated with 
the ilasonic order, being a valued member 
of the Order of the Eastern Star, and he is 
also connected with the local lodges of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
Knights of Pythias. The religious faith of 
the Chilton family is in harmonv with the 
tenets of the Methodist Episcopal church, in 
whose faith they are rearing their children. 

Charles L. Parsons. As steadfast as the 
granite hills of his native state was the char- 
acter of the late Charles Bunyan Pai-sons 
and, measured by its accomplishment, its 
beneficence, its altruism and its uprightness, 
his life counted for good in every relation! 
Bringing to bear the powers of a strong and 
versatile personality, his optimism was of the 
true constructive order and through his well 
directed endeavors as a member of the world's 
noble army of productive workers he gained 
large and worthy success. His course was 
ever guided and governed by the highest 
principles of integrity and "honor and he 
merited and received the confidence and 
esteem of his fellow men. His splendid abili- 
ties were prolific in their influence upon the 
industrial and civic development and up- 
building of Southeastern Missouri, and here 
the great success which he gained had its 
basis in his close and influential association 
with the development of the great mineral re- 
sources of this section of the state. His early 
labors in this connection implied self-denial, 
strong initiative and executive ability admir- 
ably applied, and a confidence and courage to 
which no obstacle was held insuperable. But 
above his great achievements in connection 
with material things, the great mind and 
heart of the man made him exemplify the 
higher ideals of human existence, and he 
never failed in his steward.ship or in his help- 
ful interest in his fellow men. It can well be 
realized that such a man merits consideration 
in a work of the province a.ssigned to the one 
at hand, and it is gratifying to be able to 
perpetuate in this volume a record of his life 
and labors and to offer a tribute to his mem- 
ory. In the preparation of this memoir re- 
course is taken largely to a memorial pub- 
lished, for private circulation, soon after his 



592 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^MISSOURI 



death, and it is not deemed necessary to util- 
ize formal designation of quotation in draw- 
ing from such source. 

Charles Bunyan Parsons was born at Ben- 
son, Rutland county, Vermont, on the 26th 
of February, 1836, and died at his home in 
Riverside, Jetferson county, Missouri, on the 
28th of January, 1910, secure in the lasting 
esteem of all who knew him. He was a scion 
of a family, of staunch English origin, that 
was founded in New England, that cradle of 
so much of our national history, in the early 
colonial days, and he came from a long line 
of educated and talented folk. His grand- 
father, Reuben Parsons, was a man of fine 
intellectual attainments and wielded benig- 
nant influence in the conuuunity in which he 
lived. His maternal grandfather. Judge 
Chauncey Smith, was a citizen of distinctive 
prominence and influence in Vermont, where 
lie acquired great wealth, as gauged by the 
standard of the locality and period. He 
served in a magisterial or judicial capacity 
for a number of years and for several years 
represented his county in the state legislature 
of Vermont. Concerning him, with inci- 
dental reference to the grandson, Charles B. 
Pai-sons, the following pertinent statement 
has been made: "He was a large contributor 
to the needs of all worthy persons and causes, 
a trait of character strongly developed by his 
grandson, Charles B. Parsons." 

Henry Augustus Parsons, father of him 
whose name initiates this memoir, was likewise 
a native of Benson, Vermont, where he was 
born on the 19th of August, 1790, and where 
he was reared and educated. He was promi- 
nent in the social and religious life of the 
town, and, being a fine musician, was for 
forty years a member of the local church 
choir. He was closely identified M'ith the 
various interests of his home town, and as a 
member of the state militia he was with the 
troop that went from Benson to meet General 
LaFayette, in 1824, on the occasion of the 
visit of the distinguished nobleman to the 
land whose gaining of independence he had 
so signally aided in the war of the Revolu- 
tion. By vocation Henry A. Parsons was a 
saddler and harness manufacturer, and he 
continued to follow this line of enterprise in 
his native town until impaired health com- 
pelled him to seek a change of climate. He 
first removed to Brighton, New York; thence 
to Rochester, that state, where he remained 
until 1854, when he removed with his family 
to Michigan, where he passed the residue of 



his life, his death having occurred at Hills- 
dale, that state, on the 22d of January, 1862. 
His cherished and devoted wife, whose maid- 
en name was Elizabeth Smith, was born at 
Benson, Vermont, on the 12th of April, 1791, 
and died at the home of her son Charles B., 
subject of this review, in Bonne Terre, Mis- 
soui'i, on the 30th of November, 1884, at the 
venerable age of ninety-three years. Con- 
cerning her the following appreciative words 
have been written: '"She was a woman of 
great force of character and loveliness of dis- 
position. She came to Bonne Terre, Missouri, 
after the death of her husband and her de- 
clining years were spent in the pleasant home 
of her son. She passed to the life eternal 
well beloved by all who had known her." 
Henry A. and Elizabeth (Smith) Parsons be- 
came the parents of six sons and five daugh- 
ters, all of whom are now deceased except the 
youngest daughter, Emily, who married Gen- 
eral C. C. Doolittle, brother of Mr. Parsons' 
wife. Of the eleven children Charles B. was 
the youngest. Two of the sons, Lafayette and 
Chauncey, were graduated in the collegiate 
institution at Castleton, Vermont, and in the 
medical college at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 
Both practiced their profession in Michigan, 
and another brother, Reuben, was just enter- 
ing upon the practice of the same profession 
when he sacrificed his life during the great 
cholera epidemic of 1849. Dr. Lafayette Par- 
sons served as a member of the Michigan 
legislature, and late in life he removed to 
Adair county, Iowa, where he died at the age 
of eighty-three years. 

When it was deemed expedient for the 
family to remove to Michigan, Henry Par- 
.sons was sent on ahead to begin the work of 
clearing the homestead which had been 
.secured in the midst of the forest in St. 
Joseph county, Michigan. A few weeks later 
Charles B. Parsons, who was at the time 
seventeen years of age, and who had been 
afforded the advantages of the Rochester 
schools, set forth for the new home to join 
his brother Henry and help in the clearing. 
He started with a team and a load of house- 
hold goods for this overland trip. 

Concei-ning this memorable journey the fol- 
lowing description' has been given: "With 
only his dog for company, he made the dreary 
trip of more than five hundi"ed miles, cross- 
ing the Niagara river into Canada and re- 
ci-ossing the boundary into the United States 
at Detroit. In due time he arrived at the 
clearing made by his brother. Three weeks 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



593 



later his brother Henry was killed by a fall- 
ing tree, and this proved a tremendous dis- 
aster to the surviving brother, — a beardless 
boy, alone in the big woods with only a few 
neighbors for help. Alone, the boy continued 
the work, cleared the land and built the liome. 
When everything was ready, with that mi- 
nute attention to details which was one of 
his characteristics, he sent for his parents to 
join him, and with them he remained on the 
farm until he was twenty-one years of age. ' ' 

Upon thus attaining to his legal ma,iority 
Mr. Uarsous determined to work his way 
through college. This ambition he found 
virtually impossible to realize, and he became 
a teacher in the public school in the little 
village of Burr Oak, Michigan. Thereafter 
he devoted three j^ears to the study of den- 
tistry and after mastering the same he en- 
gaged in practice at Hillsdale, Michigan. 
Soon, however, he subordinated all other in- 
terests to tender his aid in defense of the 
Union, whose integrity was menaced liy armed 
rebellion. Upon the first call for volunteers 
for service in the Civil war Mr. Parsons en- 
listed in Company E, Fourth Michigan Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and before the regiment left 
tlie state he was made second lieutenant of 
his company. His command proceeded di- 
rectly to the city of Washington and partic- 
ipated in the tirst battle of Bull Run. Mr. 
Parsons was promoted first lieutenant on the 
1st of September, 1861, and on the 1st of the 
following July was made captain of his com- 
pany. In the command of General McClel- 
land he took part in all the battles incidental 
to the campaign of that gallant leader and he 
distinguished himself by conspicuous and 
meritorious service until impaired health com- 
pelled him to retire, on the 27th of I\Iarch, 
1863, in which month he duly received his 
he ever retained a deep interest in his old 
honorable discharge. It should be noted that 
comi'ades in arms, and that he indicated the 
same by his membership in the Grand Army 
of the Republic and the Military Order of 
The Loyal Legion. 

In 1864 j\Ir. Parsons accepted a position 
with a mining company at Nortliampton, 
Massachusetts, where he retained this in- 
cumbency for three years, at the expiration 
of which the mines ceased operation. At 
Northampton he formed the acquaintance of 
J. Wyman Jones who, with associates, had 
recently purchased the LaGrave mines in 
]\Iissonri, and Mr. Parsons was engaged to 
visit the mines and make a personal investi- 



gation of the same, with subsequent report to 
the owners. He accomplished the woi'k as- 
signed to him and upon his return to the 
east made his report to the directors of the 
company. He was soon afterward tendered 
the position of superintendent of these mines, 
but he considered it inexpedient to accept the 
place, owing to the remoteness of the mines 
from advantages of civilization to which his 
wife and family were accustomed. Concern- 
ing his final decision and action the follow- 
ing record has been made and is worthy of 
perpetuation : ' ' Mrs. Parsons, who was ever 
her husband's trusted confidante and adviser, 
displaying that spirit of devotion and self- 
sacrifice which in all the years of their mar- 
ried life made her a tower of strength to her 
husband, urged him to accept the position, 
declaring, like Ruth of old, 'Whither thou 
goest I will go, ' and the decision was made. 
^Ir. Parsons came west and a.ssumed charge 
ilay 1, 1867, leaving his family at DeSoto, 
then a small town, until June 26th, when he 
broiTght them to Bonne Terre and installed 
them in half of the only frame house in the 
place. Thus it was that this kind, gentle 
and capable man came to Bonne Terre and 
came to be associated with and bound up in 
the life history of nearly every one of our 
people." Continuing, this local estimate gives 
further words of deep appreciation and honor: 
* ' Standing at the brow of one of our hills and 
looking over our beautiful, modeni little city 
of six thousand people; viewing the clouds 
of smoke rising from the largest lead mine 
in the world ; noting our handsome schools, 
beautiful churches and peaceful homes nest- 
ling amid bowers of shade, — is it to be won- 
dered that the people of this place, through 
the long months of Mr. Parsons' illness, gave 
their daily thoughts to the suffering man 
whose genius had made Bonne Terre a pos- 
sibility, and is it strange that as life's sands 
ran low, the desire of Mr. Parsons should be 
that his remains be laid at rest among those 
who for nearly fort.v-five years had been near 
and dear to him, and that when the final 
summons came it was felt as a personal loss 
to everyone in Bonne Terre?" 

It is not within the province of this pub- 
lication to enter into details concerning the 
upbuilding of the great industrial enterprises 
with which Mr. Parsons' name was so long 
and conspicuously identified, but it should be 
noted that no other one man has done so much 
to develop the great lead resources of this 
section of the state and that his labors were 



594 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of herculean order in this connection. In 
these early days adverse conditions, circum- 
stances and influences compassed him in his 
endeavors, but with characteristic courage, 
tenacity of purpose and fertility of expedi- 
ent he pressed forward along the course he 
had defined, with the result that the 3'ears 
gave liim tribute and splendid reward. He 
was the dominating power in the upbuilding 
of one of the greatest industries of the kind 
in the world, and it is due to him largely 
that the St. Joseph Lead Company gained 
precedence as the largest lead-mining con- 
cern of all in existence. Such accomplish- 
ment denotes the great executive and con- 
structive ability of the man and through 
his labors in this connection he did much 
for mankind, the while gaining for him- 
self and family a comfortable fortune of 
nearly two million dollars, — representing the 
just reward of long years of earnest and in- 
defatigable toil and endeavor. Further ref- 
erence to the mining industry is not de- 
manded in this connection, as the sub.ject is 
amply considered in the generic history on 
other pages. None but a strong man could 
show such results in the mastering of cir- 
cumstances, and these results tell their own 
story. However, there is consistency in mak- 
ing the following brief extract from the pub- 
lished memorial to which reference has been 
made in a preceding paragraph: "To the 
task of making available the immense lead 
deposits Mr. Parsons devoted himself and his 
eveiy energ.y. The first shaft to the lower 
deposits was started the latter part of March, 
1870, and with the first load of rock hoisted 
from its underground bed there arose the 
stupendous problem of crushing, separating 
and smelting. No blazed trails were there to 
follow, and in the still watches of the long 
nights Mr. Parsons wrestled with tlie prolv 
lems, sometimes discouraged and disheart- 
ened but ever persistent and ever exhibiting 
to the world a smiling face, so that only his 
loved ones knew of his trials and discour- 
agements, and no one knew that the helpful, 
courteous superintendent, who was always 
ready with a kind word, a helpful suggestion, 
a hearty hanrlshake. or an order on the store 
to supply some poor fellow with a pair of 
shoes, was for months unable to look into the 
future for a single day with hope of reward, 
and was only kept to his hard task, was only 
enabled to face each new day with confi- 
dence, by the cheerful counsel and support 
of that splendidly equipped wife and mother 



who had been more than willing to leave 
home, friends and social enjoyments to come 
with him into the wilderness of the west. 
These years, and the mauy years which fol- 
lowed them, were years filled with ceaseless 
vigil, burning life's caudle at both ends; al- 
ways planning, always looking forward, and, 
withal, always willing to lend a helping hand 
to the weak or to give from his store to those 
in need." This indeed represents a tri- 
umphant life, and all who knew Mr. Parsons 
not only revere his memory but also realize 
that none ever was more worthy of success. 

The very nature of Mr. Parsons was one 
of l)readth and liberality, and he gave of 
himself to the furthering of every measure 
and enterprise tending to advance the mate- 
rial and social welfare of his home comnum- 
ity, and also the entire district in which his 
interests centered. Thus he was concerned 
with railroad development, with the exploita- 
tion of all public utilities and with the up- 
building of various industrial and commer- 
cial enterprises of magnitude and importance. 
He was one of the large stockholders and 
active executives not only in the St. Joseph 
Lead Company but also in the Mississippi 
River & Bonne Terre Railroad Company, the 
Doe Run Lead Company, the Bonne Terre 
Farming & Title Company, and the Farm- 
ers' & ^Miners' Tru.st Company, of Bonne 
Terre. 

In politics jMr. Parsoms gave a staunch al- 
legiance to the Republican party, and he was 
zealous in the furtherance of its cause, the 
while it was a distinct pleasure to him that 
he lived to see St. Francois county cast a 
majority of Repiiblican votes. He was a 
delegate to the national convention that first 
nominated William McKinley for the presi- 
dency and was active in the local councils of 
his party. 

In the advancement of educational facil- 
ities he took an abiding interest and he 
served for many years as a valued member of 
the Bonne Terre school Tioard. He never 
sought political preferment and it was 
largely a matter of extraneous expediency 
that caused him to hold the office of postmas- 
ter of Bonne Terre from April. 1876. to Oc- 
tober. 1885. He had deep reverence for the 
spiritual verities and was instant and liberal 
in tlip su]>iiort of all religious activities in 
which, tliougli himself a member of the Con- 
gregational church, he recognized neither 
sect nor creed, as he realized the value of 
the work of all denominations. The pres- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



595 



ent fine edifice of the CongregatioBal church 
in Bonne Terre is his gift to the people of 
his home city. Prom the previously men- 
tioned memorial are taken the following ap- 
preciative words: "Perhaps the character- 
istics which endeared him so generally to the 
people of this community were his never- fail- 
ing courtesy and that kind consideration 
which never varied, whether the occasion was 
a presidential reception or that of helping 
some poor foreigner from the gutter, or com- 
pelling some poor workman to accept a loan 
which his keen perception told him was 
needed." 

The death of Mr. Parsons caused an en- 
tire community to mourn, and all classes and 
conditions of men and women in Bonne Terre 
showed their deep sense of personal loss and 
bereavement. They mourned not the success- 
ful man, not the man of wealth and influ- 
ence, but felt that they were bereft of a true 
friend, the man of deep human sympathy 
and tolerance, the man whose was the faith 
that makes faithful in all things. His fu- 
neral was conducted by Rt. Rev. Daniel Tut- 
tle. the venerable bishop of the Missouri dio- 
cese of the Protestant Episcopal church, and 
this honored prelate was assisted by the pas- 
tor of the Congregational church in Bonne 
Terre, Rev. H. L. Hartwell. Interment was 
made with Ma-sonic honors, as Mr. Parsons 
was long identified with this time-honored 
fraternity. 

It may be noted that the sons of Mr. Par- 
sons have succeeded to and assumed active 
supervision of his varied industrial and 
other capitalistic interests, in the control of 
which they are showing themselves worthy 
of the honored name which they bear. They 
are also men of sterling character and high 
civic ideals. 

There can be no wish to lift the gracious 
veil that gave seclusion to a home whose every 
relation was ideal, but it is consistent to 
enter a brief record concerning the domestic 
relations of Mr. Parsons, — relations that 
were marked by the greatest of solicitude and 
beauty. While sei"ving as a soldier in the 
Civil war Mr. Parsons was granted a fur- 
lough, and within this period, on the 5th of 
February. 1862, was solemnized his marriage 
to Miss Jane E. Doolittle. the accomplished 
daughter of M. J. and Elizabeth (Camp) 
Doolittle, and a sister of General Charles C. 
Doolittle, who gained distinction in the 
Civil war. in which he entered service as a 
member of the same company as did the sub- 



ject of this memoir. Mrs. Parsons survives 
her honored husband and still resides in the 
beautiful home at Riverside, near Bonne 
Terre. She was reared and educated in New 
York city and Brooldyn and brought into 
the wilds of Missouri, when she came here 
wdth her husband, the fine elements of cul- 
ture that had been gained in her associations 
in the east. For three years previous to her 
marriage Mrs. Parsons was the leading so- 
prano in the choir of Rev. Theodore L. Cuy- 
ler's church at Brooklyn. Mr. and Mrs. Par- 
sons became the parents of eight children, of 
W'hom five are living: Roscoe R. S. and 
Gerard S., who have succeeded their father 
in the various positions of the latter 's large 
interests; Jessie H., who is the wife of Ben 
Blewett, superintendent of the public 
schools of St. Louis, Missouri ; Mabel T., who 
is the wife of Dr. George Knapp, of Vin- 
cennes, Indiana; and Miss Bertha S., who re- 
mains with her widowed mother. Roscoe R. 
S. Parsons is now general manager of the St. 
Joseph Lead Company ; vice-president of the 
Doe Run Lead Company; vice-president of 
the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Rail- 
road Company; and president of the Farm- 
ers' & Miners' Trust Company of Bonne 
Terre. Gerard S. Parsons is assistant gen- 
eral manager of the St. Joseph Lead Com- 
pany and treasurer of the railroad company 
above mentioned. 

Professor Willl\m Leslie Johns. It is 
not to be gainsaid that there is no office car- 
rying with it so much responsibility as that 
of the instractor who moulds and fashions 
the plastic mind of youth; who instills into 
the formative brain those principles which, 
when matured, will be the chief heritage of 
the active man who in due time will sway the 
multitudes, lead armies, govern nations or 
frame the laws by which civilized nations are 
governed. To say that all learned men are 
capable of filling this high and important of- 
fice is by no means the truth. One is in- 
clined frequently to believe that the true edu- 
cator is born and not made; he must have a 
vast knowledge of human nature; he must 
know not only what is in books, but what is 
in man also ; he must understand his pupil 
and deal with his kind according to his in- 
dividuality. 

"William Leslie Johns, superintendent of the 
Flat River schools, was born July 3, 1872. at 
Grubville, Jefferson county, Missouri. The 



596 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



family is one which has been identified with 
the state for many years, the birth of the 
subject "s father, William Alfred Johns, hav- 
ing occurred in Robertsville, Franklin county, 
Missouri, in the year 1839. The earlj^ life 
of the elder gentleman was spent on his fa- 
ther's farm and he received his education in 
the common schools. He adopted agricul- 
ture as his own vocation and was thus en- 
gaged throughout the course of his useful 
and active life. At the time of the Civil 
war he was a member of the state militia and 
at the termination of the great contliet he 
again took up farming. The sub.ject's motlier 
was Mary Ann Sullens, of Penton, Jefferson 
county, Missouri, daughter of Isaac Sullens, 
a farmer and Methodist circuit rider. To 
this union, which occurred in 1861, nine 
children were born, William Leslie being the 
sixth in order of birth. The father passed on 
to his reward in 1877, but his devoted wife 
and helpmeet has survived him for more 
than a generation and is still living, her resi- 
dence being maintained at Grubville, Jeffer- 
son county, Missouri. The father was in his 
political conviction an adherent of the poli- 
cies and principles of the "Grand Old 
Party" and his religious faith was that of 
the Methodist Episcopal church. His lodge 
relations extend to the time-honored Masonic 
order. 

The early life of William L. Johns was 
passed on his father's farm in Jefferson 
county and in youth he had the u.sual oppor- 
tunity of the farmer's son to become familiar 
with the many sti'enuous duties of farm life. 
He attended the public schools and having 
come to the conclusion to become an instruc- 
tor, he entered the Cape Girardeau Normal 
School and was graduated from that institu- 
tion in 1907, with the degree of B. P. D. 
His first work in the pedagogical profession 
was as a teacher in the country schools, and 
this was of seven years' duration. For three 
and one-half years he was principal of the 
DeSoto grammar schools and, recommended 
by his excellent work at that point, he was 
called to Flat River, where in the capacity of 
superintendant of schools he has given the 
utmost satisfaction. The Flat River .schools 
are fully accredited and a diploma received 
from the high school admits without further 
ado to the state university. 

Profos.sor Johns laid the foundation of a 
happy and cultured household when, in 1897, 
he was united to Emma Cole, of Blackwell, 



Jefferson county, daughter of Joshua and 
Anne Cole, the former a well-known farmer 
of Jefferson county. Mr. and Mrs. Johns 
share their pleasant home with two young 
sons, — Delos Cole .and Burdette Thei-on. In 
his political adherence Professor Johns is 
aligned with what its loyal admirers are 
pleased to call the "Grand Old Party;" he 
is a Baptist in his religious affiliation, and 
his lodge relationship is extended to the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows. 

Roy Stone IMaelcw. Among the leading 
young citizens of DeSoto must assuredly be 
mentioned Professor Roy Stone Marlow, su- 
perintendent of the iMoorhazl Commercial 
College of this place. He has been a promi- 
nent factor in educational work of this sec- 
tion of southeastern ^Missouri since his grad- 
uation from college, having been a teacher in 
the public schools of I\Iontgomery county for 
five years previous to preparing himself for 
the duties of his present responsible position 
as the head of one of the noted Moorhart 
chain of colleges. His success in preparing 
young men and women for positions of a com- 
mercial character has been remarkable, and 
in addition to his professional ability he is 
esteemed as a good citizen and popular mem- 
ber of society. 

Professor ilarlow was born in Martins- 
burg, ilissouri, June 7, 1882. He is the son 
of W. H. Marlow, who was born December 
9, 1851, at LaGrange, Missouri. The latter 's 
mother died when he was but a few months 
old and he was reared to the age of twelve 
years by two aunts. At about that time his 
father met his death in the Civil war. He 
had married again and had a family of small 
children, but young Marlow, although only a 
boy himself, returned to his father's home to 
manage the farm, and there he remained un- 
til he attained his majorit.v. He then re- 
moved to a farm in Callaway county and 
there, when about twenty-seven, established 
a home of his own b.y marriage. Miss Laura 
Peery becoming his wife. 'Three children 
were born to them, namely: Thomas, Roy S. 
and Ora Elizabeth. Some years later the 
father went into the hotel business at ]\Iar- 
tinsburg, ^Missouri, and he remained there 
until four years prior to his demise. The 
last five years of his life were spent in retire- 
ment at Montgomery City, Missouri, and he 
died, univei-sally regretted, in 1908. He was 
a loyal and consistent Democrat, having given 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



597 



allegiance to the party since his earliest vot- 
ing days; he held membei-ship in the Chris- 
tian church ; and was affiliated witli the jMu- 
tual Protection League. The mother was 
born in Callawa.y county, September i, 1857, 
and is making her home with her son in De- 
Soto. 

Roy Stone Marlow spent his early life on 
the farm in Callaway county and through 
actual contact and experience became famil- 
iar with agricultural life in all its phases. 
He received his preliminary education in the 
public schools of ]\Iartinsburg, graduating 
therefrom, and also in a special class from 
the high school of Montgomery City in 1900. 
Following this he took special work in the 
University of Missouri and taught in the 
high school for a period of five years, giving 
the greatest satisfaction to all concerned. He 
then took special work in Central Wesleyan 
College at Warrington, IVIissouri, and finished 
the same in 1907, in which year he received 
a degree from that institution. It was in the 
year named that Professor Marlow became 
associated with Mr. George Washington 
Moorhart in his business college work, and 
ever since that time he has been a part of the 
teaching force of those excellent institutions, 
teaching a year at Cape Girardeau; two 
years at Farmington and two years at De- 
Soto where he resides at the present time. 
The student enrollment averages forty. 

Professor Marlow was married in 1907, 
Miss Ellen Marie Robertus, of Warrenton, 
Missouri, becoming his wife, and both young 
people are held in high regard in the com- 
munity. They have two young sons, — John 
William and Addicks Ransom. The subject 
is a member of the Christian church ; enjoys 
fellowship with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows; and follows in the parental 
footsteps in the matter of politics, being a 
stanch Democrat. 

The Moorhart Business College of DeSoto 
is situated on a hill overlooking the city and 
is surrounded by beautiful grounds. 

James A. Henhon. The name of James A. 
Henson, judge of the probate court, has been 
identified in an honorable and useful fasliion 
with the various interests of Washington 
county since 1898. He is an almost life-long 
resident of Missouri and lived in Gasconade 
county for many years previous to coming to 
Potosi. He is a veteran of the Civil war and 
one of the pillars of local Republicanism, 



standing high in party councils. Mr. Hen- 
son was born in the state of Indiana, Sep- 
tember 20, 1838, and is the son of Larkin 
Henson, who was a native of South Carolina, 
born about 1794. The elder gentleman was 
a carpenter and builder and was married at 
about the age of twenty-one years to Susan 
Hollandsworth. To their union were born 
five children, of Avliom Judge Henson was the 
second in order of birth, and an enumeration 
of the number is as follows : Eliza, deceased ;. 
James; Robert; Jeanetta, now Mrs. William 
Davis; and Albert. The father, who was a 
man of advanced years at the outbreak of the 
Civil war, was so thoroughly in sympathy 
with Southern traditions and institutions 
that he enlisted in the Confederate army, 
and his death occurred during the great con- 
flict. He was a stanch Democrat in politics 
and a member of the Baptist church. 

When Judge Henson was but a few months 
old the family removed to Missouri and lo- 
cated in Gasconade county, where he grew 
to manhood. He received his early education 
in the subscription schools and his first ex- 
periences as a wage-earner were as a worker 
on various farms. At the outbreak of the 
Civil war he joined the Union army under 
General Grant and saw a good deal of hard 
service, participating in the battles of Wil- 
son Creek and Vicksburg and many lesser 
engagements. He was a member of Com- 
pany F. First Missouri Light Artillery, and he 
was a brave and valiant soldier, who with the 
passage of the years has lost no whit of inter- 
est in the comrades of other days, being 
prominent in all the "old Boy" doings. 
When the war was over he returned to Gas- 
conade county and engaged in farming, and 
he continued thus engaged until 1898, when 
he removed to this county. After coming to 
Potsoi he conducted a dairy for Dr. Noll and 
then made a successful run for office, receiv- 
ing the election for justice of the peace and 
serving in that capacity with faithfulness 
and efficiency from 1899 to 1903. He was 
then elected judge of the probate court, 
which office he still holds, having been twice 
elected. In many ways he has demonstrated 
the public spirit which makes him so good 
and patriotic a citizen, and he never fails to 
yield hearty support and co-operation to any 
measure that has appealed to him as likely 
to be conducive to the public good. 

In January, 1862, ]\Ir. Henson was united 
in marriage to Mary S. Davis, daughter of 



598 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Garrett Davis, their marriage being solem- 
nized at Gasconade county, Missouri. The 
wife died in 1866, leaving two young chil- 
dren, Milford and Marshall. He was again 
married in 1872 to Dora Roberts, of Mis- 
souri, daughter of Asa Roberts, and this 
union resulted in four children, — James E., 
Lillian, Fred and Laura. Judge Henson is 
well and favoi'ably known in the community, 
where he is agreeably recommended by his 
daily living; and his family are useful and 
popular members of society. He is a Bap- 
tist in religious conviction, and is a mem- 
ber of Becket Post, No. 38, at Hopewell, Mis- 
souri. 

Henry A. Herkstroetee, the efficient post- 
master of Washington, is a native son of 
the place and was born and reared among 
the younger generation of the business men 
of this city, his birth occurring j\Iareh 29, 
1874. His father is Casper H. A. Herk- 
stroeter, a clothing merchant and tailor of 
Washington. The elder gentleman is a na- 
tive of Germany. Like so many of his coun- 
trymen he concluded to cast his fortunes 
\vith the New World and arrived on our 
shores previous to the war between the states. 
Shortly afterward he located in the city of 
St. Louis, where he served an apprentice- 
shii> as a tailor, and while residing there he 
married iliss Minnie Gast, a daughter of 
Ernst and Christina Gast, of Washington, 
Missouri. This resulted in his establishing 
a home here and he opened a tailor shop. 
His business grew and expanded with the 
development of the country and he now owns 
and manages a large ready-made clothing 
house, while at the same time ' carrying on 
a tailoring establishment. He is still the 
proprietor of this business and has reached 
the age of seventy-eight years. The subject 
is one of a family of six children, as follows: 
Christina, wife of L. H. Kamp, of St. Louis; 
Henry A., the subject of this review; Emma, 
who married E. A. Kamp and resides in 
Webster Grove, Slissouri ; Louisa, of Wash- 
ington; Ed. C, of St. Louis; and Miss Minnie, 
who is at home. 

After the termination of his school days, 
Mr. Herkstroeter learned the trade of cutter 
in his father's shop and with the exception 
of two years spent in St. Louis, where he 
was also engaged in the tailoring business, 
lie continued as an assistant to his father 
until his retirement to assume the duties of 



postmaster of Washington. In his political 
conviction Mr. Herkstroeter is a stanch and 
stalwart Republican and stands high in party 
councils. He served as councilman for the 
Fourth ward for two years and was a mem- 
ber of the county Republican central com- 
mittee and acted as its treasurer for the 
space of six years, being ever ready to do 
au.\1;hiug, to go anywhere for the good of 
the cause with which he is aligned. He was 
appointed postmaster on July 15, 1908, by 
President Roosevelt (in vacation) and was 
re-eommissioued by President Taft, Decem- 
ber 14, 1908, for a term of four years, and 
he has given satisfactory service as a serv- 
ant of Uncle Sam. 

Mr. Herkstroeter laid the foundation of a 
hapi^y home life when, on October 28, 1905, 
he was united in marriage to Miss May 
Werner, daughter of Charles H. Werner. 
Their family history corresponds in several 
points, for Mrs. Herkstroeter 's father is also 
a tailor and by birth a German. The two 
children of the Herkstroeter household are 
daughters — Leona and Helen. The subject 
takes pleasure in his relations with the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows. 

Herbert Pryor. In considering what 
Herbert Pryor, superintendent of public 
schools, has done for Keuuett it is onlj' neces- 
sary to i-ecall the progress that the schools 
have made under his regime. 

Herbert Pryor -was born in Pike county, 
Missouri, August 11, 1879. His boyhood was 
for the most part spent in Paynesville, where 
he was educated in the public schools. He 
then attended the local academy and later 
the Missouri State University. He had be- 
gun to teach when he was only eighteen years 
of age and woi-ked his ^\ay through college. 
He taught in Pike county, being assistant 
principal of the academy and principal of 
the public schools of Paynesville for three 
years. He came to Kennett as superintend- 
ent in the fall of 1906 and has just closed 
the fifth year of his work here. The public 
school has an enrollment of seven hundred 
pupils, with a corps of sixteen teachei-s. The 
course is of high grade and is accredited in 
the university. The class of 1911 was the 
sixth to graduate. All the teachers have had 
normal training and they are almost all home 
teachers; it is the aim of Superintendent 
Pryor to train the gi-aduates that they may 
be prepared to fill vacancies in the staff of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



599 



teachers as they occur. During the last five 
years the salaries of the teachers have nearly 
doubled and six additional teachers have been 
installed. During the past five years the high 
school has increased from seventeen pupils 
to eighty -six. The seating capacity of the 
old building is not sufficient to accommodate 
the additional pupils and a new high school 
building is contemplated. 

In June, 1908, Mr. Pryor married Miss 
Agnes Harrison, of Kennett, daughter of 
Dr. y. H. Harrison, now deceased. She is 
a teacher in the high school. Mr. and Mrs. 
Pryor have one daugliter. Sue Elizabeth. 

ilr. Pryor is in the Methodist Episcopal 
church, while his wife belongs to the Presby- 
terians, thus both the churches are gainers. 
Mr. Pryor belongs to the order of Masons. 
He is desirous to be right up with the most 
approved modern methods of teaching and 
takes every opportunity to compare notes 
mth other educators. He attends the sum- 
mer terms of the University and is working 
for his A. M. degree. To the casual observer, 
the fact that the high school has increased 
its number of scholars might mean that the 
population is larger; if the percentage of 
increase were proportionately large in the 
graded schools that might be the natural in- 
ference. The fact is, however, that during 
the past six years the high school has in- 
creased its scholars much more than the 
graded schools. The fact of the matter is 
that the course has been made more prac- 
tical, so that whereas many pupils left school 
while they were half way up in the grades, 
now a large i^roportiou take the high school 
course. In this way Kennett is turning out 
boys and girls to become more efficient cit- 
izens than ever before, for the true use of 
education is to increase efficiency. JMr. 
Pryor is doing a great work. 

WiLLLiM R. Edgar. The senior partner of 
the law firm of Edgar & Edgar may be said 
to "come naturally" by his prominence in 
the enterprises for the development of Iron- 
ton, for he is an American of the old stock, 
the son and grandson of pioneers who set- 
tled and developed new country. The fam- 
ily came originally from Scotland and 
settled in Rahway, New Jersey, in 1720. 
They gave more than one soldier to the Amer- 
ican cause, during the Revolution. Some- 
thing over a century later — in 1830 — William 
R. Edgar, father of the present William R., 



Sr., married aud went to Tipton, Cedar 
county, Iowa. His wife was Rebecca Tich- 
enor, a Presbyterian of English descent and 
a native of Lebanon, Ohio. They were suc- 
cessful in the new country, where they en- 
gaged in farming. It was in Tipton that 
William R. Edgar was born in 1851 and 
there that his mother died. 

In 1866 the family moved to Iron county, 
where the father continued his work of farm- 
ing until his death in 1879. The son Wil- 
liam R. is the only surviving member of that 
family. Mr. Edgar was educated at Ar- 
cadia College. He graduated from that in- 
stitution in 1871, during the presidency of 
General L. M. Lewis, a noted divine and a 
lawyer of unusual eloquence. Four years 
later he graduated from the law department 
of Washington University. He then taught 
for three years in Arcadia College and was 
one year principal of the fronton public 
schools. Since 1879 he has devoted his en- 
tire attention to the practice of law. He 
was a partner of the late J. W. Emerson, 
formerly one of Ironton's prominent law- 
yers. Later he was with George W. Benton 
for one year. The present law firm was or- 
ganized April 10, 1911. In addition to their 
extensive library, Edgar and Edgar have a 
complete set of abstracts of Iron county. 

i\Ir. Edgar has served several terms as 
prosecuting attorney and during president 
Cleveland's first administration was four and 
a half years receiver of the U. S. land office, 
then located at fronton but now removed 
to Springfield. He has always been a power 
in the Democratic party of the county and 
has been a delegate to several national con- 
ventions and at the last election was presi- 
dential elector. 

He married Miss S. P. Whitworth, daugh- 
ter of the late I. G. Whitworth, mentioned 
elsewhere in this work. She was born in 
Ii-on county and educated at Arcadia Col- 
lege. Mr. and ]\Irs. Edgar have five chil- 
dren : Maude married Lieutenant Jurich, of 
the U. S. Army Cavalry, and since his death 
in San Francisco in 1908 she has resided in 
Ironton. William R., Jr. of the firm of Edgar 
& Edgar, was educated in Ironton and in the 
Benton law school of St. Louis. He was 
chief clerk in the law department of the 
Missouri-Pacific Railroad, under General At- 
torney M. L. Clardy. He resigned this posi- 
tion to form the present partnership. There 
are two other sons, James D., aged twenty- 



600 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



one, a graduate of the Western Military 
Academy, and Robert Lee, aged eleven. The 
other daughter. Miss Mary C, is also at 
home. 

Mr. Edgar is president of the Iron County 
Bank of Ironton, organized in 1897. For 
the tirst year of its existence Mr. I. 6. Whit- 
worth was president, but since that time Mr. 
Edgar has held the office continuously. He 
is no less prominent socially than profession- 
ally. He is master of the Star of the West 
Lodge, No. 133, A. F. & A. M. The son is 
also a member of the A. F. & A. M. 

John A. Pelts. The Pelts family is one 
of the best knoAvn of the old Dunklin county 
families and a citizen who bears the name 
with credit as one loyal to the best interests 
of the comnuinity is John A. Pelts, a man of 
quiet though forceful character, a native son 
of the county and an agriculturist, whose 
farm of eighty acres he redeemed from the 
virgin forest and brought to a high state of 
improvement. Mr. Pelts, who is a son of 
that prominent farmer-citizen, the late 
Joseph Pelts, of whom more extended men- 
tion is made on other pages of this record, 
was born March 20. 1857, at the family home- 
stead situated not far distant from his pres- 
ent comfortable home in the vicinity of Vin- 
cent, Dunklin county, Missouri. Here he 
was reared and in the district school received 
his education. In choosing a vocation he 
followed in the paternal footsteps and since 
young manhood has engaged in farming. He 
"has expended much time and labor upon his 
farm, which is new land and which he 
cleared and has brought to a fine state of im- 
provement. 

I\Ir. Pelts was married September 16, 
1884, the young woman to become his wife 
being ]\Iiss Lou Cook, who was born at Nash- 
ville, Tennessee, July 23, 1864, the daughter 
of Jesse S. and Nancy J. (Sparks) Cook. The 
father was a Union soldier and one of the 
martyrs of the "Great Conflict," his death 
upon the battlefield occurring in the month 
of September, 1864. He was a young man 
at the time. The widow removed with her 
two children, Lou, now Mrs. Pelts, and 
Thomas M., residing in Stoddard county, 
from Tennessee to Alabama in 1866, and 
there she resided until 1874, when she came 
• to Clarkton, Dunklin county, Missouri. In 
this state she lived for a good many years, 
being well-kno^^'Tl and highly respected in 



the community in which she made her home. 
The demise of this good woman occurred in 
January, 1900, at the home of her daughter, 
her years numbering sixty-two at the time 
of her summons to the Great Beyond. She 
was a member of the Missionary Baptist 
church. 

To Mr. and ilrs. Pelts have been born six 
children, an enumeration of the number be- 
ing as follows : The oldest children. Alma 
and Osa, were twins ; Osa died in infancy, 
and Alma is now the wife of David Brandon, 
of Waco, Texas. Rachel is the wife of 
Joseph Nesler, of Vincent, Missouri. Miss 
Eulah and Lee Shelton are at home and Ray 
died at the age of one year. 
. Mr. Pelts was previously married to Miss 
Mary Taylor, who died some twenty-eight 
years since, leaving one son, AVilliam T., 
now a farmer residing near Vincent, Mis- 
souri. This young man took as his wife Miss 
Alice Stephens and they share their pleasant 
home with three sons, namely: Oakley, Al- 
ton and Herbert. 

In the question of polities John A. Pelts 
has always been a firm supporter of Demo- 
cratic policies and principles and like every 
intelligent voter he endeavors to become 
familiar with all matters effecting the public 
welfare. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Woodmen of the World, of Caruth, Missouri, 
ilrs. Pelts is a member of the Circle at 
Caruth and also of the Missionary Baptist 
church. 

Joseph Pelts. For many years, more 
than half a century in fact, one of the best- 
known, best-liked and most influential men 
of this section was the late Joseph Pelts, 
whose identification with Dunklin county 
dated from that day in 1S54 when, wearing 
"the rose of youth upon him." he took up 
his residence within the county. By voca- 
tion an agriculturist, he was a, man of many 
interests and it is characteristic of his energy 
and enthusiasm that at the age of seventy 
years he organized a stock company at Ken- 
nett for gold-mining and was on his way to 
the gold-fields at or near Alton. Missouri, 
when his death occurred and the company 
lost its leading spirit. 

He was a veteran of the Civil war. and, 
although by birth a Hoosier, the years of his 
residence in this state prior to the "Great 
Conflict" so enlisted his sympathies with the 
institutions of the South that he gave his 




J^^'^^^^ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



601 



services to the Army of the Confederacy. 
He and the late Robert H. Douglass were 
comrades in the same company, and neither 
of them ever lost interest in reviewing the 
stirring, but lamentable experiences of the 
dark days of the '60s. The death of this 
gentleman occurred at Doniphan in the win- 
ter of 1906-07, but his memory will long re- 
main green, recalling the poet's words: 

"To live in hearts we leave behind. 
Is not to die." 

Joseph Pelts was born in Indiana in the 
'30s and passed his boyhood and early youth 
in that state, there receiving his public school 
education. In 1851, when about seventeen 
years of age, with his parents and the other 
members of the family he removed to Dun- 
klin county, ilissouri, making the journey 
overland by team and locating at fii-st near 
Clarkton. His parents were William and 
Mary Pelts. The father was a horseman who 
handled thoroughbreds and racers and who 
was a well-known figure in Clarkton and its 
neighborhood. 

Joseph Pelts adopted agriculture as his 
life work and in due time married, his chosen 
lady being Martha Baker, a native of this 
county and a daughter of James B. and Dru- 
silla Baker, Dunklin county pioneers and 
fai'mers. This admirable woman died at the 
old home at about the age of fifty-five years, 
but two of her sisters are living, namely : 
Mrs. Delilah Hicks and ilrs. Esther Gorgas, 
both of Dunklin county. Both Joseph Pelts 
and his wife were members of the ]Mission- 
ary Baptist church, and the former was a 
stalwart Democrat, who gave unswerving al- 
legiance to the party and participated in its 
political bouts with interest. They became 
the parents of a family of nine children, 
eight of whom were sons and one a daughter, 
and of which number four brothers are liv- 
ing at the present time, namely : John A., 
Robert A., Joseph E. and Charles Lee. The 
deceased children are: James W. (eldest in 
order of birth), Nathaniel D., George R., 
Lewis and Frances E. 

When Joseph Pelts arrived in Missouri 
many of the difficult conditions which were 
the portion of the pioneer still prevailed. 
There were no near markets and he hauled 
his produce to Cape Girardeau, reciuiriug 
eight days with ox teams to make the round 
trip. Elk, deer and the like were abundant 
and he made tine use of his opportunities, be- 
ing a great hunter. He was a man of dis- 



tinct personality and public-spirit and well 
worthy of representation in this volume de- 
voted to the makers of Southeastern Mis- 
souri. 

Ch.\bles Lee Pelts, a well-known farmer 
in Dunklin county, began in a small way 
but has been very successful. He was born 
in Dunklin county, Missouri, on the place 
upon which he now lives, on January 3, 1874, 
and he is" a son of Joseph Pelts, of whom 
more extended mention is made on other 
pages of this work. He went to -school at 
Shady Grove and lived on the farm with his 
father, his mother having died when Charles 
was very young. When he was .sixteen his 
father married again and Charles then be- 
gan to work around on the different farms. 
Up to the time when he was twenty-one he 
had earned very little and spent what he did 
make. At the end of eight years he owned 
forty acres of land, having bought from his 
father the farm where he was born and spent 
his childhood days. At the time he took the 
farm it was very much run down, but he at 
once set to work to improve it. He built' 
fences, put up a good house and now owns 
one hundred and fifty acres of land, on which . 
he raises cotton, corn and peas and cattle. 

When he was twenty-one years of age Mr. 
Pelts married Sadie Bedwell, who died on 
giving birth to her child. The child lived 
only a short time. Eight years later he mar- 
ried ]Minnie Bailey, by whom he had two chil- 
dren, — Lula and Ethel. On St. Valentine's 
Day, 1908, he married Eva Shailand, by 
whom he had one child, Lee Rogers. 

Mr. Pelts is a Democrat, and is always 
happy to see his party come out ahead. He 
may surely feel that he has done well, as he 
has made all that he has through his own ef- 
forts, except an interest in a forty acre farm. 
He is indeed to be congi-atulated on the suc- 
cess of his efforts and the community for 
the possession of so good a citizen. 

Horace D. Ev.vns. Through his own char- 
acter and accomplishment Horace D. Evans, 
cashier of the Lead Belt Bank, at Bonne 
Terre, St. Francois county, has well upheld 
the prestige of a name that has been identi- 
fied with the annals of Missouri history for 
more than a century. His father attained 
to marked distinction in public affairs and 
was called upon to represent this state in 
the state senate, besides which he served in 



602 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



other offices of distinctive public trust. He 
was loug one of the representative men of 
JMissouri and was a scion of one of the hon- 
ored i^ioneer families of this commonwealth. 

Horace Dell Evans was born at Steelville, 
the judicial center of Crawford county, I\Iis- 
souri, on the lltli of June, 1859, and is the 
fourth in order of birth of a family of six 
children, of whom two are now living. Wil- 
liam Evans, grandfather of him whose name 
initiates this review, was born in Jefferson 
county, Tennessee, on the 27th of December, 
1793, of sterling Welsh lineage, and the fam- 
ily was founded in America in the Colonial 
era of our national history. William Evans 
was about seven years of age at the time 
of his removal to Jlissouri with his aunt, 
and records show that on the 12th of June, 
1800, the family located in St. Francois county, 
on the site of the present thriving little city 
of Farmington, the capital of the county. 
Here William Evans Mas reared to maturity 
under the scenes and influences of the pioneer 
epoch, and he gained his full quota of ex- 
perience in connection with life on the fron- 
tier. He married Miss ilahala George, and 
of their eight children Ellis G., father of the 
subject of this sketch, was the third in order 
of nativitj-. William Evans was a man of 
strong character and sterling integrity, so 
that he proved a potent factor in connection 
with the development of St. Francois county 
along both industrial and social lines. Here 
he continued to reside until his death, which 
occurred on the 31st of July, 1851, and his 
devoted wife was summoned to eternal rest 
on the 21st of September, 1872, their names 
meriting enduring place on the roll of the 
honored pioneers of southeastern Missoi;ri. 

Ellis G. Evans was boi'n on the family 
homestead at Big River Mills, St. Francois 
county, on the 10th of July, 1824, and his 
early education was secured in the common 
schools of the locality and period. His father 
was one of the early teachers in the schools 
of this county and was a prominent figure 
in educational aft'airs in this section of the 
state. Thus Ellis G. Evans had the privi- 
lege of receiving instruction from his honored 
father, who likewise was a man of superior 
intellectuality. His natural heritage of alert 
mentality was amplified b^^ his ovm appli- 
cation to reading and study and he became 
a man of exceptionally broad intellectual 
ken, mature judgment and well fortified 
opinions. As a youth he served an appren- 



ticeship to the carpenter's trade in the city 
of St. Louis, and through his work at his 
trade he laid the foundation for the sub- 
stantial success which he eventually gained 
in connection with the productive activities 
of life. It is worthy of record that he cast 
his fii-st vote, in 1845, in support of delegates 
to the convention which formulated a new 
constitution for the state. He finally en- 
gaged in the general merchandise business 
at Steelville, Crawford county, and he be- 
came prominently concerned with the in- 
dustrial and civic upbuilding of that section. 
He was one of those interested in the build- 
ing of the old Merrimac iron works near 
Steelville and his co-operation was given in 
the promotion of many other enterprises of 
impoi'tant order. 

]\Iajor Ellis G. Evans, both by reason of 
impregnable integrity and fine mental gifts, 
was well fitted for leadership in thought and 
action, and his interest in public affairs soon 
brought him into prominence in political af- 
fairs in his native state. When the dark 
cloud of civil war cast its pall over the na- 
tional horizon his loyalty to the Union was 
of the most perfervid order, and he became, 
in the climacteric period leading up to the 
great struggle between the north and south, 
one of the organizers of the Republican party 
in Missouri. He served as vice-president of 
the party's first state convention in Missouri, 
that of 1856, and he ever afterward con- 
tinued a stalwart advocate of the principles 
and policies for which the "grand old party" 
stood sponsor. He was a member of the 
IMissouri constitutional convention of 1865, 
when the institution of human slavery was 
forever prohibited in the state by the provi- 
sions of the new constitution. He gave ef- 
fective service in behalf of the Union dur- 
ing the progi-ess of the Civil war, as he served 
as major on the military staff of Governor 
Fletcher and was provost marshal and paj'- 
master at Rolla, this state, during the major 
part of the conflict through which the in- 
tegrity of the nation was perpetuated. In 
1866 he was elected to represent the twenty- 
second senatorial district of Slissouri in the 
United States senate, in which he served until 
1870, and in which he wielded most distinc- 
tive influence during the period of recon- 
struction in the south. In 1871 JMajor Evans 
was appointed register of the United States 
land office at Booneville, and shortly after 
his retirement from this office he endured 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



603 



a stroke of paralj'sis that rendered it im- 
possible for him to walk thereafter, though 
he retained his mental vigor unimpaired un- 
til the close of his long and useful life. Suh- 
sequeutly to enduring this affliction Senator 
Evans sei'ved twelve years as a member of 
the Republican state central committee and 
continued to exert i^otent influence in polit- 
ical affairs in the state, the while no man 
held to a higher degree the confidence and 
esteem of his associates, not only in political 
circles but also in all other relations of life. 
He was for some time editor of the State 
Times, published as the semi-oificial organ 
of the ilissouri legislature. He was a man 
who stood "'four square to every wind that 
blows, ' ' and his name is held in lasting honor 
in the state which represented his home 
throughout his life and to which his loyalty 
was ever of the most incisive order. He 
passed the closing years of his life at Cuba, 
Crawford county, w-here he died in 1889, se- 
cure in the high regard of all who knew 
him. His cherished and devoted wdfe was 
summoned to the life eternal in 1886, and of 
their six children one son and one daughter 
are now living. His marriage to iliss Emily 
H. Treece, a native of Ohio, was solemnized 
at Brush Creek, Crawford countj', Missouri, 
on the 20th of July, 1850, and his wife was 
a daughter of one of the honored pioneers 
of that section of the state. Both were con- 
sistent and zealous members of the ilethod- 
ist church. 

Horace D. Evans, whose name initiates this 
article, gained his early educational disci- 
pline in the public schools of Rolla and 
Booneville, and in the former place he en- 
tered upon an apprenticeship to the printer's 
trade, in the office of the Rolla IlcraJd. He 
familiai'ized himself with the esoteric mys- 
teries of the "art preservative of all arts" 
and incidentally gained a training that 
proved a most valuable supplement to his 
prior education. In 1879 he went to the 
city of St. Louis, where he was a clerical 
employe in the office of the city assessor 
and collector until 1883, when he received 
an appointment to the railwaj' mail service, 
with which he thereafter continued to be 
identified for a period of thirteen years, as 
an efficient and valued employe. In 1896 he 
resigned his position and assumed the posi- 
tion of bookkeeper in the Farmers & IMiners 
Bank of Bonne Terre, where he has since 
maintained his home and where he has risen 



to prominence as one of the representativ'e 
business men and influential citizens of St. 
Francois county. In 1899 he became asso- 
ciated in the organization of the Lead Belt 
Bank, of which he has since served as cashier 
and in which he is a stockholder. His effec- 
tive administration has had marked influence 
in the upbuilding of the substantial business 
of this popular institution, which bases its 
operations on a capital stock of fifteen thou- 
sand dollars and which is one of the solid 
banking houses of this section of the state. 

Mr. Evans has also identified himself with 
other enterprises that have conserved indus- 
trial and commercial stability and progress 
and as a citizen he is most liberal and public- 
spirited, — ever ready to lend his influence 
and co-operation in the furtherance of meas- 
ures tending to enhance material and civic 
prosperity. He is treasurer of the Bonne 
Terre Building & Loan Association, is a mem- 
ber of the directorate of the Bonne Terre 
Lumber Company, and is a director of the 
Bank of Herculaneum, at Herculaneum, Jef- 
ferson county. He is president of the Com- 
mercial Club of Bonne Terre, an organization 
of high civic ideals and one that has been 
most influential in promoting the best inter- 
ests of the thriving little city. 

In politics Mr. Evans has never swerved 
from the faith in which he was reared and 
he is aligned as a stalwart in the local camp 
of the Republican party, in whose cause he 
has given yeoman service. He was elected 
chairman of the Republican county commit- 
tee of St. Francois county in 1904 and was 
re-elected in 1906 and 1908. He seems to 
have inherited much of his father's discrimi- 
nation in the maneuvering of political forces 
and gave most efifective service along this 
line during his incumbency of the position 
noted, as has he also as a member, from the 
state at large, of the Missouri state central 
committee of his party, wdth which he has 
been thus actively identified since 1904. He 
served five years as a member of the board 
of education of Bonne Terre, and here he is 
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and 
the Knights of Pythias. Both he aiid his 
wife hold membership in the Congregational 
church in their home town, and are liberal 
in the support of the various departments 
of its work. 

On the 28th of December, 1887, Mr. Evans 
was united in wedlock to Miss Annie Towi, 
a daughter of William Towl, a prominent 



604 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



merchant and lumber manufacturer at An- 
napolis, Iron county, this state. Mr. and 
Mrs. Evans have two children, Emily T. and 
Claire, both at home. 

Joseph A. Mintbup. No member of the 
business community has a greater responsi- 
bility than the banker, and any comiiuiuity 
or city is much to be congratulated which 
has at the head of its finances men of thor- 
ough training, true worth and moral depend- 
ability. No banker of southeastern Missouri 
is more closely typical of what is reciuired 
in the financial manager and leader to inspire 
and retain business and commercial confi- 
dence than Joseph A. Mintrup, cashier of 
the Citizens' Bank of Union, Missouri. From 
every possible viewpoint Mr. Mintrup is a 
man of the finest citizenship, public spirited, 
altruistic, ever ready to give his support to 
all measures likely to result in general bene- 
fit. He is one of the standard bearers of 
the local Democratic party and as a public 
official has a record of the most meritorious 
character. He was for a number of years 
postmaster of Washington and for twelve 
successive yeare held the ofSce of county 
clerk of Franklin county with credit to him- 
self and honor to his constituents. The 
length of time he held this important posi- 
tion is sufficient in itself to show how well 
he performed its duties, and doubtless much 
further public usefulness lies before him, for 
he is a man in the prime of life. By his 
private life as well as his public services he 
has endeared himself to the people of Frank- 
lin county, for he g:i'ew up in the county from 
the age of five years and his whole career 
is an open book. 

Jlr. Mintrup was born in St. Louis county, 
ilissoui-i, April 28, 1862. He is of German 
stock, his father, Francis Mintrup, having 
been a native of the German state of Han- 
over, now a part of the province of Prussia, 
where his birth occurred in 1822. Like the 
majority of his countrymen he was of the 
stuff of which the best citizenship is made, 
and bis stalwart, fine Teutonic characteristics 
have come to Ins son as a heritage. He and 
a bi'other, Joseph, came to the decision to 
make a hazard of new fortunes in the land 
across the Atlantic in their youth ancl saying 
farewell for all time to their parents and 
brothers and sisters they sailed, two brave 
and adventurous spirits, for America, some 
years previous to the outbreak of the Civil 



war. In course of time they found their 
way to IMissouri and located in Washington, 
where they became useful citizens, married 
and reared families and both now sleep be- 
neath the sod of that section. Francis Min- 
trup, ideal patriot and lover of liberty, was 
in sympathy with the Union and when the 
long-lowering war cloud broke in all its fury 
in the early "60s of the nineteenth century, 
he enlisted in a ilissouri regiment of the 
Federal army, only served a very short time 
when discharged on account of disability. In 
1867 he established himself in business at 
Washington with his brother, and together 
they operated a planing-mill until the de- 
mise of PYancis Mintrup in 1869. The young 
woman whom he chose as his wife and the 
bearer of his name was Miss Maiy Narup, 
an admirable lady who has survived her hus- 
band for these many years, making her resi- 
dence at the family home. The children are 
as follows : Miss Annie, of Washington, Mis- 
souri; Joseph A., of this notice; Kate, wife 
of Edward Jasper, of Washington ; and 
Henry and Augiisf, of Chicago, Illinois. 

In the Washington public schools and in 
the well-known Catholic institution at St. 
Mary's, Kansas, Joseph A. Minfi'up received 
his education. When a youth he learned the 
printer's trade on the Franklin County Ob- 
server at Washington, and proving faithful 
and efficient in little things, he in course of 
time accjuired a partnership in the paper and 
eventually became the editor. He evinced no 
inconsiderable gifts as an exponent of the 
Fourth Estate, but sold the plant and en- 
tered mercantile life, joining the J. L. Hake 
Shoe Company at Washington and becom- 
ing secretary of the same. He remained 
thus associated until the lieginning of Presi- 
dent Cleveland's second administration, when 
he received the appointment of assistant post- 
master of Washington, and a year later was 
appointed chief of the office. He -filled the 
position until June, 1898, when he was re- 
placed by a Republican and not long after- 
ward engaged in tlie real estate and insur- 
ance business. 

At the fall election in 1898 Mr. Mintrup 
was chosen county clerk on the Democratic 
ticket, overcoming a Republican majority of 
several hundred and winning the office with 
one hundred and seventy-five votes to spare. 
His first service of four years so justified the 
confidence of the people that he was reelected 
for another term, which was succeeded in 




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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



605 



turn hy another. He retired from otifice iu 
January, 1911, with twelve years of suecessful 
political life to his credit. Resuming private 
life, he entered the domain of finance, becom- 
ing cashier of the Citizens Bank of Union, 
March 1, 1911, and in addition to this office he 
is secretary of the official board. 

]\Ir. Mintrup married in Washington, Mis- 
souri, December 29, 1891, his wife being Miss 
Amelia Wehrmann, whose father, Louis 
Wehrmann, was for many years postmaster 
of Washington and a leading citizen of that 
place. He was a German by nativity, a 
Republican in politics, and he was engaged 
in the real estate 'business. The children of 
Mr. and Mrs. Mintrup are five iu number 
and as follows : Mamie, Louis, Lillie, Frances 
and Doherty. The family is a popular one 
and the home is the center of a gracious and 
attractive hospitality. Jlr. Jlintrup is a com- 
municant of the Catholic church and a mem- 
ber of the Knights of Columbus and the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.' 

J. Thompson Blanton. In that particu- 
lar portion of Iron county in which his home 
is situated and where he is best known, J. 
Thompson Blanton, farmer, stockman and 
veteran of the Civil war, stands as one of the 
important and highly esteemed members of 
his community. Here he has resided for 
many years, since 1858, to be exact, and 
although not a native of the county, he has 
resided in the state all his life with the ex- 
ception of a period spent in farming in the 
state of Nevada and during liis war service. 
The attractive Blanton homestead is situated 
some seven miles southeast of Ironton and 
is one of the highly improved estates of Iron 
county. 

Mr. Blanton was born in Madison county, 
Missouri, on the Saint Francois river, Octo- 
ber 24, 184.3, and is the son of Benjaman F. 
and Ailsey (Berryman) Blanton. The 
mother was a niece of the Rev. J. C. Berry- 
man, a detailed sketch of whose life appears 
elsewhere in this work. She died in 1869. 
aged about seventy years. Her father, whose 
farm included vrhat is novr Arcadia, was 
Josiah Berryman, a prominent man of his day. 
He came to Missouri at the same time as his 
clergyman brother, who was the founder of 
Arcadia Colleee. Ben.iaman F. Blanton was 
born in Lincoln county and removed to Mad- 
ison county as a young man, locating on the 
Saint Francois river, near Wayne eountv, 
that being the scene of his marriage. He 



subsequently removed to Arcadia Valley and 
died in Dunklin county, at the age of about 
seventy years. He whose name inaugurates 
this record is the second in order of birth in 
a family of ten children, of whom four are now 
living. The other surviving members of the 
family are : Mrs. Michael Deguira, of Freder- 
icktown; William H., of the vicinity of that 
place ; and Moman, who is a Fredericktown 
resident. 

Mr. Blanton passed the roseate days of boy- 
hood and youth in Madison county, and there 
received his schooling. When about seven- 
teen years of age he came to Iron county, 
which has ever since been the scene of his 
residence, with the exception of the time spent 
in the far west, above alluded to. He en- 
gages in general farming and also in the stock 
business, and in lioth departments has met 
with success, his methods being up-to-date and 
well-directed. When the Nation went dovni 
into the dread Valley of Decision in the '60s, 
Mr. Blanton enlisted in the Confederate army, 
as a member of Company C, Ninth Missouri 
Infantry, his enlistment taking place in 
Arkansas. The .young man of nineteen was 
firmly convinced of the logic of the severing 
of the states from the national government if 
its rulings were again.st their conviction and 
he proved a loyal and valiant soldier. He 
participated in several engagements, but was 
fortunate enough not to receive a wound. 
When peace was restored to the stricken 
country, he went to Nevada and there for 
four years engaged in farming, in a rich 
valley, four hundred miles south of Salt 
Lake. The charms of Missouri remained 
strong with him, however, throughout his 
period of absence and he returned to Iron 
county, and bought the property upon which 
he has ever since resided. This consists of 
three hundred and twenty acres and is val- 
uable and well situated. 

In October. 1871, Mr. Blanton was united 
in marriage to IMiss Cai'oline F. Kinkead, 
who was born in Saint Francois county, in 
October, 1852, and is a daughter of Andrew 
B. and Rebecca C. (Elgin) Kinkead, who 
came to the state in their youth and were 
married in Saint Francois county, which con- 
tinued to be their home for the rest of their 
lives. The father died before the Civil War, 
but the mother survived nntil February, 
1906, when she passed away at the age of 
ninety years. He was a tanner and farmer 
by occupation. He was born in Kentucky 
and the mother in Virginia, and they were 



606 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^MISSOURI 



both consistent members of the Christian 
church. Mrs. Blanton is one of a family of 
seven children, but of this number only one 
brother, Nicholas A., a farmer in St. Fran- 
cois county, survives in addition to herself. 

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Blanton has 
been blessed by the birth of the following 
children : Beatrice is the wife of M. P. 
Gregory, of iladison county and the mother 
of two children, Helen and Corena ; Pauline 
died at the age of two years; Benjamin B., 
deputy sheriff of Iron county, is a citizen of 
Ironton ; Gerard, a farmer of iladison 
county, married Miss Belle Freeland and 
their two daughters are Winifred and Char- 
lene ; Courtright R. is at home ; Sophie is 
the wife of James L. Freeland, a farmer of 
Iron county, and their two sons are Nicholas 
and Josiah ; M. Deguire is at home, as are 
also the twin brothers, Langdou E. and 
James E.. and the youngest meinlier of the 
family, Ailsey Litia. 

In evidence of the zeal and energy of Mr. 
Blanton is the fact that his farm bad but 
twenty acres cleared when he bought it and 
at the present day some two hundred acres 
are under cultivation. It is one of Iron 
county's finest farms, is adorned T^nth a fine, 
commodious dwelling, and its buildings and 
fences are of the most substantial character. 
In the matter of politics IMr. Blanton has 
always been a Democrat, having given his 
suffrage to the party since his earliest voting 
days. He is a member of the IMa.sonic order 
of Blanton and exemplified its high ideals in 
his own living. Mrs. Blanton retains her 
membership in the Cbristian church of 
Libertyville. Saint Francois county, and the 
various members of this popular family en- 
joy high standing in the community in which 
their interests are centered. 

JiMER E. Rtce. Among the citizens of 
southeast IMissouri who began their careers 
dependent entirely on their own ability and 
energy and have since attained positions of 
influence and independence, one of the best 
known examples in Dunklin county is Mr. 
Jimer E. Rice, the banker. 

He is a native son of Dunklin county, 
where he was born March 1, 1870. He at- 
tended the county schools, and then entered 
the State Normal, where he studied part of 
four years. He had assistance in ouly the 
first year and then tauebt to earn the money 
for the rest of his education. After grad- 
uating he taught four years, and made him- 
self known as a reliable, intelligent young 



man w"orthy of larger responsibilities. He 
was then made deputy county collector, and 
after four years in that ofSce was elected 
by the people of the county to the office of 
county treasurer, and served two terms. 

He was a resident of Kennett practically 
all his life until he located in Hornersville. 
Buying an interest in the Bank of Horners- 
ville in 1908, he moved to this town and en- 
tered upon his duties as cashier and member 
of the board of directors. This bank was or- 
ganized by IMr. Langdou in 1901 and con- 
ducted as a private institution five years, 
being incorporated in 1906. It is one of the 
three banks south of Kennett, and its Inisi- 
ness is growing rapidly. The capital has 
been increased from five to ten thousand dol- 
lars, and in the last five years it has ac- 
cumulated a surplus of five thousand dol- 
lars. Besides his active connection with the 
bank, I\Ir. Rice is a dealer in real estate on 
his own account, and his investments have 
been very profitable. He is the owner of 
farm land three miles south of Hornersville 
and some near Kennett, and has considerable 
town property. All this has been the re- 
wards of his own efforts and business man- 
agement, and few citizens of the county can 
point to a better record of success than he. 
In politics he is Democratic, and was the 
choice of that party when he served as a 
count.v official. He and his family are mem- 
bers of the IMethodist church. South. 

Jlr. Rice married, June 2.3. 1895, IMiss Lil- 
lian J. Brower. Their children are : Nola, 
born in June. 1896 ; and David B.. born No- 
vember 19, 1907. Fraternally ilr. Rice is a 
member of the Ma.sonic lodge at Horners- 
ville. 

Edw.vrd W. Flentge. How difficult it is 
for a young man to choose the line of work 
he intends to follow throughout his life. 
What a little thing will often cause him to 
decide and something just as small may cause 
liim to change his mind. A single stone may 
turn the rivulet of water to the right or to 
the left. It is sometimes said that Providence 
shapes our careers. LTndoubtedly something 
outside of ourselves has something to do with 
the general direction of a man's life, but 
the getting on is a purely private aft'air. 
Each individual is fated to work out his 
own career. If he is qi^alified by nature he 
cannot be kept down ; if deficient he cannot 
by hook or crook be boosted up. Opposition, 
adversity and hard luck are powerless to 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



607 



keep a big man in a small place and no set 
of outside conditions can keep a small man 
in a big place. The best we can do is the 
least we can offer. Such has been and is 
the maxim of Edward ^V. Flentge, the post- 
master of Cape Girardeau. He lins attained 
a prominence in the county and his high po- 
sition has been reached by reason of his nat- 
ural capabilities, united with the efforts he 
has untiringly put forth. 

He was born in St. Louis, ]\Iissouri, March 
2, 1863. His grandfather, William Flentge, 
was born in Geruiany, there received his edu- 
catiou and was married. He was a cabinet 
maker by trade, but was not making very 
much money. He decided to come to Amer- 
ica, bringing his wife and son with him. 
He came direct to Cape Girardeau, but not 
meeting with success right away he moved 
to Jacksou, where he lived the rest of his 
life. His son, Henry, spent the first eight 
years of his life in his fatherland, when 
he came to America with his parents. He 
attended school in Cape Girardeau and learned 
the carjieutering trade. When he was only 
seventeen he was injured by a fall and was 
sent back to Germany. As soon as he was 
well again he felt that he should like to study 
medicine. He attended a medical school, gTad- 
uating from Marx College. After he returned 
to America he located at Cape Girardeau where 
he practiced medicine in Wayne and Cape 
Girardeau counties. During the Civil war 
he moved to St. Louis, where he established 
a large practice. In the fall of 1875 he 
moved to Texas, locating in McLennan county. 
He remained there for about two years and 
again moved to Rancho, Texas, thence to 
Oregon and California, where he died in 
1903, being over seventy years old. While 
he was in Germany studying medicine he 
had met Teresa Heisen, a young German 
girl. They were married, she returning to 
America with him. She lived to be only 
forty-eight years old, leaving behind her 
three sons and her husljand. At present only 
two of the sons are living, of whom Edward 
is the second. ]Mr. Flentge was a successful 
physician, but he was of a roving turn of 
mind, not staying in one place long enough 
to ln;ild up a very large practice. 

Edward's boyhood days were spent in 
Wayne and Cape Girardeau counties, where 
he attended the public school. When he was 
twelve years old he went with his parents 
to Texas and attended school there for about 
two years. When he was seventeen vears old 



he came back to Missouri alone, attending 
the state normal school and locating at Cape 
Girardeau. At the close of his school life 
he became a clerk in the store of H. P. Pier- 
ronett in Cape Girardeau, remaining with 
him in different capacities until December, 
1888, At that time he engaged in business 
for himself, forming a partnership with Mr, 
W^ood, the style of the firm being Flentge 
& Wood, They did a general merchandise 
business doing a flourishing trade until 1907, 
On the first of June in that year Mr. Flentge 
sold out his share of the business and be- 
came connected with the Cape Girardeau 
Brass Book Company, being secretary of the 
same. Since then he has filled many posi- 
tions of honor, being at this time president 
of the Rock Tobacco Company of Cape 
Girardeau and secretary and ti'easurer of 
the Painter Realty Compan.y. On the nine- 
teenth of December, 1903, he was appointed 
postmaster, having held the position ever 
since. He is a member of the Commercial 
Club at Cape Girardeau and was its vice 
president for several years. 

In 1884 he married Miss Sadie E. Taylor 
a native of Cape Girardeau to which union 
one sou and two daughters were born. The 
daughters died in infancy. John E., the 
son, married ilabel Hash and is now a resi- 
dent of Cape Girardeau. 

Mr. Flentge is a meuiber of the ^Masonic 
order. He is a Republican in political be- 
lief and has always been a most active worker 
for and with his party. He was a member 
of the city council for two terms and was 
two terms county collector. In 1906 he was 
a candidate for railroad and warehouse com- 
missioner, but the Democratic candidate was 
elected. Mr. Flentge has been practically a 
life long resident of southeastern ili.ssouri 
and has always been active in the Inisiness 
and political life of the state. Unlike his 
father, he found the greatest satisfaction in 
remaining in one place, feeling that by so 
doing he could not only gain a better living 
for himself and his family, but he could form 
more. lasting friendships, he could make his 
presence felt in the community and thereby 
be given opportunities to be of use in the 
county and state. Such has been Mr. 
Flentge 's desire, to .serve his fellow citizens 
and to fulfil to the best of his ability the 
duties wliicli lu- undei'look. 

T. R. R. Ely. The IIonoral)lc T. R. R. 
Ely, one of the most prominent lawyers in 



608 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



the county, has had wide and varied experi- 
ence in his profession. A man with strong 
opinions on all public questions, he has al- 
ways had the courage to express them. "While 
in the legislature he had the most exalted 
views of his office and the obligations it in- 
volved. He was not there to pander to public 
sentiment or so to trim his sails that he 
might arouse a popular feeling among the 
people of his district, but to represent the 
people as he felt they should be represented. 
He felt that if it were otherwise and he were 
to be restricted in his views and their ex- 
pression and obliged to wait to find out 
wliether they pleased the people or not, he 
would infinitely rather go back to private 
life and become a private citizen, with the 
right to express his views untrammeled and 
un(|uestioned by anybody on earth, with the 
right to try to formulate public sentiment 
along the lines of his ideas. A man with 
such decided views could not fail to be an 
important factor with his party and in the 
community in general. 

T. R. R. Ely was born in Atchison county, 
Missouri, January 19, 1860, where his boy- 
hood days were spent until he reached the 
age of sixteen. He attended the Stuartsville, 
De Kalb county, school and the academy 
conducted by the Reverend Perry of the 
Presbyterian church. He then went to West- 
minster College at Fulton, where he stayed 
two years, taking a general course, followed 
by a law coui-se at the State University, grad- 
uating in the class of 1881. As soon as 
he was graduated he came to Kennett, upon 
the recommendation of Joseph Russell, a fel- 
low student, \vho is now a prominent mem- 
ber of congress. The bar was at that time 
mainly composed of outside men from other 
counties, but it was a rich practice. The 
following year, in 1882, Mr. Ely was elected 
prosecuting attorney and during his term 
of office he did such good work that two 
years later, at the next election, he was re- 
elected. The country around Dunklin was 
very wild at that time, much wickedness go- 
ing on in, the county. During his term Mr. 
Ely sent fort.y-four men to the penitentiary, 
reall.v the enforcement of law in that part 
of the country began with his regime; from 
that time on there was a complete change, 
the better class of people standing by him 
and giving him the advantage of their sup- 
port. They had only needed a leader, long 
having felt that a change was needed, but 



not having sufficient initiative to go ahead 
and make any change by themselves. In 
1886 ;Mr. Ely was elected to represent Dunk- 
lin count.v in the legislature. During his 
term of office he pushed the bill setting apart 
one-third of all revenues for the school sup- 
port, one of the most important acts of leg- 
islature. At the expiration of his term he 
resumed his practice in Kennett, having all 
the work he could possibly attend to. In 1904 
he was elected to the senate in the twenty- 
second senatorial district, including Dunk- 
lin, Butler, Ripley, Wayne, Curtis, Bollinger 
and Cape Girardeau counties. It is needless 
to sa.y that he worked hard, for he was so 
constituted that he could not undertake a 
thing and not go into it with all his might. 
It was through his energetic pushing that 
the aiipropriation of ten thousand dollars 
was made to make a topographical survey of 
the five swamp counties. The amount was 
expended by commission of the governor; 
this was the first step towards drainage in 
that district, resulting in some twenty-tive 
drainage districts being formed in Dunklin 
county alone. This simply aroused public 
interest, as at that time there was not a canal 
in existence. They have all ))een made since 
that first start. He was a member of the 
board of regents of the State Normal School 
at Cape Girardeau, at the time when the 
new school was being built. He always took 
the deepest interest in all matters pertain- 
ing to education and only resigned his posi- 
tion on the board to fill the position of sen- 
ator, where a wider scope was offered his 
capabilities. Since he left the senate he has 
devoted most of his time to his practice, be- 
ing a member of the firm of Ely, Kelso & 
Miller at Cape Girardeau, in addition to his 
own practice in Kennett. His aid is called 
for in most leading cases and the side that 
is fortunate enough to secure his services 
is pretty sure to come out ahead. He has 
been wonderfully successful in his practice. 
One would imagine that the Honorable T. 
R. R. Ely would have no time for anything 
but his law work, but such is not the case. 
He has been most active in politics all of 
his life, the Democrats having a strong ad- 
vocate in him. He was a delegate to the 
Denver Convention to nominate Bryan, the 
state committee obtaining his services as a 
stump speaker. He has an unusual gift of 
oratory : his language is excellent, but that 
is not the reason that his speeches are so 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .AIISSOURI 



609 



convincing; he never advocates anything that 
he does not believe in, and thus he puts his 
whole force into what he says. It is very 
hard for anyone to listen to him and not 
agree with him at least while he is talking. 
He has great executive ability and is vice 
president of the Bank of Kennett. He stands 
high in the ilasonie order, being a member 
of the Blue Lodge and of tlie Chapter at 
Kennett. of the Council at ]\Ialden and of 
the Commandery at Maiden. He is a past 
worshipful master in the Blue Lodge. He 
also belongs to the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and to the Jlodern Woodmen 
of America. He owns farm lands to the ex- 
tent of twenty-two hundred acres, having 
cultivated a great proportion of this land 
himself, it being wild when lie bought it. 
He rents most of the land to tenants, ■ but 
oversees some of it himself. He is a mem- 
ber of the Presbyterian church and in that 
as in everything else he has to do with he 
is an active worker. He has laid out two 
additions to Kennett, on which he has laid 
out lots and built residences. He only has 
fine homes on the addition, owning a beauti- 
ful place himself. All of these enterprises 
are in the nature of work, but Mr. Ely is 
just as enthusiastic about his recreations. He 
is of the opinion that his efficiency is in- 
creased by relaxation, which he takes prin- 
cipally in the form of hunting. He belongs 
to the club of West Kennett on the St. 
Francis river. Any man might be proud 
of the law practice that the Honorable T. R. 
R. Ely has built up and feel that that con- 
stituted k man's life work. His connection 
with education in the county would satisfy 
the amliition of the majority of people, while 
his political coiniections, both in the legis- 
lature and in the senate, would cause a less 
enterprising man to feel that he need do 
nothing else for the rest of his life. If he 
had not been such a successful lawyer, he 
would have made a reputation as a farmer. 
If he had done nothing but handle his addi- 
tion in Kennett he might still feel that he 
had done something for his county, Imt when 
all these different activities are combined in 
one man, the result is an all around man of 
whom his town, county and state are proud, 
whom his acquaintances are proud to know 
and to whom all are proud to take off their 
hats. There is no more useful member of 
the community than the Honorable T. R. R. 
Ely. 

Vol. 1—3 9 



Orton Colm.vn Lynch, superintendent of 
the public schools of Farmington, deserves 
credit as a strong element in the educational 
progress of the county. One of the most 
progressive, able and enlightened of educa- 
tors, he presents the potent combination of 
fine ideals and an executive capacity which 
contrives to make realities out of them. Since 
the lieginning of his career in the judicial 
center of Saint Francois county — 1907 — a 
great improvement has been made in the 
local school system; a fine new high school 
building erected; and the higher department 
of the schools raised from an unrecognized 
condition to a fully accredited high school 
with full recognition. 

Professor Lynch was born in Harrison 
county. West Virginia, on the 20th day of 
April, 1874, his father, Hiram Lynch, hav- 
ing been a native of the same locality. The 
father, who was at different times in his ca- 
reer a teacher and educator, was reared on a 
large cattle farm which belonged to his 
father. He attended the public schools of 
his locality and period and also for two years 
was a student at a college in Lebanon, Ohio. 
He engaged as a school teacher for a short 
time and then adopted farming as his occu- 
pation, continuing permanently as an expo- 
nent of the great basic industry. He was 
married in 1868 to Eleanor Williams, of 
Sycamore, West Virginia, daughter of John 
Williams, who answered to the double calling 
of farmer and Methodist circuit rider. To 
this union were bom six children, three of 
whom are living at the present time. The 
first Mrs. Lynch died in the early '80s, when 
the subject was a small boy, and in 1883 the 
father was married to Miss Flora IMaxwell, of 
Weston, West Virginia. Four children were 
the fruit of the second union. In 1885 the 
father removed with his family from West 
Virginia to Missouri and located in Fraklin 
county, where he again engaged in farming 
and where he is today located, secure in the 
enjoyment of the respect and confidence of 
the community. He is one of the stalwart sup- 
porters of the "Grand Old Party," as its 
admirers are pleased to call it ; he is a pop- 
ular member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and the American Order of 
United ' AVorkmen ; and he is a zealous and 
valued member of the IMethodist Episcopal 
church. 

Orton C. Lynch entered the Academy of 
West Virginia, at Weston, where he received 



610 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



his elementary educatiou, and after prose- 
cuting his studies at that place until about 
ten years of age he then attended the public 
schools in Franklin county, Missouri, until 
entering Carlton Institute, of Farmiugton, 
Missouri. After a period of study thei'e he 
became a student at the Missouri State Nor- 
mal at Warrensburg, and is continuing his 
work by courses in the University of Chi- 
cago, correspondence study department, Chi- 
cago, Illinois. In 1899 he received his degree 
(that of B. S. D.) at the Normal School and 
in addition to his other training he at- 
tended for one year the Missouri State Uni- 
versity at Columbia. A part of his educa- 
tiou had been interspersed with his actual 
pedagogical work and he had taught in va- 
rious schools, gaining the many advantages 
which only experience can give. After quite 
finishing his preparation he was for eight 
years connected with the public schools of 
Tipton, Missouri, four years as principal of 
the high school and four years as superin- 
tendent of the entire school system. He came 
to Farmington in 1907 to accept the position 
of superintendent here and this he retains 
at the present time, his work here having been 
of the most satisfactory character. In addi- 
tion to his general supervision he is instruc- 
tor in mathematics and science. The new 
high school building which he was materially 
instrumental in securing was finished in 1911 
and is a model of convenience and modern- 
ity. 

Professor Lynch was married on the 5th 
day of June, 1901, at AVarrensburg, Missouri, 
to Miss Mary G. Scott, of that place. Mrs. 
Lynch is a daughter of Rev. William G. Scott, 
a well-known Presbyterian minister. To 
their happy union has been born three sons, 
whose names are Orton, William and Wal- 
lace. 

In polities Professor Lynch is a liberal 
Prohibitionist, voting more for the man than 
party; he is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church ; and he is sufficiently social 
in nature greatly to enjoy his relations with 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
the Modern Woodmen of America. 

Albert L. Johnson. In a history devoted 
to the representative men and women of 
Southeastern Missouri who have contributed 
to its upbuilding and prosperity and whose 
lives reward closest inspection no one is 
more appropriately included than that fine 



citizen, the late Albert L. Johnson. Coming 
liere as a young man, full of vigor and enthu- 
siasm, he found his surroundings so congen- 
ial, his labors so fruitful, that he chose to 
make it a home for him and his family, and 
so remained throughout the remainder of a 
life that exceeded the psalmist's allotment by 
a number of years. In truth he resided in 
Dunklin county for over half a century, by 
his own unaided efforts becoming one of the 
extensive landholdei-s and prosijerous agri- 
culturists in the vicinity of Senath, and gain- 
ing and keeping unchallenged the respect 
and affection of the community in which he 
was so well known. A veteran of the Civil 
war, he met the trying conditions of the "Pe- 
riod of Reconstruction" with manly cour- 
age and frankness and was ever aligned with 
the most public spirited of his neighbors and 
there was nothing of public import at Senath 
and its district in which he was not helpfullj' 
interested. He was essentially a self-made 
man, at his arrival within the boundaries of 
Dunklin county having been poor in purse, 
but by his untiring industry and good man- 
agement acquiring a handsome competence. 
His demise occurred on the 18th day of Au- 
gust, 1911, he being universally mourned and 
regretted, and his memory will long remain 
green in this part of the state. 

Albert L. Johnson was born August 1, 
1835, on a farm in Union county, then Knox 
county, Tennessee. He remained amid the 
scenes of his birth until the age of fifteen 
years, acquiring an education in the free and 
subscription schools of the locality. About 
the year 1849 his parents removed to Gibson 
county, Tennessee, and there improved a 
farm, on which both spent their remaining 
days, the mother passing away in 1855. Al- 
though searcel3^ fifteen years of age at the 
time of the removal to Gibson county, that 
marked Mr. Johnson's introduction to the 
serious matter of earning his own livelihood, 
for his parents were in modest circumstances. 
For seven years he engaged in the hauling 
of freight with ox teams and in the summer 
seasons lent his assistance to the manifold 
tasks to be encountered upon his father's 
farm. There was little time to be a boy, but 
he learned the lessons of industry and self- 
reliance which proved so valuable to him in 
after .years. In the fall of 1859 he concluded 
to establish himself independently and came 
to Dunklin county, where he purchased one 
hundred and sixty acres of the land, which 
he owned at the time of his deatli, all of 





;«*, 




qA. X ;f^L 



\^'^yi^- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



611 



which, with the exception of ten acres, be- 
ing covered with a heav.y growth of timber. 
To clear the timber-covered land, of course, 
entailed a vast amount of labor. On the 
farm was a horse-power saw mill, which he 
operated a few months and then installed an 
engine, running both a saw-mill and grist 
mill and so efficiently that he had a great 
amount of patronage in the neighborhood. 
He was bringing his affairs to a very satis- 
factory footing when tlie Civil war, so long 
threatening, became a terrible reality, and 
life all over the country was changed and al- 
tered from the even tenor of its course. 
Soon after the first guns were fired at Sum- 
ter, Mr. Johnson enlisted in the army of the 
Confederacy, believing the cause it defended 
to be just and all the institutions of the 
South being very dear to him. His military 
career was eventful. In March, 1863, he was 
captured by Union forces and after being 
held a prisoner at St. Louis for three months 
was exchanged and joined his regiment in 
Virginia, on the Chesapeake Bay, thereafter 
serving with his command in East Tennes- 
see until after the termination of the great 
conflict. 

Returning to his farm on July 1, 1865, 
Mr. Johnson found that his barn had been 
burned, his stock taken off by the Federals 
and that he was in debt fifteen hundred dol- 
lars for his mill and land. Nothing daunted, 
however, he soon resumed his agricultural 
and industrial labors, clearing and improv- 
ing his farm, which was an excellent one, 
and, as his means allowed, buying more 
land, at one time having title to seven hun- 
dred and twenty acres, the greater part of 
which was valuable and advantageously sit- 
uated. At the time of his death he owned 
six hundred and sixty acres of land and the 
little burg of Octa, three miles northeast of 
Senath, its entire site being his, with the ex- 
ception of two lots. He also owned consid- 
erable property in Senath, his holdings there 
consisting in a lot and store building on 
Front street (the building being twenty by 
eighty feet in dimension) and five good lots 
on other streets. He had other interests of 
importance, owing five shares in the Citi- 
zens Bank of Senath, of which he has been 
president since its organization and being a 
stockholder in the Caneer Store Company. 
Jlr. Johnson's commodious dwelling-house on 
his farm was an attractive and substantial 
one, and a previous two thousand dollar resi- 
dence had been destroyed by fire. Toward 



the close of his life he gave over the more 
strenuous duties of managing his farms into 
other hands, and at the time of his death 
rented all of his farms, with the exception 
of his forty acre homestead. His homestead 
was virtually the centre of a little settlement, 
for he had thirteen tenant houses on his 
place for the use of his renters, all of these 
houses being within a mile and a half of his 
own home. From the beginning of his 
career he always maintained a saw mill and 
grist mill on his farm, which he himself op- 
erated. He was a man of remarkable exec- 
utive ability, able to manage successfully 
large forces and essentially progressive in the 
adoption of new ideas. It will not be gain- 
said that he was one of the most successful 
and widely known citizens of Dunklin coun- 
ty, and one whose influence will be greatly 
missed in the many-sided life of the com- 
munity. 

Politically Mr. Johnson had always been 
identified with the Democratic party, to 
whose causes he gave hand and heart and he 
was at one time prominent in public life, 
serving as county judge for six years shortly 
after the war and subsequently being jus- 
tice of the peace for twenty years. Frater- 
nally he was atBliated with the time-honored 
Masonic order, which he joined in 1867, his 
membership being with Helm Chapter, R. A. 
M., of Kennett. At one time he was a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows. In his own life he followed the fine 
principles of Masonry and at his death the 
order conducted the last ceremonial rites and 
consigned the body to the grave. Religiously 
he was affiliated with the Methodist Episco- 
pal church. South. 

Mr. Johnson married, in 1875, Louisa 
Bailey, who died five years later, leaving 
three children, namely: Corrinner V., is the 
wife of Joseph Tackeberry, of Dunklin coun- 
ty, and they have five children: James A., 
Katie, Ernest P., Minnie B. and Dudley; 
Minnie B., wife of Henry Jones, until her 
father's demise lived with him, presiding over 
his household wisely and well. They have 
had eight children: Stella, Delia, Clarence 
and five who died young; and Jennie who 
died at five years of age. Like himself, Mr. 
Johnson's children are respected and prom- 
inent and very loyal to the institutions of 
Dunklin county. 

Honorable Robert Giboney Ranney. Al- 
though the man without ancestors, who sue- 



612 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ceeds iu making his own way in the world 
has doubtless a great deal to contend with, 
he is without the obligations which are im- 
posed on the descendant of a family which 
has always amounted to something. The feel- 
ing of noblesse oblige determines mauj- ac- 
tions. If a man is conscientious this feel- 
ing is his safeguard, although he may chafe 
under the obligations at times. The Honor- 
able Robert Giboney Ranney has not only 
lived so as to satisfy his family and his fel- 
low men, but has also lived up to the standard 
set forth by his father and his grandfather; 
he has made his life count for something; 
he has not only made a competency for him- 
self and his family, but he has done honor 
to the name; he has been of assistance to 
individuals; he has aided in the advance- 
ment of his state and his country. 

He was born at Jackson, Cape Girardeau 
couut.y, Misouri, December 15, 1849. His 
grandfather was Stephen Ranney, a native 
of Connecticut, who served in the Revolu- 
tionary war and also in the war of 1812. He 
held the office of Attorney General under 
Governor Hendricks. He spent the last 
years of his life in Cape Girardeau county 
and was buried at Jackson, Missouri. He 
had a large, powerful frame and was phj'S- 
ically a very strong man. He was married 
four times, his last wife, grandmother of 
our subject, being Elizabeth Hathorn of 
Salem, Massachusetts. 

William C. Ranney, father of Robert and 
son of Stephen, was a native of Whitehall, 
New York. He came to Cape Girardeau 
count.v, ]\Iissouri, about 1826, where he soon 
made his presence felt, being a lawyer by 
profession. He was the first common pleas 
judge in the county, having been appointed 
by the legislature, — a most unusual occur- 
rence. He was a member of the legislature 
and was state senator. During the whole 
of his residence in Cape Girardeau he was 
active in public affairs, feeling the deepest 
interest in the growth and advancement of 
the state in which he was one of the early 
settlei-s. He lived to be eighty-three years 
old and was hale and hearty up to the time of 
his death. He, like his father, was possessed 
of a very strong physique and weighed two 
hundred and seventy-five pounds. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Giboney, a native of Missouri. 
Her father. Robert Giboney, came to Mis- 
souri with his father, Alexander Giboney, 
about 1796 from their home near Harper's 



Ferry, in Virginia. They came by wagon to 
Cape Girardeau county, bringing with them 
the few necessities of life. They were pi- 
oneers to Cape Girardeau county, where they 
obtained grants of land and located there. 
These tracts of land are still in the owner- 
ship of the descendants. Jlrs. William C. 
Ranney lived to the age of eighty-one, hav- 
ing borne four sons to her husband, three of 
whom are living now. The eldest son was 
Stephen, named after his grandfather; Rob- 
ert Giboney was the second; William Alex- 
ander, named after his father, the third, and 
Herbert Hathorn, the youngest. 

When Robert was a baby his parents moved 
to a farm five miles southwest of Cape Girar- 
deau; there Robert was brought up and as 
soon as he was old enough he attended the 
district school. He learned how to do all 
sorts of farm work, thereby laying a founda- 
tion for conscientious fulfilment of duty that 
has been of good service to him through life. 
He was sent away to attend the Kentucky 
Military Institute when he was seventeen 
.years old. He remained there four years 
and when he returned home he taught one 
year. He had by this time made up his 
mind that he wished to study law as had his 
father and uncle, Johnson Ranney before 
him. He was desii-ous of starting in their 
footsteps but would make others for himself, 
branching out in other directions from those 
taken by his ancestors. After reading law 
with Louis Houek he attended the law school 
at the ^Missouri University, graduating in the 
class of 1873. Loviis Houck had formed such 
a high opinion of his ex-scholar's abilities 
that he took him into partnership. The two 
did business together until 1880, when Rob- 
ert's state of health compelled him to retire 
from the practice of law. He moved on to a 
farm and continued to actively superintend 
its management until 1894. He found the 
outdoor life was just what was needed to 
build up his health, but was in no hurry to 
return to his professional life, rather pre- 
ferring the quiet, simple life of a farmer. 
In 1894, however, the interests of his family 
decided him to move to Cape Girardeau and 
again practice law. His knowledge and capa- 
bilities were such that he was eminently suc- 
cessful. In 1908 he was elected judge of the 
Common Pleas Court, which position he now 
fills. He had previously been a Justice of 
the Peace, while he was engaged in farming. 

In 1876 he married Lizzie Giboney, by 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



613 



whom lie had five children, two of whom 
lived to maturity, viz., Louise, wife of Clyde 
Harrison of Cape Girardeau, and Robert 
Clifton, also living in Cape Girardeau. Mrs. 
Ranney died in 1892. In 189-4 Mr. Ranney 
married Emma "Wathen, by whom he also 
had five children, all of whom are living, as 
follows: Watheua, Roberta, Ralph G., Mary 
and Maud. 

The Judge is one of the oldest born citi- 
zens of southeastern Missouri, where he has 
spent the whole of his life, with the excep- 
tion of his school days, when he went both 
south and east. He has always been a firm 
upholder of Democratic principles, believing 
that in them are the principles of good gov- 
ernment. He believes in party spirit, not be- 
cause he is prepared to endorse everything 
that is done by his party, but he does heart- 
ily endorse its great principles. He thinks 
and reasons for himself and is most tolerant 
of the opinions of others, to whom he grants 
the same right of free thinking and acting. 
Although he is decided in his own views he 
does not necessarily think all others are 
wrong. He is a man with a keen sense of 
justice and right, a man who has helped to 
make of Cape Girardeau the power that it 
now is in the state. 

Horace D. Benedict. Americans are be- 
ginning to realize the moral as well as the 
historical significance of genealogical founda- 
tions. A nation which relies upon the rec- 
ord of its homes for its national character 
cannot afford to ignore the value of genealog- 
ical investigation as one of the truest sources 
of patriotism. The love of home inspires 
the love of country. There is a wholesome 
influence in genealogical research which can- 
not be overestimated. Moreover, there is a 
deep human interest to it. The Hon. Horace 
Dryden Benedict, present mayor and promi- 
nent business man at Fredericktown, Jlis- 
souri, is a scion of an old, old English family, 
his genealogy in England being traced back 
to the eleventh century. The original pro- 
genitor of the name in America settlect at 
Rotterdam, Connecticut, having immigrated 
to that place at a very early day. Subse- 
quently members of the family removed to 
Canada and on their return to the United 
States settled in St. Lawrence county. New 
York, where they were engaged largely in 
surveying. The great-grandfather of him 
whose name forms the caption for this re- 



view was killed in the war of 1812 by In- 
dians and a number of his forebears were 
gallant soldiers in the war for independence. 

The career of Horace D. Benedict has been 
varied and interesting in the extreme, as 
will be noted in ensuing paragraphs. He 
was born in Jefferson county. New York, on 
the 11th of January, 1843, and is a son of 
Amasa and Waty (Reynolds) Benedict, both 
natives of New York. "When the young 
Horace was two years old his parents re- 
moved froiu the east to northern Ohio, where 
he was reared to adult age. During his life 
time he had resided in twenty-six diff'crent 
states and for a time he also maintained 
his home in Canada. As a young man he 
learned the trade of telegraph operator and 
for a number of years he was in the employ 
of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, 
also doing construction on that and other 
roads. 

At the time of the inception of the Civil 
war Mr. Benedict was fired with boyish en- 
thusiasm for the cause of the Union and 
enlisted at the first call for volunteers, be- 
coming a member of the Fourteenth Ohio 
Regiment. Three months later he enlisted 
for three years in the Third Ohio, and while 
a member of that regiment was captured at 
the battle of luka and sent to prison at 
Vicksburg, where he was held in duress for 
nearly three months. He saw much hard 
service but was never seriously injured. He 
participated in the Atlanta campaign and 
received his discharge and was mustered out 
of service in November, 186-4. After the 
completion of his military service I\Ir. Bene- 
dict returned to Ohio, whence he removed to 
St. Louis, Jlissouri, in the following year. 
In the latter city he entered the Military 
telegraph service and later engaged in rail- 
road construction work, as previously noted. 
On the 1st of July, 1888, he located at Fred- 
ericktown, where he engaged in contracting 
and Iniilding work, having a large number 
of men in his employ and also handling all 
kinds of building supplies. In the early '90s 
he became interested in the old Madison 
County Bank at Fredericktown, serving as 
vice-president and manager of that institu- 
tion for a number of years. This concern 
was later disposed of to the trust company. 
For several years past Mr. Benedict has 
lived retired, contenting himself with a gen- 
eral supervision of his extensive holdings. 
He is the owner of nine beautiful residences 



6U 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



ill St. Louis, the rental from which is a snug 
fortune in itself. He is also the owner of 
two iine residences at Frederiektown. 

In October, 1866, Mr. Benedict was united 
in marriage to iliss ilary Hallett, who was 
born and reared in Ohio. Concerning their 
children the following record is here of- 
fered, — Truman L. is owner of the telephone 
exchange at Clarendon, Texas, and he is mar- 
ried to Maud McAlpin, of Gurdon, Arkan- 
sas, aud has four children, viz., Mj'rle R., 
Grace T., Mary H. and William R. He was 
formerly connected with railroad construc- 
tion work. Russell Pope is connected with 
a telegraph company at St. Louis. He mar- 
ried first Miss Katie Hill, of Frederiektown, 
Missouri, who died January 25, 1908, leav- 
ing one daughter, ]\Iary H., aged eleven 
years in June, 1911. His present wife was 
Miss Anna Weatherwax. Horace, Jr., 
married Carolyn Brock, of Frankfort, Ken- 
tuckj', and travels for the Thomas Law Book 
Company, of St. Louis. Norma is the wife 
of Louis F. Alt, who is in the license col- 
lector's office of St. Louis. They have one 
child, Benedict Alt, aged two years. 

Mr. aud IMrs. Benedict were married in 
Lucas county, Ohio, and for thirteen years 
followed farming near Toledo, Ohio. Then, 
in 1880, they removed to ^Marshall. Texas, 
where Mr. Benedict was engaged in con- 
struction work, under his half-brother, C. 
W. Hammond, who was superintendent of 
the whole Gould system, telegraph and con- 
struction work. He was a prominent man 
in those circles and was an old resident of 
St. Louis. He died in 1899, at his home at 
St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Benedict had little 
to start with except energy and ambition, 
and their united efforts have been crowned 
with success. 

In politics ]\Ir. Benedict is a stanch ad- 
vocate of the cause of the Republican party 
in national issues but in local affairs he main- 
tains an independent attitude, voting for men 
aud measures meeting with the approval of 
his .iudgment. In 1910 he was elected mayor 
of Frederiektown, being incumbent of that 
office at the present time. He is proving 
a most efficient administrator of the munic- 
ipal affairs of the city and has instituted 
many improvements during his regime. In 
the time-honored Masonic order he has passed 
through the circles of both the York and 
the Scottish Rite branches, being a member 
of the Commandery and Consistorj^ at St. 



Louis. He retains a deep and abiding in- 
terest in his old comrades in arms and signi- 
fies the same by membership iu Hiram (javitt 
Post, Grand Army of the Republic. He aud 
his family are consistent members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. South. The life 
history of ilr. Benedict is certainly worthy 
of commendation and emulation, for along 
honorable aud straightforward lines he has 
won the success which crowns his efforts and 
which makes him one of the substantial resi- 
dents of Frederiektown. 

Moses H. Topping, M. D. One of the emi- 
nent citizens of Flat River, Saint Francois 
count.y, Missouri, is Dr. iloses II. Topping, a 
physician widely known for his high attain- 
ments in his profession, and who in addition 
to his general practice is extensively engaged 
in surgery among the miners. Dr. Topping 
is also president of the Bank of Flat River, 
and it is largely due to his discrimination 
and well directed administrative dealing that 
this institution has become one of the sub- 
stantial and popular smaller banking houses 
of the state of Missouri. 

Dr. Topping is a Virginian by birth, the 
place of his nativity having been Elizabeth 
City county, of the Old Dominion, and its 
date November 6, 1874. His father, James S. 
Topping, was also born in Virginia, and like 
most of the young men of his day and gen- 
eration he was a soldier in the Civil war, hav- 
ing entered the army of the Confederacy at 
the earl}' age of sixteen years. He saw some 
of the most active service of the war and par- 
ticipated in some of the closing events, hav- 
ing been with General Lee at the fall of 
Richmond. After the war he adopted the 
Republican policies and was throughout his 
life a useful and public-spirited citizen. He 
engaged in the wholesale wood, coal and 
stock food business and followed this actively 
until his demise, ^March 16, 1895, in Eliza- 
beth City county, Virginia. He was mar- 
ried at about the age of twenty-nine years 
to Alice Jane Hawkins, daughter of Captain 
James Hawkins, of Elizabeth City county, 
Virginia. The Hawkins famil,v is of English 
descent. Dr. Topping was the youngest of 
three children born to these worthy people, 
the others being James B., of Harriston, Vir- 
ginia ; and Alice Virginia, now IMrs. I\I. T. 
Webber. The father was a consistent mem- 
ber of the Baptist church and a popular and 
prominent lodge man, his fraternal affilia- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



615 



tions extending to the Knights of Pythias, 
the Jlasons and the Rednien. 

The preliminary education of Dr. iloses 
H. Topping was received in the public and 
high schools at Hampton, Virginia. His 
higher training was of a varied and exten- 
sive character, including attendance at the 
Suffolk I\Iilitary Academy; a year at Wil- 
liam and ilary College at Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia ; and two years at the Physicians and 
Surgeons College at Richmond. It was while 
he was a student at the latter institution 
that its name was changed to the University 
College of Medicine. He finished his prep- 
aration for his profession at the Louisville 
IMedical College, there graduating and re- 
ceiving his degree. He went to Oklahoma to 
begin active practice, but remained there but 
a short time, in 1897 removing to j\Iissouri 
and settling in Desloge, Saint Francois 
county. After a residence in that town he 
came on to Flat River, -where he has ever since 
remained, and where his ability has received 
enthusiastic recogTiitiou. Dr. Topping is 
president of the Bank of Flat River, as men- 
tioned previously, and he has held this high 
position ever since its organization, in which 
he was instrumental. He is likewise presi- 
dent of that flourishing concern — the Lead 
Belt Amusement Company. Dr. Topping is 
a stanch adherent of the Republican party, 
of which he is a disciple by inheritance and 
personal conviction, and he is a valued mem- 
ber of the Baptist church, assisting to the 
best of his ability in its good works. No 
movement calculated to result in bettered 
conditions for the whole of society fails to 
secure his support, and he is in truth at 
the head of many such. He has social pro- 
clivities, finding pleasure in association with 
his brethren, and his lodge affiliations ex- 
tend to the Benevolent and Protective Order 
of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. 

On May 4, 1898, Dr. Topping established 
a happ.y household by his union with Amanda 
C. Blue, daughter of John W. Blue, a promi- 
nent Saint Francois county agriculturist and 
one of the pioneer settlers of southeastern 
Missouri. Her grandfather, John W. Blue, 
was mayor of Farmington previous to the 
Civil war. The union of Dr. and Mrs. Top- 
ping has been blessed by the birth of three 
children, Vannesse, Virginia and Norman H.. 
and their home is the center of gracious hos- 
pitalit.v. 



George T. Dunmire, the postmaster at 
Kennett, has had a most interesting career. 
The educators of the present day are urging 
military training as a means of making bet- 
ter citizens. What ilr. Dunmire might have 
been without his military service it is hard 
to say, but at least the lessons he learned 
while in the army have been of more value 
to him than any experience gained before or 
since. 

He was born in ]\Iercer county, Pennsyl- 
vania, April 21, 1837. He received his edu- 
cation in his native town and when the Civil 
war broke out he joined the One Hundred 
and Forty-second Pennsylvania Regiment, 
serving from August 8th until the close of 
the war. He was in the battle of the Po- 
tomac and at Appomattox, serving as Com- 
missary Sergeant for a time. After the war 
was ended he went back to Pennsylvania, 
where he stayed until 1866, when he located 
at what is now known as Cumberland City, 
Kentucky, the Coal Company having estab- 
lished the postoffiee there. In 1870 he left 
there to go to Springfield and a year later 
returned to Pennsylvania. After three years 
there he went to Indiana, remaining about a 
year, and thence to Birmingham, Kentucky, 
where he remained until 1878, when he came 
to ]\Ialden, Missouri, where his brother-in-law, 
C. P. Phillips, had been in the mercantile 
business from its start. After remaining 
with Mr. Phillips for a year and a half, Mr. 
Dunmire went to Paragould, Arkansas, but 
his stay there was short lived, only lasting 
one year. He came to Kennett in 1884 and 
has been here ever since. For two years he 
was in the general store business, then he 
became a building contractor, continuing thus 
until 1901, when he was with his son in the 
drug store. In 1907 he was appointed post- 
master under President Roosevelt. He has 
fitted up a nice postoffiee and has one rural 
free delivery. During the four years of serv- 
ice he has devoted himself to the duties of 
postmaster and has fulfilled them to the sat- 
isfaction of the people in general. 

In 1868 Mr. Dunmire was married in Ken- 
tucky to Vienna JI. Phillips. Three chil- 
dren were born to the union, two of whom 
reached maturity, but only one is living now, 
John H., the dniggist at Kennett. In addi- 
tion to his drug business Mr. John Dun- 
mire is the assisting postmaster and has re- 
ceived the appointment as postmaster. Hat- 



616 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tie E. married Leonard Loeffeler of Hayti, 
Missouri, and died wlien a young woman. 

Mr. Dunmire has been connected with the 
Masons for forty-four years, having joined 
the order in Kentucky in 1867. He is still 
a worker in the lodge. He is affiliated with 
Kennett Lodge, No. 68, A. F. & A. M., Helm 
Chapter, No. 117, of Kennett, and Camp- 
bell Council, No. 30, of Campbell, Missouri. 
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
clnircli in Kennett. Jlr. Dunmire is what 
is known as a Black Republican in St. Louis, 
but he has hosts of friends with the Demo- 
cratic party^ notwithstanding the active work 
he has always done for the Republicans. 
During the years that Mr. Dunmire has been 
in Kennett he has seen many changes in 
the county, most of them for the better. He 
is one of the most loj'al citizens of Kennett, 
standing ready at all times to do his best 
for its betterment. He began his life in the 
service of Uncle Sam in the army and hopes 
, to end it in the same service in the postal 
department. 

BuEvraLL Fox. One of the native Ohioans 
transplanted to the great state of Missouri 
is Burwell Fox, a prominent educator now 
serving as county superintendent of schools, 
and a gifted writer and editor. He is a 
man not only of ability, but also of high ideals 
of citizenship, and although a Democrat in 
politics, at the election for his present office 
he received a large majority in a strongly 
Republican county, — assuredly an eloquent 
tribute. He was educated for the law and 
practiced his profession in Lebanon, Ohio, 
in which city he also served as mayor and 
police judge. 

Professor Pox was bom near Lebanon, 
Warren county, Ohio, December 8, 1849, and 
his father, John C. Fox, was born in the 
vicinity of Lebanon. The grandparents were 
of Scotch-English stock. John C. Fox lived 
in the Buckeye state in the days when the 
wilderness had but recently yielded to the 
strength and daring of the first brave pi- 
oneers and he himself grew to manhood on a 
farm in his native county and there acquired 
those habits of industry and thrift which dis- 
tinguished his later life. He answered to 
the two-fold calling of carpenter and fanner, 
and subsequently he removed to Indiana, his 
farm being practically the forest. In 1857 
he died from the effects of a horsekick. He 
married Anne Wayne Brownle.v, a native 



of the Old Dominion. Three children were 
born to them. The eldest died in infancy; 
Sarah F. is now Mrs. John T. Barr; and 
Burwell is the subject of his brief biograph- 
ical record. The mother died one month af- 
ter the death of her husband, and tiie two 
children were left alone in the world at a 
very early age. In religious conviction the 
elder Mr. Fox was a Baptist and he was a 
stanch AVhig. 

Burwell Fox was Init seven years of age 
when he became fatherless and motherless. 
The home in Indiana was of course broken up 
and he went to live with an aunt and uncle. 
Burwell and Catherine Bassett, who resided 
in his native Lebanon. He received an edu- 
cation in the public schools of Lebanon and 
through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Bassett 
found it possible to prepare for the legal 
profession, to which he was inclined. His 
studies in this line were pursued at Lebanon, 
Ohio, and in 1870 he was admitted to the bar 
at that place and shortly afterward he com- 
menced to practice, and took his place among 
the representative members of his profession. 
In 1872 he gave Lebanon an excellent admin- 
istration as mayor and he held the office of 
police judge until 1876, in which year he 
departed for ^Missouri. 

Professor Fox located at once in Washing- 
ton county and since coming here his field 
of most active usefulness has been the ped- 
agogical. From 1893 to 1897 he was United 
States commissioner at Ironton, ]\Iissouri, and 
he subsequently resumed teaching. In 1909 
he was elected to his present important office 
as county superintendent of schools and in 
1911 was reelected to the same office. The 
triumph of his personality over politics has 
been previously told. He is a splendid, 
enlightened officer and well maintains the 
dignity and responsibility of the superinten- 
dency. He has the work exceedingly well 
systemized and can instantly look lip the 
record of any teacher or school. His career 
as an instructor has also included three years 
as principal of the Potosi schools. 

Professor Pox was first married November 
13, 1878, Miss Kitty I. Harguss, a member 
of a Kentucky family, becoming his wife. She 
died in 1889, at Arcadia, Missouri, and the 
one child born to the union is also deceased. 
On June 29, 1892, he was united to .Aliss 
Maria A. Russell, of Ironton, daughter of 
Theodore P. and Emily (Guild) Russell, and 
they share their delightful, cultured home 



X 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ^MISSOURI 



617 



with a son, who bears his father's name. 
A younger son, Pitkin, died at the age of 
three. They are members of the Presbyterian 
church and act in harmony with all salutary 
measures. 

Professor Fox's literary talent has been 
before alluded to. He has been successful as 
a magazine writer, being particularly gifted 
in the field of iictiou and he at one time 
assisted in the editing of the Iron County 
Register and the Potusi Independent. 

John J. jMauthe. Among the prominent 
and representative citizens of Pacific. Jolm J. 
Mauthe holds deservedly high place in pop- 
ular conlidcnce and esteem, his fellow towns- 
men having paid him the highest compliment 
within their power of considering him a 
worthy son of that splendid and honorable 
citizen, the late William Jlauthe. He holds 
the office of cashier of the Citizens' Bank of 
Pacihe, having held this position since 1909, 
and has proved himself an efficient, alert 
and well-trained banker, whose discrimina- 
tion and well directed administrative deal- 
ing have been of no inconsiderable value in 
building up its fortunes. He comes of Ger- 
man stock and in him are to be discovered 
those excellent characteristics which make 
the Teutonic one of our most admirable 
sources of citizenship. In addition to his 
banking interests he is identified with the 
mercantile life of the place. 

Mr. ilaiithe is a native son of Pacific, his 
birth having occurred here January 14, 
1873, the son of William JMauthe, an ante- 
bellum settler who spent his active life as a 
merchant and who died in the harness. Jan- 
uary 18, 1901. The father was born in Ger- 
many, in 1826, and came to America to seek 
a home among a people more free and inde- 
pendent than the people of the Fatherland. 
He located in Pacific and built up a good 
mercantile business, and was identified, be- 
sides, in the most praiseworthy manner with 
the civic affairs of the i)lace. He served as 
postmaster during the Civil war and was at 
times connected with the town board. He 
was a Republican and was a loyal supporter 
of the cause of the Union in the troublous 
days of the great conflict between the states. 
William Mauthe married Susan Kiburz. who 
was also a native of (lermany, and this 
worthy lady is still a resident of Piicific. The 
issue of their union was as follows : iliss An- 
nie Mautiie, of Pacific, a member of the mer- 



cantile house of Mauthe & Company ; Wil- 
liam, who is engaged in the bottling business 
at DeSoto, Missouri, and who is president of 
the German-American Bank there ; August 
F., who was cashier of the Citizens Bank of 
Union, ilissouri and who died at that place 
in January, 1910; Louis F., who died at Pa- 
cific in January, 1905, and who was engaged 
in the bottling business, married ^liss Lena 
Burger and at his death left a family of six 
children, whose names were Raymond, Lor- 
ine, Dewey, Harold, Gertrude and Louise, 
Mrs. Gus C. Ran, of Pacific ; Louisa, who 
married Charles Ilufschmidt, of this place, 
and is deceased ; and John J., the immediate 
subject of this record. 

John J. ilauthe gained his schooling in 
the public schools of Pacific and when about 
seventeen years of age he entered his father's 
store as one of the fixtures of tliHt institution. 
He mastered the details of the retail mer- 
cantile business and when his father passed 
awaj' he became the active head of the con- 
cern. The firm of Mauthe & Company in- 
cludes himself and his sister Miss Annie, who 
is a most able and judicious business woman. 
Although Mr. Mauthe is not associated as in- 
timately with the business as in youth, he 
retains a connection with it and to him is 
largely due the fact of its permanence and 
the same confidence as under the old regime 
which it enjoys in the community. 

When the Citizens' Bank was brought into 
existence in 1909 Mr. jMauthe, who was one 
of the promoters, was invited to take the 
place of cashier. The bank was chartered in 
that year; buildings were erected, and it 
opened business on August 30 of the same 
.year, with a capital of fifteen thousand dol- 
lars. Its other officers are James Booth, 
president, and L. R. Dougherty, vice presi- 
dent, and it has already gained prestige as 
a sound and substantial monetai-y institution. 

Jlr. ;\Iautiie is also one of the directors of 
the electric light company of Pacific and is 
a member of the board of directors of the 
Pacific Home Telephone Company. Like his 
father, he is identified with the Republican 
party, Imt unlike that well-remembered gen- 
tleman he has never been connected with of- 
fice. The fraternal order of Knights of 
Pythins knows 'Mv. ]\lauthe as one of its 
memliers. but Inisiness connections preclude 
his giving liis time to the work of this or other 
fraternal societies. 

On December 28, 1904, :\[r. :\fauthc was 



618 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST :MISS0URI 



happily married to Miss ilargaret Carroll, 
daughter of P. W. Carroll, of Cape Girar- 
deau, Missoviri, a concrete contractor and 
decorator. They have no children. Mr. and 
Mrs. Mauthe enjoy a prominent place in the 
best social life- of the place aud are very 
loyal to the interests of Pacific. 

Daniel E. Conr.,vd is the sou of David R. 
and ilary (Bollinger) Conrad, who are also 
the parents of Peter Conrad, whose life is 
briefly outlined in this work. Daniel was the 
thirteenth child of the family of which Peter 
was the eldest. As has been stated, the 
grandfather came to Missouri from North 
Carolina in 1820. Daniel was liorn in 1859, 
on February 27. 

David Conrad owned several hundred acres 
of land aud as he was not only a man of 
wealth but also of culture, he took pains with 
the education of his children. Daniel went 
to the county schools and afterwards to 
the State University at Columbia. When 
twenty-two years of age he married and be- 
gan to farm for himself. He first managed 
his father's farm for a few j-ears and then 
operated a portion of the farm for himself. 
In 1890 he bought one hundred and seventy- 
five acres of laiid and now has five hundred 
and fifty-five acres of laud on Whitewater 
creek, of which two hundred and fifty acres 
are under cultivation. Besides this Mr. Con- 
rad is farming his sister's farm of two hun- 
dred acres. Sixty acres of this is in culti- 
vation. Agriculture is a pursuit which j\lr. 
Conrad follows according to scientific meth- 
ods, as he is a progressive farmer. He has 
a modern residence on his place, put up in 
1901. Stock engages part of his attention 
and he owns eighteen horses and mules, forty- 
three head of cattle, one hundred and twenty 
hogs and twenty-seven sheep. 

Mrs. Conrad's maiden name was Ella 
Statler, the daughter of Robert Statler. She 
and Mr. Conrad have had the following chil- 
dren: Ora, born June 14, 1883; Howard 
Dale, July 23, 1885; David R., August 9, 
1887; Ella Ethel Irene, February 11, 1889; 
Mary Kathleen, December 31. 1890; Hazel, 
November 30, 1892 ; Chalmers F., December 
3, 1894: Gyle D., Mav 14, 1896; and Corliss 
Dewey, JMarch 1. 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Con- 
rad are members of the Presbyterian church. 

Alfred Howard Akers. Few men are 
better and more favorablv known in Saint 



Francois county than Alfred Howard Akers, 
who has been identified with this section since 
the year 1884 aud who holds the position of 
county principal and superintendent of 
schools. He held the office of county school 
commissioner for fourteen years and no one" 
is more thoroughly in touch with educational 
matters or better able to cope with the vari- 
ous problems arising. 

Mr. Akers was born in the Valley of Vir- 
ginia, near the city of Roanoke, October 12, 
1855. His father, Henry Akei"s, was born in 
the vicinity of Lynchburg and was reared on 
a farm, receiving the limited education to be 
acquired in the country schools. He was 
married at the age of twenty-two years to 
Katie Garnet, daughter of Allen Garnet, a 
farmer located in that vicinity, and they be- 
came the parents of three children, namely : 
A. H., the immediate subject of this review ; 
Walter; aud Bessie. In politics the father 
was au old-line Whig and he subsequently 
became a Democrat. He was Baptist in re- 
ligious conviction and a member of the time- 
honored ]\lasonic fraternity. He passed away 
at the age of sixty years. 

Until the age of fifteen years Mr. Akers 
was reared upon the farm and received his 
earlier education in a private school, located 
not far from his home. When arrived at his 
fifteenth birthday he was sent to the Agri- 
cultural and ]\Iechanieal College at Blacks- 
burg, Virginia, and after a four years' pre- 
paratory course there he matriculated in the 
University of Virginia, where he remained 
two years. AVith a view to entering the field 
of educational endeavor, Mr. Akers took a 
brief normal coui-se at Farmville, Virginia, 
and ever since then he has been engaged in 
teaching school. In 1884 he came to the 
state of JMissouri and for the past eighteen 
years he has been principal and superintend- 
ent of schools in this county. In 1909 he 
was elected county superintendent and at the 
next election succeeded himself, being the 
present incumbent of the office. He enjoys 
a splendid reputation for ability, judgment 
and progressiveness in educational circles 
aud has done much in this important field. 

On the 1st day of September, 1886, Mr. 
Akers was united in marriage to Alice Wes- 
cott, of Saint Francois county, daughter of 
J. W. and Mary J. Wescott. Mr. and Mrs. 
Akers are the parents of the following seven 
children: J. Clyde, Jessie V., Wilbur D., 
Waldemar F., Alfred Howard, Christine and 




(X^^ ^ y^^^-y^^ 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



619 



Julitin. The head of the house is Democratic 
in politics ; his fraternal relations extend to 
the Masons, the Redmen, the American Or- 
der of United Workmen and the Knights of 
Pythias ; and liis church is tlie Baptist. 

In evidence of Mr. Akers' successful eleva- 
tion of the standard of the county schools is 
the fact that there are three fully accredited 
ones among them and ten are doing high 
sehoo] work. 

) 

jMann Ringo. Mr. Ringo's entire attention 
is given to the banking business, specifically 
to the Iron County Bank, of whieli he has 
been a director since its organization in 1896 
and cashier since 1897. Other officers of the 
organization are William R. Edgar, presi- 
dent, whose biography appears elsewhere in 
this volume, Eli D. Ake, viee-pi'esident, and 
Arthur Huff, assistant cashier. These gen- 
tlemen and William H. and I. G. Whitworth 
constitute the board of directors. The bank 
was organized by the present stockholders 
with a capital of ten thousand dollars and 
has now a surplus of fifteen thousand dollars 
and has been incorporated as a state bank. 

Mr. Ringo was born September 25, 1864, 
in Mississippi county, southeastern IMissouri. 
His parents, J. M. and Predonia (McGregor) 
Ringo, had come to ilissouri nine years be- 
fore from western Kentucty. The father was 
a native of Kentucky, but the mother was 
born in Tennessee. After settling in Mis- 
souri, J. M. Ringo became a merchant farmer 
and was prominent in the political atifairs of 
the county. He served as district judge of 
the county court and also as county treas- 
urer of Mississippi county. He died in 1893, 
at the age of sixty-five years, after the death 
of his wife. Both were members of the Bap- 
tist church. 

Mr. Mann Ringo has two brothers and 
three sisters. Mr. D. M. Ringo is a merchant 
farmer and a stock and grain dealer. He re- 
sides in his father's adopted home, Mississippi 
county. Jlr. S. P. Ringo is a merchant in 
Ironton. The sisters are Mrs. W. A. 
Fletcher, of Arcadia, Miss Nannie Ringo, 
primary teacher in the same place, and Mrs. 
Louis Miller, also of Arcadia. 

ilr. Ringo has spent his active life in the 
Arcadia valley. He was educated at the 
Normal in Cape Girardeau, graduating in 
the class of 1886. The two years following 
he taught school. In 1888 he was elected to 
the legislature and served two terms. Dur- 



ing Cleveland's second administration he 
was appointed receiver of public moneys for 
the U. S. land office. Since 1897 he has been 
cashier of the bank and an executive officer. 

He married iliss Annie Newman, a native 
of Ironton. She is the daughter of the late 
Thomas Newman, whose widow and family 
still reside in Ironton. Mr. Newman was a 
house and sign painter, a native of England, 
but a resident of Ironton fi-om 1864 until his 
death, in 1907. ilr. and Mrs. Ringo have 
two daughters. Miss Lucille, aged sixteen, 
and ]\Iiss Predonia J., aged eighteen. Both 
are attending their father's old school, the 
Normal at Cape Girardeau. 

Mr. Ringo's retirement from the field of 
active politics has in no way weakened his 
adherence to the Democratic party, whose 
policies have always embodied his political 
convictions. Though banking is his exclusive 
business, he finds opportunity to maintain his 
affiliation with the Masonic order. 

Samuel B. Kiepner. Civilization will hail 
riches, prowess, honors, popularity, but it 
will bow humbly to sincerity in its fellows. 
The exponent of known sincerity, singleness 
of honest purpose, has its exemplification in 
all bodies of men ; he is found in every asso- 
ciation and to him defer its highest offices. 
Such an exemplar whose daily life and whose 
life work have been dominated as their most 
conspicuous characteristic by sincerity is 
Samuel B. Kiefner, who is a business man of 
prominence and influence at Perryville, ilis- 
souri, and who is the present able and popu- 
lar incumbent of the office of postmaster of 
this city. 

Samuel B. Kiefner was born on a farm 
near Kaiser's Ridge, in Allegany county, 
Maryland, on the 20th of October, 1863, and 
he is a son of John and Catherine (Lakel) 
Kiefner, both of whom are now living in re- 
tirement at Perryville, where the former was 
long engaged in the furniture and undertak- 
ing business. John Kiefner was born in Ger- 
many in the .year 1834 and he accompanied 
his grandfather to America when he was a 
lad of sixteen years of age. Settlement was 
made at Baltimore, Maryland, where John 
entered upon an apprenticeship at the cabinet 
maker's trade and where, on the 25th of De- 
cember, 1854, was recorded his marriage to 
Miss Catherine Lakel. This union was pro- 
lific of eleven children, five of whom are liv- 
ing, in 1911, the subject of this article being 



620 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



next youngest of those who sun-ive. Else- 
where in this volume appeai-s a sketch of the 
life and career of Charles E. Kiefuer, 
younger brother of Samuel B. Kiefner. 

Samuel B. Kiefner, of this notice, was a 
child of but two years of age at the time of 
his parents' removal to Perry ville, to whose 
public schools he is indebted for his prelim- 
inary educational training. At the age of 
eighteen years he undertook to learn the ins 
and outs of the carpenter's trade and two 
years later, in 1883, he accompanied his par- 
ents to Kansas, where the family home was 
maintained for the ensuing four years. Dur- 
ing three years of that time Mr. Kiefner was 
foreman of a street-car barn at Wichita, Kan- 
sas, and in 1889 he removed to Des IMoines, 
Iowa, where he resided for one year, at the 
expiration of which he went to Keokuk. Iowa, 
where he was employed as clerk for the 
street-ear company from 1890 to September, 
1891. On the date last mentioned he re- 
turned to Perryville and here was engaged in 
the work of his trade until the fall of 1903. 
He then organized the Union Store Company, 
which was incorporated under the laws of the 
state with a capital stock of twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars and wliicli is ofifice'red as fol- 
lows.— Samuel B. Kiefner, president; H. M. 
Geile. vice president; and Charles J. Litseh, 
secretary and treasurer. For a time he had 
charge of the furniture and undertaking de- 
partment of this concern but on the 22nd of 
May, 1906. when he was appointed post- 
master of Perryville, he was obliged to re- 
linquish that work. In his political convic- 
tions Mr. Kiefner is a stanch supporter of 
the principles and policies promulgated by 
the Republican party and while he has never 
shown any great ambition for political prefer- 
ment he was a member of the Perryville 
board of aldermen from 1896 to 1898. In 
1906. as previously noted, he was appointed 
postmaster of Perryville, by President Roose- 
velt, and he was re-appointed to that office 
by President Taft in 1909. In fraternal cir- 
cles he is affiliated with the United Brother- 
hood of America, the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and the Jlodern Woodmen of 
America. For a period of three years he was 
a member of the Perryville school board and 
his religious support is given to the Presbv- 
terian church, in whose faith he was reared. 

In the year 1889, at Wichita, Kansas, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Kiefner to 
Miss Clara B. Armstrong, who was reared 



and educated at Wichita. Mr. and Mrs. Kief- 
ner became the parents of six children, all 
of whom are living except Clarence, who was 
summoned to the life eternal in 1901. The 
names of the other children are as follows. — 
Maud, Leroy, Carl, Burton, and Nellie, 
ilaud is assistant postmistress at Perryville 
and Leroy is a popular and successful teacher 
in the public schools of this place. Jlrs. Kief- 
ner is a woman of charming personality and 
she and her husband are everywhere ac- 
corded the highest regard of their fellow citi- 
zens on account of their exemplary lives and 
sterling qualities. 

Dr. Robert P. Dalton, one of the most 
promising young doctors at Cape Girardeau, 
is a life long resident of southeastern ]\lis- 
souri. His family on both sides were 
amongst the oldest settlers in ^Missouri. The 
time has passed when youth is any handicap 
to a man, — even a physician — nor is age any 
detriment. The world demands that a man 
shall deliver the goods, having no fault to 
find with him as long as he does that. It is 
onl.y when he fails that attention is called to 
his years. Dr. Dalton has shown the people 
in Cape Girardeau that he has ability of an 
unusual order, combined with integrity of a 
still rarer kind. He, like a number of other 
young men, was not decided what road he 
would travel to siiccess, but when he did 
decide he quickly got on to it and is making 
up for lost time l)y his rapid progress along it. 

He was born at Frederickstown. [Missouri, 
on the last day of the j'ear 1876. His grand- 
father, John P. Dalton, was born in Ripley 
county, Missouri, his father having been one 
of the pioneers of southeastern Missouri. 
John P. Dalton was a farmer and also a 
blacksmith, a common enough combination 
years ago. His son, also named John was a 
native of Frederickstown. ilissouri, where he 
received his education. He studiecl medicine 
and became a practicing physician, as also a 
preacher of the Gospel. A physician has 
many opportunities to speak a word in sea- 
son regarding the spiritual life as well as 
the corporeal, but Dr. Dalton was not satis- 
fied with that, he felt the necessity of pro- 
claiming in a public way the teachings of the 
Bible. He married Fannie Best, a young 
woman born in Perry count.v, ilissouri. She 
was the daughter of Jonathan Best, one of 
the first settlers of southeastern Mi.ssouri, 
whither he came from North Carolina. He 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



621 



was a fanner both in his native county and 
in ilissouri. Dr. and ]\Irs. John Dalton had 
eleven children, of whom two daughters died 
in infancy, the remaining nine living to 
grow to maturity, seven sous and two daugh- 
ters. The two youngest of the family died 
at about the age of twenty-one. 

Dr. Robert P. Dalton was the second child 
of his parents. His childhood was passed on 
the farm at Frederickstown, where he was 
born. As soon as he was old enough to at- 
tend school, he had to walk a distance of five 
miles each way, to the little log school house, 
known as the Killday or McKenzie school. 
He received his preliminary education at this 
school, after which he went to the Ihider- 
wood school, which was four miles in another 
direction from his home. Both school houses 
were built of logs, the desks were formed of 
a log split in two, having peg legs. The in- 
struction however, was not as primitive as 
the buildings, as Robert learned a good deal 
at these two schools. He next attended the 
Greenville high school, in Wayne county, go- 
ing from there to Hales College at Gravelton, 
Missouri, where he took a general course, 
graduating in 1896. He had not yet decided 
to become a physician, but he believed in the 
advantages of a first class education, no mat- 
ter what course he pursued. After leaving 
college he was engaged in the drug and gro- 
ceiy business at Patton, ^Missouri, in which 
he continued for about four years. In 1900 
he had made i;j) his mind that he was not cut 
out for a mercantile career, but felt a very 
decided leaning towards the medical profes- 
sion. He sold out his busine.ss, entered a 
medical college at St. Louis, ^Missouri, grad- 
uating therefrom in 1904, having taken the 
full four years medical course. The same 
year he came to Cape Girardeau, immediately 
starting to practice. He has been here ever 
since, with a steadily increasing practice. 
He is a member of the Cape Girardeau 
County IMedical Society and of the State 
J\Iedical Association. 

On September 7, 1892, the Doctor married 
Miss Sue E. Swindell, the daughter of Sam 
J. Swindell. There have been no children 
born to Dr. and Mrs. Dalton. 

The doctor is a member of various frater- 
nal orders, as follows: the Modern Woodmen 
of America, the Knights and Ladies of Se- 
curity, the ^Modern Americans. Politics do 
not greatly interest Dr. Dalton, his time be- 
ing fully occupied by his practice, his socie- 



ties, his family and his needed recreation. 
He has already shown himself to be a power 
for good in the community. 

Joseph Scott Wolff, D. D. S.— One of 
the best known members of the dental pro- 
fession in Southeast i\Iissouri, as well as 
mayor of Festus and a public citizen of broad 
and strong character, Dr. Joseph S. Wollf 
comes of an old, substantial Pennsylvania 
family which has included not a few distin- 
guished members in the east and southwest 
His father. Rev. A. T. Wolff, was born in 
Westmoreland county, that state, and was 
recognized until his death, in 1905, at the 
age of forty-nine, as one of the eminent Pres- 
byterian clergymen in the country. The 
elder man spent his early boyhood and youth 
on the old Pennsylvania farm and as a hard- 
working pupil in the neighborhood schools, 
afterward realizing his ambition for a higher 
education by completing a course at Union 
Seminary, Alliance, Ohio. At his graduation 
therefrom he became pastor of a small church 
at Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, and not long 
afterward accepted a call from the First 
Presbyterian church of Alton, Illinois. He 
acceptably filled the pulpit of that strong or- 
ganization for seven yeai-s, and then sen-ed 
as passtor of the Calvary Presbyterian church 
of Detroit, and the North Presliyterian 
church of St. Louis. In the discharge of the 
duties attaching to these responsible charges. 
Dr. Wolff had become so widely admired and 
loved both as a faithful pastor and an elo- 
quent pulpit orator that he received an ur- 
gent call to assume pastoral charge of the 
largest Presbyterian church in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, the old-world stronghold of the de- 
nomination. Although deeply appreciative 
of the honor, his home ties and stanch Amer- 
icanism, as well as his firm conviction that he 
could do more good in the United States 
where his influence had been so long exerted 
— these considerations forced liim to decline 
the proffered Edinburgh pastorate. For 
some time, however, he lectured abroad un- 
der the Slayton Lyceum Bureau, and became 
widely known in Great Britain. He also be- 
came very prominent as a Mason and at one 
time was grand state orator for Illinois 

In 1875 Rev. A. T. Wolff was united in 
marriage with Miss Margaret S. Young, of 
Oakland Cross Roads, Pennsylvania, and of 
the six children born to him, the Doctor was 
the eldest. His mother is still living, also 



622 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



two brothei-s and one sister, residents of St. 
Louis. 

Dr. Wolff is also a native of Westmore- 
land county, Pennsylvania, where he was 
born June 14, 1878. He first received a com- 
mon school education, but pursued his pro- 
fessional courses at Washington University, 
St. Louis, from which he graduated, in 1905, 
with the degree of D. D. S. For tlie succeed- 
ing two years he engaged in practice in that 
city, and then moved to Festus, his present 
residence and his lucrative and progressive 
field of professional labor. 

That Dr. Wolff's honors do not end there, 
has already been intimated. To particular- 
ize — he was first elected mayor of Festus in 
1909, and re-elected in 1911, and his adminis- 
trations have been so conducted as to earn 
him the respect of all parties, albeit his per- 
sonal support has always been given to the 
Democracy. He is one of the leading frater- 
nalists of this section of the state. The Red 
Men, Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen and 
Select Knights have all afforded him evi- 
dences of their esteem, and at the present 
time he is presiding officer (Great Sachem) 
of the Improved Order of Red Men, State of 
Missouri. And his advancement has never 
been of the drifting nature, but rather of the 
propelling and pushing kind, often against 
strong contrary currents. Owing to a seri- 
ous decline in his father's health, he was com- 
pelled to work his way through college. Both 
fig-uratively and literally, he had to fight 
hard to get his education, for, soon after the 
completion of his freshman year at Wash- 
ington University, he enlisted for service in 
the Philippines, and served as regimental 
commissary sergeant for two years and seven 
months. This delayed his graduation until 
1905, but showed his stamina and added to 
his deserved popularity as a man. 

In the year of his graduation Dr. Wolff 
was married to Miss Antoinette Nengle, of 
Festus, jMissouri, and their three children are 
Scott Emmerson, ilarguerite Antoinette and 
Marie AVolff. 

Oliver B. Gwyn is at the head of the Con- 
ran Cooperage Company, one of the indus- 
trial enterprises which play an important 
part in the prosperity of the county, his re- 
lation to this thriving concern being that of 
president and general manager. Although a 
Kentuckian by birth, he has resided in this 
state for a number of vears and here lias en- 



joyed excellent fortunes. Mr. Gwyn, who is 
a son of E. B. and Margaret J. (Lynch) 
Gwyn, natives of Kentuckj', was h)orn in 
Hickman county of the Blue Grass state Jan- 
uary 27, 1874. His father was a painter by 
occupation and the subject resided beneath 
the home roof until the age of fifteen j'ears. 
He is one of a family of five children. At 
the age mentioned Mr. Gwyn went to Clay 
county, Arkansas, and located in Rector, 
wliere the young fellow, who had started out 
quite alone in the world, secured a position 
in a saw-mill, and remained thus engaged 
for four years. The kind of work he secui'ed 
when a boy had no inconsiderable influence 
uj^on his subsequent career, for he has been 
for a number of years in the milling business. 
After that he found farm work to do and 
while thus employed he was married in 1891, 
to Miss Ada Deniston, daughter of James 
and Mary E. (Welch) Deniston, their mar- 
riage occurring in the vicinity of Rector. 
Mrs. Gwyn was born there November 18, 
1873. For a time after his marriage Mr. 
Gwyn continued to farm, but he finally con- 
eluded that he could not make enough money 
as a farmer and so took up another line of 
enterprise — milling, with which he was al- 
ready familiar. He came to Missouri in 1899, 
locating in Dunklin county, in the town of 
Paulding, and there took a contract to stack 
lumber for three years. He then engaged 
with the Paulding Stave Company and con- 
tinued in this line until 1906. During this 
time he carried on business in both Paulding 
and Geneva, at the latter place with the Buf- 
falo Stave Company. In 1906 he went into 
business in Boynton, Arkansas, just across 
the line from his former Missouri residence, 
again operating a mill for one year. During 
the same j'ear he moved to Kennett. He sold 
the Boynton mill in 1908. In January, 1909, 
he put in a new plant at Gideon, New Mad- 
rid county, biit in the following October he 
sold the same, and in the following January 
put in a new mill at Conran, which he still 
operates. This has a capacity of forty-five 
thousand slack barrel staves a day and is an 
up-to-date and paying concern. i\Ir. Gwyn 
also built a mill in Mai-ston, Missouri, — the 
Marston Cooperage Company, which he 
operated for nine months and then resigned 
from its management to more fully devote 
his energies to the constantly growing busi- 
ness of the Conran concern. This is an in- 
corporated business, and Mr. Gwyn is presi- 





VA/. 




(yiZ. (^;; 




HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



623 



dent and general manager. In addition to 
this large interest he has considerable town 
property and also six hundred and sixty 
acres of land near Conran, which is being 
cleared and farmed. He is very loyal to Mis- 
souri, in which state all of his success has 
been achieved. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gwyn have an interesting 
family of seven children. Bessie attends 
Hardin College, and Frank, Judge, Myrtle, 
Tom, Burley and Dan are all at home. Mrs. 
Gwyn and five of the children, Bessie, Frank, 
Judge, Myrtle and Tom, are all members of 
Missiouar.y Bai^tist church. Mr. Gwyn is 
one of the most enthusiastic of local lodge 
men and holds membership in no less than 
six orders. He is a Mason, being affiliated 
with the time-honored oi'der at Cardwell and 
having attained to the thirty-second degree, 
and he also belongs to the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the 
Woodmen of the World, the Modern Wood- 
men of America and Ben Hur. He is the 
friend of good government and of a public 
spirited type of citizenship. 

John Marshall Finney, M. D. At a very 
early age a boy begins to make plans for his 
future career; he is positive as to the direc- 
tion this career will take, but very frequently 
before he has finished his schooling he 
branches out into something entirely differ- 
ent; sometimes the chajige is brought about 
by a series of circumstances over which he has 
no control. Sometimes he himself luidergoes 
such radical changes that he no longer feels 
any inclination towards those things he 
formerly loved. In the case of John Mar- 
shall Finney, when he was in the grammar 
school he had already decided on his profes- 
sion and he never changed his mind. Since 
that time everything he studied or read was 
selected with a view to his chosen profession. 

He was bom at Vienna in Johnson county, 
Illinois, February 18, 1852, and was the son 
of G. P. and Rachael (Latham) Finney, both 
of Avhom were born in Illinois. The Finney 
family originally came from Virginia and 
were early settlers in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. 
Finne.y had three children, one daughter and 
two sons, of whom John Marshall is the 
youngest. His brother, W. N. Finney, is a 
resident of California. Mr. Finney died 
when he was forty-three years of age and his 
wife at about the same age. 

After his mother's death, when he was 



eleven years old, John Marshall Finney went 
to live with an uncle. Dr. J. F. Latham, a 
farmer of Saline county, Illinois. After he 
had finished the grammar school course, he 
attended the Ewing College, preparatoiy to 
the study of medicine. When he was only 
sixteen years of age he went to Eldorado, 
Illinois and there read with a doctor ancl 
practised under his instructions. He next at- 
tended a medical college in St. Louis, where 
he also practiced. In 1873 he came to Mis- 
souri, after practicing in Illinois for a short 
time, and located at Marble Hill. After 
three years of successful practice, he located 
at Laflin in Bollinger county, but very near 
to Cape Girardeau county. His practice was 
in both counties. For thirty years he kept up 
this hard life, traveling long distances to vi.sit 
his patients. In 1906 he came to Cape Gir- 
ardeau, with the intention of giving up his 
visiting and intending to have only an office 
practice. He established a drug store in the 
town, carrying a very full line of drugs of 
all descriptions and medicines. His patients 
will not, however, be contented to let him de- 
vote his time to his drug store, but they come 
to him from long distances, although he onl.y 
visits in Cape Girardeau. For the past 
twenty years he has been a member of the 
Southeastern Missouri Medical Society, being 
one of the oldest practitioners in this part of 
southeastern Missouri. 

In 1877 be married Mary G. Manning, 
daughter of George and Louisa Manning of 
Leopold, Missouri. Dr. and Mrs. Finney had 
a family of eleven children, nine of whom are 
living now (1911), as follows: John Marshall, 
Jr., a physician near Leopold, Missouri ; 
Norman J. in the United States Army, located 
at the Philippine Islands; Louisa Ann, wife 
of J. H. Price of Orange, Texas ; Francis M., 
attending normal school at Cape Girardeau ; 
Rachael, Julia, George G., William Paul and 
Mary Gertrude are all at home with their 
parents. Norman was the only child who was 
not born in southeastern Missouri. He was 
born in St. Louis, while the doctor was living 
there attending medical college in 1884, tak- 
ing a. special course of stud.v. 

The doctor is a member of the Masonic 
Order and is a master Mason. He is a Demo- 
ovflf in political sympathies : he is greatly in- 
terested in politics, but holds no office, nor 
has lie any desire for political honors for him- 
self. He finds his time fully taken up with 
the duties of his own profession and the 



624 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



maiiageiueiit of his drug store. He has been 
in practice in southeastern Missouri for 
thirty-seven years, much of the time in Cape 
Girardeau. He is naturally known all over 
the state by his professional brethren and his 
office, at 701) Broadway, is visited by physi- 
cians from all over the two counties. We 
sometimes feel that a man has mistaken his 
calling in life, that he would have made more 
of a success in some other position. That is 
not the ease with Dr. Finney; one feels that 
he is a perfect success as a physician and he 
would not have done his best work in any 
other profession. 

Francis Marion Wells. There is no finer 
satisfaction in life than to look back, when 
success has come, and see that achievement 
has been wrought, not on the foundation of 
the fortunes of one's forebears, but upon the 
firmer basis of innate progressiveness, perse- 
verance and courage undaunted in the face 
of all obstacles. Such is the satisfaction that 
F. i\I. Wells, the well-known banker of IMar- 
ble Hill, nuist take, when still in the prime 
of life, when he glances back over his note- 
worthy career of sixty years. 

Mr. Wells was l)orn in those days of 
clouded premonition, when the Missouri 
Compromise and its attendant circumstances 
had already split the country into the North 
and the South, January 6, 1850, in Bradley 
county, in eastern Tennessee. He was the 
son of Eli and Mary (Brandon) Wells, the 
former a native of the Big Bend state and 
the latter a descendant of Colonial stock, 
born near Rome, Georgia. The parents lived 
upon their farm, and there followed the great 
basic industj-y of agriculture. In 1858 the 
father brought his generous family of eleven 
children to Stoddard county, ]\Iissouri. Of 
the seventeen children born, six had deceased 
in Tennessee. Eli Wells had made an early 
venture in the mercantile business, but re- 
verses in that field had necessitated a second 
choice, and he selected farming, being en- 
gag'ed first on the farm of his brother James, 
w'ell-known as a successful agriculturist. 

On the 2d of April, 1863, occurred the 
death of Eli Wells, and a large family was 
left to carve out its own fortunes without the 
guidance or assistance of a father. Francis 
llarion was then thirteen, and during the 
remainder of the war period, he being the 
oldest lioy at home, upon his sturdy boy 's 
shouldei-s rested the responsibility of the 



support of the large family. Two of the 
older boys were off at the war following the 
Union flag, while Francis Marion and a 
younger brother, by renting a farm, were 
cheerfully performing the tasks of farm 
labor and keeping the family together until 
peace should he declared and the older boys 
return. Of such stuff are men made, those 
early chapters but foretell the spirit of his 
later life. 

After farming in Stoddard county and in 
Scott county, Mr. Wells came to Bollinger, 
where after farming for a year he entered 
the general merchandise store of Bollinger 
and Slinkard, located at Bollinger's JMill 
(now Zalma) in the capacity of clerk, and 
he made no change in his position for five 
years. 

On March 24, 1874, Mr. Wells was united 
in marriage to iliss Rachel C. Bollinger, 
daughter of Joel and Ann Elizabeth Bollinger, 
stanch pioneers of the region. ]\Ir. and Mrs. 
Wells became the parents of two children. 
Francis R., born in January, 1875, died in 
early infancy, and Charles A., born June 1, 
1877, is now a prominent physician, with a 
flourishing practice, at Pascola, Pemiscot 
county, ilissouri, in which place he has re- 
sided for twelve years. In 1877 i\Ir. Wells, 
through an appointment by the county court, 
became collector to fill the unexpired term of 
ilr. Hopkins. He served two years, and then 
was elected to the same office for three con- 
secutive terms, a speaking comment of the 
efficient and honorable service rendered by 
I\Ir. Wells. 

In 1885 ilr. Wells opened mercantile es- 
tablishments at Lutesville and iMarble Hill. 
On :\Iarch 10, 1886, Mrs. Wells was called to 
the Great Beyond, leaving her husband with 
her little son Charles, then a child of nine. 

For three years, from 1887 until 1889, Mr. 
Wells was interested in the handling of live 
stock, and managed a large trading business 
in the same, carrying on exten.sive opera- 
tions thi'oughout southeastern Missouri. In 
1889 the governor of Missouri selected him 
to fill the unexpired term of county clerk, 
and in 1890 the citizenship of the county, 
mindful of the record of Jlr. Wells as county 
collector, again elected him to public office, 
and for six years he was county clerk of Bol- 
linger county, and no man has ever held the 
office with more general satisfaction to the 
community. In 1906 he was elected presid- 
ing Judge of the County Court, serving four 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST .AHSSOURI 



625 



years, making- altogether eighteen years of 
public service in county office. 

WHien the Bollinger County Bank was or- 
ganized Mr. Wells, ever on the alert where 
the welfare of the county is concerned, was 
actively concerned in the establishment of a 
reliable local monetary institution, and sub- 
sequently became its president. In 1897, 
upon the resignation of Cashier B. F. Stev- 
ens, he accepted the cashiership, thus giving 
in all fifteen years of service. Besides his 
interest in the Bollinger Coimty Bank he is 
also a stockholder in the Bank of Marble Hill, 
and with some six others he maintains a con- 
trolling interest in the Advance Telephone 
companj-, an enterprise that started with a 
capital stock of $20,000, and has since, 
through wise executive policies, been built up 
to $44,000. Besides his handsome residence 
and town lots in Marble Hill, Mr. Wells' real 
estate holdings include town lots in Okla- 
homa, a one hundred and twenty acre farm 
and an interest in a farming property 
amounting to three hundred and sixty acres. 
Besides this he holds the enviable record of 
having been identified M'ith Mayfield College 
for twenty years, having been president of 
the Board of Trustees for that length of 
time. 

On September 29, 1887, Mr. Wells laid the 
foundation for his present happy household 
by his marriage on that date to Miss Lucy 
E. Swift, daughter of Thomas and Hannah 
A. (Wilkinson) Swift, of Cape Girardeau 
county. Six children have been born to this 
iinion, four of whom survive, as follows: — 
William F., born September 20, 1888. is now 
a cashier of the Bank of Patton, which he or- 
ganized with a capital of ten thousand dol- 
lars ; Marie, born January 24, 1896 ; Emma 
Jane, born April 19, 1899; and Harry Hu- 
bert, born March 17, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wells and their family are members of the 
Baptist church, and Mr. Wells is a deacon in 
the iMarble Hill church. Fraternally Mr. 
Wells is affiliated with that historic order, 
the Ancient Free and Accepted ilasons. 

It is interesting to note, not only for the 
fact itself but for the lesson it may possibly 
teach the younger generation, bred among 
less trying scenes than those of war and 
frontier pioneering, that Mr. Wells never 
actually attended school except for the tri- 
fling period of six months, but like many an- 
other indomitable soul of the sixties and sev- 
enties, when circumstances demanded that 



the daylight hours be given to toil, he under- 
took to educate himself at night, and it is 
no mere figure to say that he studied by 
'"midnight oil." jMr. Wells indeed deserves 
tlie loyal affection and high respect with, 
which he is regarded throughout the county 
and beyond its limits. 

Edgak Prewitt Caruthers. There are 
but ten persons on the Midway Islands, a 
recent acciuisition of the United States, yet 
they are not lonesome, for these Islands are 
used as a cable station, and the news of the 
world passes daily through their hands. The 
man who brings this news to our doors in 
readable form has performed a public bene- 
faction, which should be highly appreciated. 
Such a man is Edgar Prewitt Caruthers, who 
was born in southeastern Missouri, in St. 
Francois county, October 27, 1854, a son of 
Solomon D. and Maiy Jane (Harris) Caru- 
thers. The father, Solomon D., was a native 
of I\Iadison county, ilissouri, coming here 
with his father, David L. Caruthers, from 
Tennessee in 1820. The mother was a native 
of Kentucky, her father being Squire Samuel 
Perrin Harris, of Irish descent, who came to 
Mis.souri at an early day. The branch of the 
Caruthers family to which this subject be- 
longs were of Scotch-Irish stock, and were 
settlers in North Cai-olina before the Revo- 
lution. 

The immediate subject of this review, Ed- 
gar P. Caruthers, obtained his education in 
the common schools of his native state. In 
early life he decided to adopt the printer's 
trade as his life work, and, in accordance 
with this idea, went into a printer's office at 
Fredericktown, where he mastered the intri- 
cacies of this business and became the owner 
of the Bee there when but a mere boy. 
Later he was employed for six years in the 
treasury department of Missouri, and then 
became a reporter on a St. Louis newspaper. 
He then removed to Medicine Lodge, Kan- 
sas, where he published a paper for eight 
years, and takes credit as the "discoverer" 
of Jerry Simpson. He then returned to Mis- 
souri and located at Carthage, where he was 
engaged in the printing business for two 
years, when he removed to Kennett, in the 
same state, taking charge of the Dunklin 
Democrat in 1893, since which time he has 
been its editor and publisher, and he is quite 
proud of the fact that it has not missed an 
issue during all that time. 



626 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Mr. Carutliers was first married in 1874, 
the lady of his choice beiBg ilary L. Flem- 
ing, of Fredericktown, JMissouri, and of this 
union there are four children living, — Mrs. 
Will A. Jones, of Kennett; Albert B. Carii- 
thers, for the past five years in the Canal 
zone in the government employ ; Robert L. 
Caruthers, an attorney of Haskell, Okla- 
homa ; and Mrs. Wallace E. Barron, of Cal- 
ico Rock, Arkansas. Mr. Caruther's first 
wife died in 1890. Four years later he was 
united in the holy bonds of wedlock to Miss 
Minnie Chandler, who lived but four years, 
her demise occurring in 1898. There were 
two children by this marriage, both of whom 
are deceased. He was again married, Mrs. 
Electra Townsend becoming his wife. No 
children were born of this union, and Mrs. 
Caruthers has passed on to her eternal life. 
In politics ]Mr. Caruthers is an earnest and 
unswerving Democrat, and in fraternal rela- 
tions is an esteemed member of the Royal 
Arch Masons. 

William L. Cole is the prosecuting attor- 
ney of Franklin county, an able and success- 
ful advocate in criminal practice and a pow- 
erful factor in political affairs not merely in 
Franklin county, but throughout the entire 
state of Missouri. Although not yet come to 
middle life, Mr. Cole's achievements in his 
profession and in the domain of political af- 
fairs mark him as belonging to the chosen 
band of leaders who are shaping the policies 
and directing the forces which are lifting the 
commonwealth to a still higher plane of en- 
lightenment and prosperity. 

A native of Franklin county, ilr. Cole's na- 
tal day is the 30th of March, and the year 
of his ])irth was the centennial, 1876. (iev- 
ald, his birthplace, was the final home of his 
parents. His father was also indigenous to 
this county, his native place being four miles 
east of Washington. 

W. N. J. Cole, the father of the present 
attorney, was born in 1831, spent his life as 
a farmer, was fairly educated for that time 
and was always actively interested in public 
education. Upon public questions he agreed 
with the Democrats until the time of the 
Civil war, when the issue of Secession drove 
him into the Republican party. Mr. Cole's 
mother Avas formerly Mrs. Susan Cooper, 
widow of a ilr. Cooper who came to Franklin 
county immediately after the Rebellion. 
Prior to her marriage to ]\Ir. Cooper she was 



iliss Susan Smith, whose father was a Ken- 
tuckian. She was the mother of three chil- 
dren by her first marriage and her issue by 
Mr. Cole were : George L., superintendent of 
schools at Marshfield, Missouri ; Charles A.. 
superintendent of schools at Union, IMis- 
souri; Jacob E., a farmer of Franklin 
county; William L., of this review, and 
Emma J., who died in the county as the wife 
of William Williams. Mrs. Cole passed 
away in 1882 and her husband followed her 
in 1904. 

The Franklin county branch of the Cole 
family was founded by Jacob Cole in 1813. 
He was born near Charlestown, West Vir- 
ginia, in 1795. In 1798 he accompanied his 
father to ^Missouri. He lived in St. Charles 
county until the age of eighteen. As a pio- 
neer he became one of the best known citi- 
zens in this part of Missouri. His business 
was distilling liquor and farming. His mar- 
riage took place in Franklin countv, where 
he lived until 1882. W. N. J. Cole" was the 
youngest of his eleven children. 

William L. Cole, the subject of this sketch, 
received his elementary education in the 
country near his birthplace, and then at- 
tended the Owensville Normal. He taught 
in the district schools of Franklin and of 
Gasconade counties until he was chosen prin- 
cipal of the schools in Pacific, ^Missouri. 
While filling this position, he devoted all his 
spare time to the study of law, completing 
his preparation by taking the summer course 
in law at the State Univemty in Columbia. 
In 1900 he was admitted to the bar in Her- 
mann before Judge Hertzel, but continued to 
teach until 1904, when he began to practice 
his profession in Pacific, ilr. Cole was a 
member of the bar in that town until he was 
elected prosecuting attorney of his county in 
November, 1906. He succeeded Hon. O. E. 
Meyersick in this office and established his 
residence in the county seat. Twice re- 
elected he has maintained the reputation of 
Franklin county for the conviction of viola- 
tors of the law, some of the notorious crim- 
inals of the age having been overtaken by 
justice in the Franklin county court. 

Gifted by nature in the art of public 
speaking, Mr. Cole easily found place for his 
talents in the practice of law. The state Re- 
publican committee eagerly availed itself of 
so capable and convincing an expounder of 
the doctrines of the party and invited him 
to take part in the eompaign of 1904. Since 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



627 



that time he has participated in every cam- 
paign; he has served the county, the state 
and the congressional committees, and he 
has been a recognized power in the organi- 
zation of his party and in its success at the 
polls. 

]Mr. Cole has attained some prominence in 
Woodcraft, having tilled the chair of consul 
in Union, attended stated conventions of the 
order and been delegate to the Head Camp 
at Buffalo, New York. In the Masonic order 
he has sat in the Grand Lodge as delegate 
both in St. Louis and in Kansas City. He 
and his wife hold membership in the Eastern 
Star. 

On November 28, 1906, ilr. Cole was mar- 
ried to Miss Agatha Bucher at Pacific, Mis- 
souri. Her father was Jacob Bucher, a Swiss 
by birth, while her mother was Miss Agatha 
Zeteh, born in Germany. ]\Ir. and Mrs. Cole 
have no children. 

The outline of ]\Ir. Cole's career would 
present to one unacquainted with him the 
idea of a successful and popular lawyer, 
adroit in the handling of men and affairs. 
Mr. Cole is all of this and much more. No 
account of his achievements would picture 
the force and directness of his character nor 
the genialty of his manner, which is yet ut- 
terly devoid of the remotest trace of fawning 
or flattery. All in all, Mr. Cole's frequent 
selection for office may be said to be simply 
the natural tribute to his personal popular- 
ity and capabilities. 

George W. Redden. It has been the pleas- 
ant fortune of George W. Redden, leading 
photographer of Farmington, to have ob- 
tained the highest prestige in his particular 
field of endeavor. He is in truth one of the 
state's leading photographers and is an ar- 
tist in the truest sense of the word, his pro- 
ductions having that quality which distin- 
guishes the work of the reall.y artistic tem- 
perament from the commonplaceness of him 
who merely understands the mechanism of the 
camera and fails to reproduce the individual- 
ity of his sitters. More than this, he is a 
man of fine inventive ability, and his method 
of photographic printing, known as the 
"Redden Way" is known over the entire 
country. He has also invented a number of 
other devices in this fleld. 

George W. Redden was born July 26, 1868, 
on a farm near the town of St. Aubert, now 
Mokane, Callaway county, Missouri. He is 



the son of Wiley S. and Mary Jane (Level) 
Redden. The father was a native of middle 
Tennessee, and his father, Willian Redden, 
was born in North Carolina, and went to 
Tennessee as a young man. The grandfather 
was a farmer and slave-holder and he was 
called to the life eternal when about fifty 
years of age. He was a descendant of an old 
and well known North Carolina family. The 
father was reared and educated in Tennessee 
and resided there at the time of the breaking 
out of the Civil war. There were four 
brothers in the family and all of them were 
brave young fellows whose first thought was 
of enlisting. But there was so much to say 
on both sides of the great question which 
pressed for settlement that they were a little 
undecided upon which side to enlist. The 
four gathered in the yard of the old home 
and, seated on a log, talked the matter over, 
long and earnestly. At last they sadly sep- 
arated, one bi'other going to enlist in the 
Union army and the other three joining the 
army of the Confederacy. The first fought 
throughout the entire war, being wounded 
at the battle of Gettysburg. This brother 
who joined the cause of the Union was the 
subject's father, Wiley S. Redden, and 
among his adventures was a period of incar- 
ceration in Ander.sonville prison. He es- 
caped at one time from the prison, ])ut was 
recaptured. 

After the termination of the war, Wiley 
S. Redden, settled at St. Aubert, Callaway 
county, ]Mi.s.souri, and in 1867 he was united 
in marriage to Miss Mary Jane Level. Six 
children came to bless their union and of this 
number three died in infancy. The three 
surviving are George W., of this review; 
Samuel G., of St. Charles, Missouri ; and 
Charles A., of Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. 
Redden remained upon the farm until his 
death, in 1878, at the age of forty-seven 
years, this resulting from blood poison, with 
which he became afflicted fi-om the wounds 
received while a soldier. His widow now re- 
sides at Fredericktown. 

The boyhood days of George W. Redden 
were passed upon the home farm and there 
he learned the helpful l&ssons of industry 
and thrift. He attended the district school's 
and the schools of Fulton and subsequently 
became a student in Westminster College. 
He entered the photograph business at the 
age of twenty years, for several years being 
a journeyman workman, employed by some 



628 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of the leading photographers of the United 
States, liis ability becoming at once apparent. 
He was established at Fredericktown for 
eleven years and during that time acted as 
official photographer of the mines, quarries, 
clays, timbers, and timber products, securing 
pictures of the foregoing for the Missouri 
Commission of the St. Louis World's Fair, 
and serving with credit to himself and the 
state. As previously mentioned Mr. Reddeu 
is the inventor of the Redden photogi'aphic 
printing machine and several other devices 
for shortening the long process and securing 
easier and better work. He is now having 
them manufactured and sold on royalty. 

On September 4, 1892, Mr. Redden was 
united in marriage to Miss Ora Gross, of Se- 
dalia, ^Missouri, daughter of A. P. ]\I. and 
Ella Nevada (Gay) Gross, both natives of 
Dade county. The father is deceased, but 
Mrs. Gross now makes her home in Los An- 
geles, California. IMrs. Redden received her 
education in the Sedalia public schools. 
They have a quartet of interesting children, 
namel}': Allan C, Elizabeth, Anthony and 
Charles Greer. The subject is a Republi- 
can and a Royal Arch ]\Iason and he and his 
wife are affiliated with the Christian church. 

Lin Grisham. As president of the Con- 
solidated Store & Manufacturing Company, 
the main headquarters of which important 
concern are at Fredericktown, Missouri, Lin 
Grisham is actively identified with mercan- 
tile and manufacturing interests in south- 
eastern Missouri. He is deeply interested in 
community affairs and his efforts have also 
been a potent element in the business prog- 
ress of this section of the state. He has with 
ready recognition of opportunity directed his 
labors into various fields, wherein he has 
achieved success, and at the same time has 
promoted a business enterprise that has 
proved of more than local value, largely pro- 
moting the commercial activity of the state. 
A brief history of this gigantic concern will 
appear in a succeeding paragraph. 

Lin Grisham was born in Wayne county, 
Missouri, on the 10th of April, 1869, and he 
is a son of James and Margaret (Andrews) 
Grisham, who came to IMissoiiri from Ten- 
nessee in the year 1854. The father was 
bom in the state of Tennessee in the year 
1837, and as a young man he was interested 
in farming, continuing to devote his atten- 
tion to that line of enterprise until 1882. 



Since that time he has been engaged in the 
mercantile and milling business in Wayne 
county, Missouri, but at the present time he 
resides at Fredericktown. He was county 
judge of Wayne county for a period of eight 
years and also served with the utmost effi- 
ciency as associate judge for a period of two 
years. The mother of the subject of this re- 
view was descended from old Virginia stock, 
and her father at one time was a sailor on 
the Atlantic ocean. He established the 
family home in Wayne county, Missouri, in 
an early daj^ and thei-e passed the residue of 
his life. ]\Irs. James Grisham was summoned 
to eternal rest in 1911, at the venerable age 
of seventy-six years. Mr. and Mrs. Gris- 
ham became the parents of seven children, 
concerning whom the following brief data 
are here inserted, — Frank is a farmer and 
miller at Caledonia, Jlissouri ; T. M. resides 
at Fredericktown, Missouri; J. S. was for- 
merl}^ state representative from Colorado 
and he is now sheriff of Las Animas county, 
that state ; W. F. is an extensive rancher and 
stock dealer in Colorado, owning barns at 
Trinidad and Pueblo; John is engaged in 
business at Fredericktown; Ida is the widow 
of Dr. !JIontgomery, of Wayne county, and 
she resides with her father; and Lin is the 
immediate subject of this review. 

To the public schools of Wayne county, 
Jlissouri, Lin Grisham is indebted for his 
preliminary educational training. As a 
youth he became associated with his father 
in the latter 's extensive mercantile enter- 
prises, and during the intervening years to 
tlie present time he has devoted considerable 
attention to general merchandising and lum- 
bering. The Consolidated Store & Manu- 
facturing Company, of which he is president, 
was organized in 1910, and it represents a 
merging of four different mercantile corpo- 
rations. The Company has stores in Cape Gi- 
rardeau, jMadison, Waj-ne and Bollinger 
counties. It has a capital stock of eighty- 
three thousand dollars and its official corps 
is as follows: — Lin Grisham, president; R. 
H. Davis, vice-president; C. A. Grisham, sec- 
retary and treasurer; and the board of di- 
rectors includes T. M. Grisham, R. H. Davis, 
John Grisham and Lin Grisham, of Freder- 
icktown, and T. H. Wiseman, of St. Louis. 
Since its organization the Company has 
opened five new stores and now conducts six- 
teen individual concerns in the four counties 
mentioned above. The offices of the company 




^,^C.^CC^^ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



629 



are located in a fine concrete structure at 
Fredericktown, the same being situated on 
West Slain street. As president of this great 
corporation Jlr. Grisham has displayed un- 
usual shrewdness and excellent executive 
ability and under his able management it 
has been decidedly prosperous. In addition 
to his mercantile interests jMr. Grisham is a 
member of the board of directors of the Bank 
of Fredericktown and he is also a member of 
the board o'f curators of ilarvin College. 

In Wayne county, ilissouri, in 1892, was 
celebrated the marriage of Mr. Grisham to 
Miss Josie Dixon, a native of that county 
and a daughter of Benton Dixon. Mr. and 
]\Ii-s. Grisham have two sons, — Leonard, 
whose birth occurred in 1893 ; and Lloyd, 
born in 1897 and at present a student in 
Marvin College. 

In polities Mr. Grisham is aligned as a 
stalwart supporter of the principles and 
policies for which the Republican party 
stands sponsor. He is not a politician, prac- 
tically speaking, but he has given splendid 
service as a member of the Central Repub- 
lican committee. In the Masonic order he 
is a member of Marcus Lodge, No. 110, Free 
and Accepted Masons; and Solomon Chap- 
ter, Royal Arch Masons. In their religious 
faith the Grisham family are devout mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
South, to whose good works, they are liberal 
contributors of their time and means. 

Christian E. Stiver. The present able 
and popular incumbent of the position of 
city engineer of Cape Girardeau is Christian 
E. Stiver, who was elected to that important 
office in April, 1911. He is a prominent 
business man of the younger generation who 
has achieved success as the result of his own 
well directed endeavors and he is a citizen 
who is ever on the alert and enthusiastically 
in sympathy with all movements projected 
for the progress and improvement of this 
section of the state, where he has maintained 
his home since March, 1909. 

A native of the fine old Keystone state of 
the Union, Christian E. Stiver was born in 
the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 
the 19th of January, 1884. He is a son of 
Charles L. and Sarah (Hagey) Stiver, both 
of whom were likewise bom in Philadelphia 
and both of whom are now living, their home 
being at Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Of the two 
children bom to Mr. and Mrs. Stiver the sub- 



ject of this article, is the eldest and his 
brother, Ellwood H. Stiver, is attending col- 
lege. In his youth Christian E. Stiver was 
att'orded excellent educational advantages. 
After completing the curriculum of the pub- 
lie schools of his home community iu Phila- 
delphia he was matriculated as a student in 
Nazareth Hall, a military academy at Naza- 
reth, Pennsylvania. In 1901 he was a stu- 
dent in the Lehigh University, at Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania. He entered Lafayette Col- 
lege, at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1904, in 
the engineering department of which excel- 
lent institution he was graduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1907. In J\Iarch, 1909, 
he came to Cape Girardeau, where he ac- 
cepted a postion with the Cape Girardeau 
Portland Cement Company as engineer. In 
June, 1909, however, he left that concern and 
took up railroad survey work. In September 
of the same year he entered the employ of 
the Kettle River Company, a paving concern 
in this city, and in July, 1910, he again 
turned his attention to railroad surveying. 
In April, 1911, he was honored by his fel- 
low citizens with election to the office cf city 
engineer and he is now serving in that capac- 
ity with the utmost efficiency. 

In his political convictions Mr. Stiver is 
aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Re- 
publican party and his religious faith is in 
harmony with the teachings of the Jlethodist 
Episcopal church. In a fraternal way he is 
affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevo- 
lent & Protective Order of Elks and he is 
also connected with the Sigma Nu college 
fraternity. He is a young man of splendid 
mentality and fine moral fiber and iu all the 
relations of life he has so conducted himself 
as to command the unalloyed confidence and 
esteem of all with whom he has come in con- 
tact. He is genial in his associations, aff'able 
in his address, generous in his judgment of 
his fellow men, and courteous to all. As a 
citizen and enthusiast of his town, it is but 
just to say that communities will pro^^^or 
and grow in proportion as they put a pre- 
mium on men of his mould. 

WiixiAM S. C. Walker. Distinguished for 
his umblemished record as a man and a jurist 
is William Samuel Crittenden Walker, circuit 
judge of the Twenty-second Judicial Circuit, 
Judge Walker is the son of Thomas C. and 
Susan F. (Crittenden) Walker, both repre- 
sentatives of old Virginia families and na- 



630 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tives respectively of Lancaster and Essex 
counties of the Old Dominion. He was 
elected to the bench in 1910 and assumed the 
duties of his high office in January of the 
ensuing year. His reputation as one of the 
prominent lawyers of Dunklin county has 
been reinforced with the passing years, dur- 
ing which he has appeared in connection 
with many of the important cases brought 
before the state and federal courts, and his 
standing has been stamped with approval by 
his elevation to the bench. 

Judge Walker was born at Tappahannock, 
Virginia, August 22, 1859. After finishing 
his public school course in his native town 
he entered William and Mai-y College, from 
which he was graduated with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts in 1877. He next took up 
the study of law at the University of Vir- 
ginia and received the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws in 1880. He practiced law in the Old 
Dominion, the scene of his first professional 
labors being in his native county, and in 
1889 he came to Dunklin county, where he 
has ever since remained and where his life 
and achievements have amply recommended 
him. For four or five years he was in prac- 
tice with H. N. Phillips, now of Poplar Bluff, 
and subsequently he entered into partner- 
ship in the practice of the law with D. R. 
Cox, of Maiden, this association continuing 
throughout the decade included between the 
years 1897 and 1907. From 1901 to 1905 he 
was prosecuting attorney of the county, be- 
ing twice elected to the office without oppo- 
sition. His tenure of office in that capacity 
was thus of four years' duration. In 1910 
he was elected circuit judge, as previously 
mentioned, and he has already had opportu- 
nity to prove that the choice of the people 
was by no means at fault. In his political 
convictions Judge Walker is a Democrat, 
and he has ever been very loyal in his sup- 
port of the principles and policies for which 
the party stands. 

Judge Walker stands high in Masonry, be- 
longing to the Blue Lodge and Chapter, and 
lives up to the fine ideals which the ancient 
and august order teaches. He holds mem- 
bership in the Knights of Pythias and the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a 
member of the Missionary Baptist church in 
Kennett. 

Judge Walker was first married in 1891, to 
Marion B. Phillips, the daughter of Colonel 
H. N. Phillips. She died after five years of 



married life, leaving one daughter. Rose M. 
In 1900 he married Miss Belle McCarroll. 
She became the mother of one son, Heniy, 
and died in 1904. 

Judge Walker is a quiet, unassuming stu- 
dent of the law. He is slow to form opinions, 
but when he has become sure of his ground 
he acts accordingly and nothing can make 
him swerve from the right as he sees it. 

Oba H.iLEY, M. D. For the 'past thirty- 
five years Dr. Oba Haley has been engaged 
in the practice of medicine and for at least 
a quarter of a century he has maintained his 
professional headquarters at Fredericktown, 
^Missouri, where he controls a large and rep- 
resentative patronage and where he is hon- 
ored and esteemed by all with whom he has 
come in contact. The years have told the 
story of a successful career due to the pos- 
session of innate talent and acquired ability 
along the line of one of the most important 
professions to which man may devote his 
energies, — the alleviation of pain and suf- 
fering and the restoration of health, which 
is man's most cherished and priceless pos- 
session. This is an age of progress in all 
lines of achievement and Dr. Haley has kept 
abreast of the advancement that has revolu- 
tionized methods of medical and surgical 
practice, rendering the efforts of physicians 
of much more avail in warding off the in- 
roads of disease than they were even at the 
time when he entered upon his professional 
cai-eer. 

Dr. Haley was born at Steeleville, in 
Crawford county, Missouri, on the 25th of 
November. 1847, and he is a son of Henry 
and Emma (Key) Haley, the former of 
whom was born in Tennessee and the latter 
of whom claimed Steeleville, Missouri, as the 
place of her birth. The father was reared to 
maturity in the vicinity of McMinnville, 
Tennessee, and as a young man came to 
Crawford county, this state, where was sol- 
emnized his marriage to Miss Emma Key 
and where he passed the greater part of his 
active career as a farmer and stockman. 
William Haley, grandfather of the Doctor, 
was likewise a farmer by occupation and he 
came to Crawford county, JMissouri, in the 
latter '40s. His father was a soldier in the 
English army and he served as such in the 
war of the Revolution. During that conflict 
he was captured and imprisoned in the 
United States and at the close of the war he 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



631 



decided to make his home in this new coun- 
try. Henry Haley was a valued and appre- 
ciative member of the time-honored Masonic 
order. He was called to eternal rest in 1879, 
at the age of sixty years. The mother of the 
Doctor was a daughter of Oba Key, a pio- 
neer ilissourian and a native of Kentucky. 
Mrs. Henry Haley passed to the great be- 
yond in 1879, at the age of fifty years. Dr. 
Haley was the first born in a family of eight 
children — six boys and two girls, of whom all 
the sous are living. William M. Haley is a 
prominent real-estate man in St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, where he has resided for the past 
thirty years ; John and Wilson Haley are en- 
gaged in the general merchandise business at 
Steeleville, Missouri; Basil conducts a meat 
market at West Plains, Missouri ; Jerry 
maintains his home in Texas; and Oba is the 
immediate subject of this review. Concern- 
ing the two sisters, — Mary died at the age of 
eighteen years, in 1880 ; and Delia, who be- 
came the wife of Reuben Summers, resided 
for a number of years in East St. Louis, 
where her death occurred in 1893 ; she is sur- 
vived by her husband and two daughters. 

Dr. Haley, of this notice, was reared to 
adult age at Steeleville, his preliminary edu- 
cational training having been completed 
with a course in the Steeleville Academy. 
For three years thereafter, from 1864 to 
1867, he was employed as a clerk in the gen- 
eral store of the Merrimac Iron Works. 
Prom 1864 to 1867 he attended school in 
Phelps county, ilissouri, and in 1869 he 
began to read medicine under a noted physi- 
cian at Steeleville, Missouri. In 1872 he was 
matriculated as a student in the old St. Louis 
IMedieal College, in which excellent institu- 
tion he was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1873, duly receiving his degree of 
Doctor of Medicine. Subsequently he at- 
tended the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of Missouri, in which he was gradu- 
ated in 1879. He initiated the active prac- 
tice of his profession at Bellevue, IMissouri, 
where he remained for the ensuing ten years, 
coming thence to Fredericktown, in 1886. 
During the period of his residence at Fred- 
ericktown he has achieved unusual success 
as a skilled physician and surgeon and he 
holds pi-estige as one of the finest doctors in 
Southeastern Missouri. 

Dr. Haley has been twice married, his first 
union having been to iliss IMartha A. Brooks, 
who died in June, 1904. To this marriage 



were born three children, — Claude B., who is 
engaged in the newspaper business at Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio; Henry L., who is a civil engi- 
neer at Los Angeles, California; and Lucy, 
who is the wife of Dr. Keller, of Willisville, 
Illinois. In 1908 Dr. Haley wedded Mrs. 
Birdie Law, nee Nifong, who had one child 
by her first marriage, namely, — Jamie, who 
died at the age of six yars. 

In connection with the work of his profes- 
sion Dr. Haley is affiliated with the iMadison 
County Medical Society; the Southeastern 
Missouri Medical Society, the Missouri State 
Medical Society and the American Medical 
Association. He has served as president of 
the Southeastern Missouri Medical Society. 
He was local surgeon for the Iron ilountain 
Railroad from 1886 to 1896, and was also 
Secretary for ten years of the United States 
Pension Board. In a fraternal way he is 
connected with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and in politics he accords a 
stalwart allegiance to the principles and poli- 
cies promulgated by the Democratic party. 
Dr. Haley commands the hearty admiration 
and esteem of his fellow practitioners by 
reason of his strict adherence to the unwrit- 
ten code of professional ethics and as a citi- 
zen he is essentially loyal and public spirited, 
doing all in his power to advance the general 
progress and improvement. 

Louis Krueger. The present able and 
popular incumbent of the office of clerk of 
the common pleas court at Cape Girardeau, 
Missouri, is Louis Krueger, who has resided 
in this city during all of his life and who is 
here honored and esteemed by all with whom 
he has come in contact by reason of his fair 
and . straightforward business dealings. Mr. 
Krueger was born at Cape Girardeau, on the 
11th of September. 1874, and he is a son of 
William and Elizabeth (Schrader) Krueger, 
both born in Brunswick, Germany. Both 
parents came to the United States in early 
youth, settling at Cape Girardeau, Avhere 
they became acquainted and eventually mar- 
ried. As a young man Mr. William Krueger 
turned his attention to the meat-market busi- 
ness, stock buying and farming, and he was 
identified with those lines of enterprise dur- 
ing the major part of his active career. He 
died November 4, 1880, his wife, now Mrs. 
Hitt, living in Cape Girardeau. Mr. and Mrs. 
Krueger became the parents of six children, 
of whom the three daughters are deceased. 



632 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



The sons all reside in this city, — Louis is the 
immediate subject of this review; Martin 0. 
is most successfully engaged in the hardware 
business and is mentioned on other pages of 
this work; and William H. is janitor of the 
Federal building. 

Louis Krueger was reared to adult age at 
Cape Girardeau, where he attended the Loir- 
mier Public School until he had reached the 
age of seventeen years. He then entered the 
State Normal School, and later Bryant & 
Stratton's Business College at St. Louis. 
After completing his education he taught 
school for two years, and then entered the 
office of Cape Girardeau Water Works and 
Electric Light Company where he remained 
for two years. He gave his attention to the 
hardware business for a short time. For a 
number of years he was secretary of the 
Cape Girardeau and Jackson Gravel Road 
Company, but a few years ago resigned that 
position. He has an interest in a farm, and 
as above stated, is the clerk of the common 
pleas court at Cape Girardeau at the present 
time. 

In his political convictions Mr. Krueger is 
aligned as a stalwart supporter of the prin- 
ciples and policies for which the Republican 
party stands sponsor. On the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1911, he was honored by his fellow citi- 
zens with election to the office of clerk of the 
court of common pleas, in discharging the 
duties of which important position he is 
acquitting himself with all of honor and dis- 
tinction. Mr. Krueger is a man of sterling 
worth and unquestioned integrity; he looks 
upon a public office as a public trust and as 
a result of his varied experiences and broad 
information is eminently well fitted for pub- 
lic honors. In fraternal circles Mr. Krueger 
is affiliated with the local lodges of the Be- 
nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the 
Royal Arcanum and the Sons of Veterans, 
he being eligible for membership in the last 
organization by reason of his father's serv- 
ice as a gallant and faithful soldier in the 
Union army of the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. 
Krueger are noted for their geniality and in 
their comfortable, attractive home hospice is 
given to all comers. They are held in high 
regard by their fellow citizens and possess 
scores of friends. 

At Jackson, Missouri, in the month of 
March, 1903. was solemnized the marriage of 
]Mr. Krueger to IMiss Helen Jaeger, who was 
born and reared in this place and who is a 



daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Jaeger, 
the former a native of Germany and the lat- 
ter a native of Cape Girardeau. Mr. and Mrs. 
Ki'ueger are the parents of two daughters: 
Helen, whose birth occurred in 1905, and 
Louise, born in 1908. 

Alfred A. Vitt, of Union, represents one 
of the pioneer families of Franklin county. 
His father, John T. Vitt, was a native of 
Prussia, born at Siegen in 1809. A man of 
university training, Mr. Vitt was induced to 
come to America by the "Giesener Auswan- 
derings Gesellschaf t, " a society for the pro- 
motion of immigration to the United States. 
The opportunity to become a citizen of the 
republic and to enjoy its privileges appealed 
to John T. Vitt and in 1834 he came to 
Franklin county. Four years later he re- 
turned to Prussia for his bride, Cornelia 
Schmidt, and the couple formed the nucleus 
of a family that has been modestly identified 
with Franklin county's history for more 
than seventy years. 

John T. Vitt had entered a tract of gov- 
ernment land in 1834, but later became a 
merchant in the town of Union and re- 
mained in the mercantile business until 1856. 
In 1859 he built a steam grist and merchant 
mill at Union and he continued to operate 
the mill with the assistance of three of his 
sons until 1868, when he retired. Always an 
active business man, he was an equally con- 
scientious public official. A resident of 
Union when it was incorporated, he was 
made one of its first trustees. In the early 
days he filled the office of justice of peace 
and was several times chosen county judge. 
He was among the original Fremont Repub- 
licans and had few colleagues here during 
that memorable campaign. Three of his sons 
served in the Union army: Adolphus H., who 
died in Union, leaving a family of six chil- 
dren ; Herman W., whose home is still in 
Union ; and Alfred A. The other children 
of John and Cornelia Vitt are Edwin, who 
passed away in 1878, and Mrs. Bertha E. 
Clark, of Union. Cornelia Vitt died in 1884 
and John T. Vitt in 1889. 

Alfred A. Vitt was born near Union, Mis- 
souri, February 28, 1844, the historic "high 
water" year. His education was concluded 
before the outbreak of the Civil war and he 
gave evidence of his patriotism by enlisting 
in Company A of the rifle battalion attached 
to the First Regiment, Missouri Infantry 



PILSTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



633 



Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Frank 
P. Blair, in April, 1861. Company A was 
commanded by Captain L. E. Konieuzeski. 
The enlistment was for ninety days, and up- 
on its expiration Mr. Vitt returned home. 
He served in and around the St. Louis ar- 
senal and marine hospital — -Meramec Station 
on the jMissouri Pacific Railroad and Rolla, 
at that time the terminus of the Southwest- 
ern Branch, now the Frisco Railway. He 
witnessed the capture of General Frost's 
Confederate Camp Jaelison at St. Louis by 
General Lyon, on May 10, 1861, which event 
saved St. Louis to the Union. From August, 
1861, until some time in 1864 Sir. Vitt re- 
mained out of the zone of hostilities, working 
in his father's mill. In that year he enlisted 
in the Forty-seventh Missouri Infantry, com- 
manded by Colonel Thomas C. Fletcher, 
afterward governor of the state. Until May, 

1865, Mr. Vitt was in active service in the 
war. His company helped to build the fort 
at Pilot Knob, Missouri, and after General 
Sterling Price's raid they were sent up the 
Missouri river on a boat with a detachment 
of artillery, to prevent the crossing of bands 
or independent companies from the north 
side of the river to join Price's army. His 
regiment was subsequently ordered into Ten- 
nessee, when General Thomas at Nashville 
called for aid. Before the Forty-seventh 
reached that point, Thomas had cut Hood's 
army to pieces, so that the services of the 
regiment were diverted to other points in 
Tennessee, where it did active military duty 
until the spring of 1865, when it was ordered 
home to be mustered out at Benton Barracks, 
St. Louis. 

Resuming business as a civilian, Mr. Vitt 
assisted his father in the mill until tlie fall of 

1866, when he engaged in the stove and tin- 
ware business in Union. He learned the tin- 
ners' trade and followed that business until 
May, 1868. At that time his father decided 
to retire and Alfred A. and his brother Her- 
man W. purchased the mill. In 1880 he be- 
came sole proprietor and has since conducted 
the business. Other matters have claimed 
his attention in the ensuing forty odd years, 
among which was the organization of the 
Citizens' Bank of Union. Mr. Vitt was the 
first president of this bank; later he acted 
as its cashier from January 4, 1910, to March 
1. 1911, and is still a member of the board. 

In politics Mr. Vitt has. like his distin- 
guished father, always acted with the Repub- 



licans, of which party he has been an hon- 
ored and prominent figure, being twice 
chosen chairman of the Republican County 
Committee. He has been mayor of Union 
and has represented his county 'in the general 
assemblies of 1907 and 1909. During his 
first term he was a member of the committee 
on private corporations and that of claims, 
local bills and miscellaneous business. In 
the second session he was a member of the 
committee on roads and highways, wills and 
probate law and private corporations, and 
chairman of the committee on labor. The 
legislation towards good roads claimed Mr. 
Vitt's special interest and the measures 
passed during his service in the legislature 
are ^now bearing fruit. Another of Mr. 
Vitt's achievements was the bill empowering 
counties to levy a special tax for the erection 
of a court house or other public buildings 
without resorting to bonded debt, inasmuch 
as he was the author of the bill, now a law 
in Missouri. 

On March 5, 1866, Mr. Vitt was married to 
Miss Mary Jane White, a daughter of John 
White, who came to Missouri from Pennsyl- 
vania. Mrs. Vitt's mother was Elizabeth 
Ferguson. Mrs. Vitt died February 10, 
1886. Of the children born to the subject 
and his wife, Fred married Miss Caroline 
Pisane and resides in Union; Jessamine is 
JMrs. J. W. Ream, of Portland, Oregon; 
i\Iary M. married Edward Muench, of Union, 
where Gertrude E. (Vitt) Shelton also makes 
her home. One son, Tracy G., is dead; the 
others are Eugene B., a locomotive engineer 
of St. Louis, Missouri; and John T., a civil 
engineer, now at Evansville, Indiana, in the 
employ of the C. & E. I. Railroad Company. 

Mr. Vitt is a Knight of Pythias and a 
Mason, and has served as a delegate to the 
Grand Lodge of both orders. Well informed 
and unusually interested in the general wel- 
fare of the community, which he has served 
in such varied capacities, Mr. Vitt is a 
worthy representative of an admirable race. 
He is hale and hearty and very active for one 
of his years. 

F. G. Clippard. The postmaster and mer- 
chant farmer of Leopold is a Missourian and 
the son of Missourians. He was born in 
Bollinger county, in 1854, his parents being 
G. W. and Sorintha Clippard. Like most of 
the district's prominent citizens, Mr. Clip- 
pard spent his early life working on his 



634 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



father's farm. At the age of eighteen he left 
the farm to work for his uncle in the mei'- 
cantile business and remained here for ten 
years, always an efficient and careful worker. 

In 1872 ilr. Clippard and his sisters in- 
herited jointly an estate of one hundred and 
thirty-five acres. The brother bought out 
his sisters and operated the farm for twenty 
years. In 1892 he sold this farm and bought 
two hundred and seventy-five acres near Laf- 
lin, Missouri. Mr. Clippard is also the 
owner of one hundred acres near Leopold. 
In the town itself he holds three and a half 
lots besides a large general merchandise 
store. He has conducted this mercantile 
business since 1892 with notable success. 

Mr. Clippard was married in 1876, to Miss 
Katie Manning, daughter of Herman and 
Fronie Manning, natives of Germany. Six 
children were born of this marriage, three of 
whom are still living: E. W., aged twenty- 
six; Early, aged nineteen; and Mary Clip- 
pard, aged twenty-three. The mother of 
these children died in 1901. In 1903 Mr. 
Clippard married Miss Josephine GeronisMe, 
a native of Germany. Two daughters have 
been born to them, namely: Ella, born in 
1904, and Alma, born in 1907. 

ilr. Clippard is a communicant of the 
Roman Catholic church. Politically he is a 
loyal and consistent Democrat. His effi- 
ciency in office is indicated by the fact that 
he has been postmaster since 1902. 

Thomas W. Schultz^ court stenographer 
for the Twenty-second judicial circuit, is a 
young man who has attained prominence not 
only in Kennett, but throughout Dunklin 
county. If we should look for the cause of 
his success we might recall the fact that in 
his veins flows the blood of Germany, France 
and America, and Mr. Schultz has inherited 
from each country qualities which largely 
account for his advancement. Combined 
with the industry of the Germans we find in 
his personality the vivacity of the French 
and the enterprise of the Americans. 

I\Ir. Schultz was born at Hornersville, 
Dunklin county, December 16, 1881. This 
also is the native county of Francis M. 
Schultz, his father, who was bom June 11, 
1838, and Ms grandfather was one of the 
pioneers of this section, whither he came 
about 1830. Previous to tliis date he had re- 
sided in Stoddard countj^ for a period of 
nine years, having migrated from Tennessee 



to Missouri in 1821. Tennessee was the com- 
monwealth to which Grandfather Schultz 
owes his birth and his early education, but 
although his family had been amongst the 
early settlers of that state, his ancestors orig- 
inated in Germany. After coming to Dunk- 
lin county ilr. Schultz was uniformly 
successful and was accounted one of its most 
substantial and honorable citizens. The 
homestead there became endeared to him, 
being the one in which he was married and 
where his children were born and reared to 
childhood years. Before they had grown to be 
young men and women, however, the father 
died, leaving the chilch-en to be brought up 
by their mother, who lived to see them all 
doing well, and she died on the farm where 
her married life had so profitably and hap- 
pily passed. 

The son, Francis, after the death of his 
father, spent much of his early life with the In- 
dians along Little river, taking keen delight in 
the companionship of those untutored but in- 
telligent people. When a young man, Fran- 
cis M. Schultz was married to Angeline Dun- 
away, who was born in New Madrid county, 
near Portage, and descended from an old 
French family of pioneers who had settled 
along the Missouri river in that section of the 
state. At the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. 
Schultz enlisted in the Confederate army 
and served until hostilities ceased. After he 
was mustered out he went to Hornersville, 
Dunklin county, where he settled on a farm 
and has since followed agricultural pursuits 
continually. There he and his wife still live, 
content to feel that they are i^erforming their 
modest jjart for the good of the community. 
]Mr. Schultz has always been a good Demo- 
crat, at all times staunch in the support of 
his party, but personally having no desire 
for political office. 

Thomas W. Schultz, as noted, was brought 
up on his father's farm. As soon as he was 
of proper age he was sent to the public 
schools at Hornersville, and after finishing 
their prescribed course entered a business 
college at Quincy, Illinois, August 31, 1910, 
where he received a thorough training, espe- 
cially in stenography. In 1899, when eigh- 
teen years of age, he commenced work in the 
post-office and general stores and was thus 
employed for the ensuing eight years. At 
the expiration of that time, in 1907, he lo- 
cated at the town of Senath, where he earned 
a fine reputation as an insurance agent. In 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



635 



this capacity liis French blood came to his 
practical assistance, for his Hueut speech and 
persuasive manners made it difficult for 
anyone to long turn a deaf ear to the prop- 
ositions he laid before them. Although Mr. 
Schultz was defeated for circuit court clerk 
in the Democratic nominating caucus, Judge 
Walker appointed him to the office of court 
stenographer of the twenty-second district, 
in which capacity he is serving now. In 
every way he is one of the bright young men 
of this section, whose steady advance is taken 
as a matter of course. 

On the 8th day of December, 1908, the 
year after ]Mr. Schultz entered the insurance 
field, his marriage to Miss May McCluer was 
solemnized at her native town of Senath. 

Donald H. Cameron. Taking cognizance 
of the name of the able and popular editor 
of the Mining Herald, of Elvins, St. Francois 
county, there can be no measure of conjec- 
ture as to his ancestral lineage, for both his 
personal and family names bear unmistak- 
able evidence of the sturdy Scotch deriva- 
tion, and the family history gives record 
concerning the valiant deeds of the fine old 
Cameron elan of the Scottish highlands, 
within which oppression has been hurled 
back to keep the boon of liberty. Mr. Cam- 
eron, as editor and publisher of the Mining 
Herald, has made that paper an elfective ex- 
ponent of local interests, especially of the 
mining industry in the section of the state in 
which it is published, and it ranks as one of 
the vigorous and excellent weekly papers of 
southeastei'n ilissouri. 

Donald Hilliard Cameron was born at 
Woodville, Victoria county, province of On- 
tario, Canada, in 1878, and is a son of Dun- 
can and Lovisa (Irish) Cameron, whose mar- 
riage was there solemnized in the year 1862. 
The father was born in the staunch Scottish 
settlement in Glengarry county, province 
of Ontario, in the year 1841, and was 
reared to the sturdy discipline of the 
great basic industry of agriculture. He be- 
came a marine engineer, however, and for 
many years was identified with navigation 
interests on the Great Lakes. He continued 
to reside in Canada until his death, on the 
17th of December, 1897, and his widow still 
maintains her home at Port Arthur, province 
of Ontario. Duncan Cameron well exempli- 
fied the canny traits of the race from which 
he was sprung, and his independence, ster- 



ling integrity and mature judgment made 
him a strong and noble character. He com- 
manded the respect of all with whom he came 
in contact and lived a life of signal honor 
and usefulness. He was a staunch Tory in 
his political allegiance and was a mepiber of 
the Presbyterian church, of which his widow 
also has long been a devoted adherent. Of 
the nine children Donald II., of this review, 
was the seventh in order of birth. 

The childhood and youth of Donald H. 
Cameron were passed in his native province, 
— principally at Woodville and Orillia — and 
his early educational discii^liue, secured in 
the public schools, was effectively supple- 
mented by a course of study in the collegiate 
institute in the village of Orillia. It has been 
consistently said that the training of a news- 
paper office is tantamount to a liberal educa- 
tion, and the consistency of this statement 
has been exemplified in the career of Mr. 
Cameron, who instituted his association with 
the "art preservative of all arts" when he 
was a lad of fifteen years. He entered, at 
the age noted, the office of the Orillia News 
Letter, in which he sex'ved a practical ap- 
prenticeship to the printer's trade and with 
which he continued to be identified for five 
years, after which he was employed at his 
trade and as a reporter on various papers in 
his native province, — principally in the city 
of Toronto. 

In the year 1902 Mr. Cameron came to 
Missouri and located in St. Louis, but in the 
following year he established his residence in 
Elvins, St. Francois county, where he as- 
sumed the position of editor of the Labor 
Herald. In March, 1910, was effected a 
reorganization of the controlling company 
and the name of the paper was changed to 
the Mining Herald, under which title it has 
since been effectively conducted, with Mr. 
Cameron as editor and manager. The Herald 
is staunchly aligned in support of the prin- 
ciples and policies for which the Republican 
party stands sponsor, and with this party 
Mr. Cameron has been actively identified 
since he became a naturalized citizen of the 
United States, in 1908. He is a vigorous and 
resourceful writer and the editorial and news 
columns of the Herald amply indicate his 
ability in this line. As a citizen he is liberal 
and i^rogressive, and his personal popularity 
shows conclusively that he has measured up 
to the demands of the metewand of objective 
approbation. In April, 1911, there came 



636 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



distinctive evidence of the confidence and es- 
teem reposed in liim in his home community, 
as he was then elected mayor of Elvius, in 
which position he is giving a most careful 
and progressive administration of municipal 
affairs. Both he and his wife hold member- 
ship in the Presbyterian church and he is 
afaiiated with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. 

in July, 1906, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of ]\Ir. Cameron to Miss Kate Langdon, 
daughter of Mrs. :\Iary Langdon, of Elvius, 
and she is a popular factor in connectiou with 
the social activities of her home community. 
Mr. and Mrs. Cameron have no children. 

Aaron P^vlmee. One of the most active 
and prosperous agriculturists of Dunklin 
county, Aaron Palmer owns and occupies a 
valuable farm in the town of Senath, where 
he has won an enviable reputation as an 
honest man and a good citizen, and as one 
who has contributed his full quota towards 
the advancement and development of one of 
the richest agricultural regions of South- 
eastern Missouri. A son of William and 
Pamelia (^Miller) Palmer, he was born in 
Carroll county, Tennessee, February 4, 1845, 
on the home farm. 

William Palmer was born and reared in 
South Carolina, but as a young man settled 
in Carroll county, Tennessee, where he lived 
until 1849, when he came to Missouri, locat- 
ing in Stoddard county, near Bloomfield. 
He was of English ancestry on both sides of 
the house, as was his first wife, the mother 
of the subject of this sketch. She died on the 
farm near Bloomfield, in 1854, leaving three 
children, namely : Aaron Palmer, the subject 
of this sketch ; and a son and a daughter that 
are now living in California. William 
Palmer was subsequently twice married, and 
had one other child, Mrs. Martha Hays, of 
Dunklin covinty. 

Brouglit up in Stoddard county. Aaron 
Palmer lived at home for a few years after 
his father's second marriage. At the age of 
thirteen years, however, he began working 
out for wages, finding employment on differ- 
ent farms in Missouri and Tennessee. In 
1862, during the most exciting period of the 
Civil war. he came to Dunklin coimty with 
two yoke of steers, which he drove sixty miles 
in three davs. his father, who had large herds 
of stock and was a southern sympathizer. 



coming here for protection, as things were 
prettj' warm for him in Stoddard county. 
Mr. Palmer himself subsequently fought for 
a few months in the Confederate army, being 
a member of ilarmaduke's Cavalry, which 
was stationed principall.y in Arkansas. 

At tlie close of the conflict Mr. Palmer 
came to Dunklin county in search of re- 
munerative employment, having no capital 
save willing hands, a courageous heart and a 
strong determination to win success in the 
battle of life. About four years later he had 
succeeded so well in his efl:"orts that he felt 
warranted in taking unto himself a wife. She 
had some land and a few head of cattle, and 
they settled near his present home. A year 
or two later Mr. Palmer purchased eighty 
acres of the land now included in his farm, 
and in its management met with such emi- 
nent success that he has since made frequent 
purcha.ses of other land, and is now owner of 
eight hundred acres of land in Dunklin 
county, nearly all of which is in one bod.y, he 
lieing now one of the largest owners of im- 
proved land in the entire county. When Mr. 
Palmer located in Senath there were no roads 
in the vicinity, nothing but paths, and only 
one building had then been erected in the 
town. The country roundabout was heavily 
timbered, his first dwelling place having been 
erected in the woods, and having been made 
of logs, with a stick and mud chimney. At 
the end of seven years Mr. Palmer traded his 
original property, selling to a man at Cotton 
Plant, and subsequentlv made another deal 
with Will F. Shelton, Sr.. of Kennett. He is 
now oceuping a large, seven-room cottage, and 
on his farm has fifteen tenant houses, which 
are occupied by his renters, who devote their 
time and attention to tlie raising of the crops 
common to this region, Mr. Palmer himself 
doing now biit little of the actual labor of 
the farm. 

Mr. Palmer has been twice married. He 
married first, in September, 1869, Parlee 
Cook, who died in 1895, leaving six children, 
namely : Nancy : Thomas J. ; Martha ; Charles, 
living at home; George, also at home; and 
Tennie. Mr. Palmer married for his second 
wife. Mrs. Rachel T. Gulp, nee Hardin, a 
widow ^vith three children, namely : Henry. 
Janetta and Alfred. In his political relations 
Mr. Palmer is a Democrat, and religiously he 
is an active and trustworthy member of the 
Primitive Baptist cliurch. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 



637 



"William F. Bergmann. The name Berg- 
uiami suggests commercialism to the people 
of Cape Girardeau. Not oul.y is William F. 
Bergmaun a go-ahead business man, but his 
father before him was a merchant. William 
imbibed business principles in his babyhood ; 
he observed them in his boj^hood and he has 
practiced them in his maturity. The people 
of Cape Girardeau feel that the.y have a pro- 
prietary interest in him, he having spent the 
best part of his life in their midst. They 
have watched his development and that of 
his business. They have seen him grow from 
being simply the son of his father to a man 
who has made his own career, not being will- 
ing to live on the reputation of his father, 
however good that might be. 

William F. Bergmann was born at Cawe 
Girardeau, Missouri, August 6, 1876. His 
father, of whom mention is made on other 
pages of this work, is William C. Bergmann. 

William Bei'gmann is the eldest sou of his 
parents and to him Cape Girardeau means 
home, — the place where he was born, went to 
school, attended the state normal school and 
where his parents still live and he has made 
his own home. He began his business life as 
a traveling salesman in the millinery busi- 
ness, being employed by a St. Louis house. 
In 1902 he went into business for himself 
and has continued in the same place and 
along the same line ever since. He carries a 
large and complete stock of groceries, dry 
goods and furnishings, employing fifteen 
clerks to carry on his growing trade. 

In June, 1902, he married Fannie Harker, 
a native of Winfield, Kansas. One daugh- 
ter, Madeline, was born to this union. 

Sir. Bergmann is a member of the Com- 
mercial Club of Cape Girardeau and is a 
very active member. He l)elongs to the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 
standing high with the members of that or- 
ganization. He is one of the most prominent 
men of the city, not only in the business 
world, but also in his social life. Those same 
characteristics which have made him so suc- 
cessful in a commercial way have also won 
him friends. 

J. Feank Me.\dor. There is no lawyer in 
Wayne county who has a higher standing 
than Mr. Meador, its prosecuting attorney, 
and throughout his interesting career his ac- 
tions have lieen beyond criticism — no one has 
been able to cast any aspersions on his char- 



acter either in his private or public capacity. 
Since his first entry into the field of law he 
has set himself to run the course with single- 
ness of purpose. His goal has not been a 
crown of glory for himself, but the perform- 
ance each day of such duties as he saw. 
This course he has kept without deviating to 
the right or to the left. To men of such cali- 
bre honors will come w'ithout being sought^ 
as indeed they have to Mr. Meador — but in 
his mind the satisfaction which results from 
the knowledge of time well spent means much 
more than the positions of honor which 
have been awarded him. 

Mr. Aleador was l)orn in Wayne county, 
near Patterson, on the 1st day of December, 
1880. James F. ileador, the father of J. 
Frank, is a native of Macon county, Tennes- 
see, where his birth occurred in 1842. 
Grandfather Joseph Meador was a native of 
Virginia, where he married Miss Luiza 
Rhodes, and the young couple migrated to 
Tennessee, where they reared their family. 
In 1859 they moved to Wayne county, ]\Iis- 
souri, settled on some wild land which they 
improved and brought into a high state of 
cultivation. Their son, James F. Meador, 
was about seventeen years of age when he 
accompanied his parents from Tennessee to 
Wayne county, Missouri; he had acquired 
all the education he ever received in the dis- 
trict school in Tennessee, and on his arrival 
in Wayne county he commenced farming on 
the place which he now operates. He has de- 
voted most of his time to agricultural pur- 
suits, to the support of the Baptist church, 
of which' he and his wife are both members, 
and to the rearing and educating of his chil- 
dren. Mrs. James F. Meador 's maiden name 
was Anna Kinder, and she was born in 
AVayue county, Missouri, in 1849 ; her par- 
ents hailed from Pennsylvania and were of 
German descent. Of the ten children who 
were born to Mr and Mrs. James ]\Ieador 
eight are living, as follows: Adolph, a physi- 
cian located in Iron county, Missouri ; J. 
Frank ]\Ieador, the subject of this biog- 
raphy ; Mannie, wife of William Atnip, of 
Wayne county, Missouri; Ninnie, married to 
C. C. Ward, of Wayne county, Missouri; 
Callie, whose husband is George Bell, of Hi- 
ram, Missouri ; Luna, wife of William Chil- 
ton, Bismarck, ilissouri ; Pearl, residing in 
Wayne county, Missouri, with her husband, 
James Biggerstoiif ; and Walter, at home 
with his father, who is living on his farm on 



638 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MSSOURI 



the St. Francois i-iver, situated one mile dis- 
tant from the land which Grandfather 
]Meador took up on his arrival in Wajue 
count}'. 

J. Frank Meador was reared on his 
father's farm and when he was old enough 
he attended the district school in his neigh- 
borhood, remaining there until he was six- 
teen years old. He then entered the state 
normal school at Cape Girardeau and after 
a two years' course in this well-known insti- 
tution he entered the state university at 
Columliia, ^Missouri, from whose law depart- 
ment he was graduated in 1901. He had not 
attained his majority at the time of his grad- 
uation, and was therefore not eligible to 
practice, so for a few months he taught and 
then took up his residence at Jlountain 
Grove, "Wright county, Missouri, where for 
eighteen months he practiced law. In 1903 
he" removed to Van Buren, Carter county, 
aiissouri, remained there in legal practice 
until 1905, when he removed to Greenville, 
^Missouri. In the fall of 1906, when he was 
less than twenty-six years old, he was elected 
to the office of prosecuting attorney of 
Wayne county; in 1908 his record had been 
so entirely satisfactory that he was re- 
elected, and again in 1910 he was the Demo- 
cratic nominee and was elected for the third 
time. He is now serving his third term, and 
is but thirty-one years of age. 

Mr. Meador was married to Miss Willa 
Ilixson on the 3rd day of August, 1902 She 
is a daughter of Jerry and Elizabeth (Cole- 
man) Ilixson, both of whom are still living. 
Mr. and ]Mrs. ^leador are the parents of two 
daughters, — Violet and Fern. The husband 
and wife are members of the Baptist church, 
where they have many friends. Mr. 
i\leador's career so far may be characteri'-'-.-d 
as brilliant, and inasmuch as he is a young 
man, he may expect a future of still greater 
prominence. 

Franklin A. Wiggs, a citizen of distinc- 
tive prominence and influence at Lutesville. 
Missouri, is owner and editor of the well 
known publication, the Lutesville Banner, a 
Republican paper, whose unusual success and 
wide renown are the direct result of Jlr. 
Wiggs' well applied efforts. 

A native of the state of Illinois, ilr. AViggs 
was born in Union county, on the 2nd of Au- 
gust, 1857, and he is a .son of William and 



Mary E. Wiggs, both of whom are deceased, 
the father having passed awaj' in 1903 and the 
mother in 1899. William H. Wiggs was a 
native of Virginia and his wife was born in 
North Carolina, both having come to southern 
Illinois in early life. The father was a 
farmer by occupation and he and his wife 
were the parents of eight children, of v.hom 
the subject of this review was the first born. 
Franklin A. Wiggs passed his boyhood and 
youth on the old homestead farm in Union 
county, Illinois, and his preliminary educa- 
tional training consisted of such advantages 
as were afforded in the district schools of 
that county. At the age of seventeen years 
he was matriculated as a student in Ewing 
College, at Ewing, Illinois, spending the en- 
suing seven years in preparatory and colle- 
giate work in that excellent institution. Ow- 
ing to illness, however, he was unable to 
complete his course and was obliged to go 
to Colorado to recuperate. Returning to Illi- 
nois in 1882, he located at Ewing, where he 
was engaged in the general mei'chandise busi- 
ness until 1890. While in college he had 
worked for a time in the printing office of a 
Baptist paper, and thus, being somewhat 
familiar with that particular line of enter- 
prise, he opened a job-printing office at 
Chester, Illinois, in 1890, continuing to con- 
duct the same for five or six months. 

In the latter part of 1890 Mr. Wiggs re- 
moved to JMountain View, Missouri, where 
he was unfortunate in investments, losing a 
great deal of mone.y in the panic of 1S93. 
For a time thereafter he was engaged in the 
job and blank printing business at [Mountain 
View and subsequentl.v he edited the Moun- 
tain View Times, achieving a fair amount of 
success along these lines of enterprise. In 
1900 he removed his printing plant to 
Charleston, Missoiiri, where he established 
the Charleston Star. Disposing of the latter 
publication in 1901, he bought out the plant 
of the Lutesville Banner, a Republican news- 
paper which boasted a Washington hand 
press and a subscription list. Mr. Wiggs is 
now the owner of a fully equipped plant, 
modern in all its appointments and fitted 
out with power and type-setting machines. 
The Lutesville Banner has grown from a sec- 
ond rate paper to be one of the most influen- 
tial newspapers in southeastern ^lissouri 
and its prestige is due entirely to ]Mr. Wiggs' 
excellent management. In addition to his 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST BHSSOURI 



639 



printing plant, he is the owner of some fine 
property at Lutesville, the same including a 
beautiful residence. 

On the 12th of October, 1887, at Sailor 
Springs, in Clay county, ilissouri, was sol- 
emnized the marriage of Jlr. Wiggs to Miss 
Dean Sailor, a daughter of Thomas N. and 
Rebecca J. Sailor, residents of Sailor 
Springs, Illinois. This union has been 
blessed with one child, William S., whose 
birth occurred on the 25th of November, 
1892. In religious matters the Wiggs family 
give a loyal support to the Presbyterian 
church, of which they are devout members, 
and in a fraternal way Mr. AA'iggs is a valued 
and appreciative member of the local lodge 
of the Modern Woodmen of America. In 
politics he accords a stalwart allegiance to 
the principles and policies for which the Re- 
publican party stands sponsor and he is ever 
on the alert to do all in his power to ad- 
vance the best interests of Lutesville, where 
he is a man of mark in all the relations of 
life. 

0. H. Storey. A wide-awake, brainy man, 
possessing good business qualifications, 0. H. 
Storey occupies a position of note among the 
enterprising and progressive citizens of 
Senath, and as treasurer and general mana- 
ger of the J. AI. Baird ^Mercantile Company 
is associated with one of the city's leading 
industries. He was born June 22, 1888, in 
White county, Illinois, where he acquired an 
education and training that well fitted him 
for a business carei'r. 

In 1907, ere attaining his majority, Mr. 
Storey secured a position as cashier with the 
Caneer Store Company, in Senath, Missouri, 
and was afterwards cashier for awhile in the 
Bank of Senath. Leaving that position, he 
served in the same capacity at the Citizens' 
Bank in Senath, until the incorporation, in 
1910, of the J. M. Baird Mercantile Com- 
pany, of which he is treasurer and general 
manager. This company, of which a brief 
account is given elsewhere in this work, in 
connection with the sketch of the late J. M. 
Baird, was incorporated in 1910, with a cap- 
ital of $30,000, and a surplus of $60,000, and 
with the following named officers: ilrs. J. 
M. Baird, president ; Airs. 0. H. Storey, vice- 
president ; Miss Ilettie Baird. secretary; and 
0. H. Storey, treasurer and general mana- 
ger. The company carries a stock valued at 
$30,000, with annual sales amounting to up- 



wards of $75,000, dealing not only in hard- 
ware, agricultural implements and vehicles 
of all descriptions, but in cotton, owning and 
operating a finely-equipped cotton gin, and 
doing a business in cotton that amounts to 
about $65,000 a year. 

Mr. Storey married June 30. 1909, in 
Senath, Hulclah C. Baird, eldest daughter of 
the late James jM. and Lucy (Douglass) 
Baird, and they have one child, Ilattie Lu- 
cille Storey. 

N.VPOLEON B. Watts. Success along any 
line of endeavor would never be properly ap- 
preciated if it came with a single effort and 
unaccompanied by some hardships, for it is 
the knocks and bruises in life that make suc- 
cess taste so sweet. The career of Napoleon 

B. Watts, Avho has long maintained his home 
at Fredericktown, Missouri, but accentuates 
the fact that success is bound to come to 
those who join brains witli ambition and are 
willing to work. Air. Watts received but 
meager educational advantages in his youth 
and his early start in life was of the humblest 
order. Through persistency and a fixed 
determination to forge ahead, however, he 
has succeeded in building up a fine success 
for himself in the business world of south- 
eastern Alissouri. At the present time, in 
1911. he is president of the Security Bank 
at Fredericktown and in politics has figured 
prominently, having been county clerk for 
a period of eight years. 

Napoleon B. Watts was born in Aladison 
county, Alis-souri, on the 13th of Febi'uary, 
1848, and he is a son of Reuben and Nancy 

C. (Sites) Watts, botli of whom were like- 
wise born in Aladison county. The paternal 
grandparents of the subject of this review 
Avere natives of Culpeper county, Virginia, 
whence they migrated to Alissouri about the 
year 1818. Captain James Watts, the grand- 
father, was an officer in the war of 1812 and 
he was summoned to the life eternal in 1846, 
at the age of forty-eight years. He was the 
owner of a tract of fine land in the south- 
eastern part of Aladison county and at the 
time of his demise his son Green Watts in- 
herited the estate. Reiiben Watts was a 
Alethodist Episcopal minister and a farmer, 
he having entered and improved a farm ad- 
joining the old homestead, this farm now be- 
ing owned liy Air. X. B. AVatts. He died in 
Aladison county in 1876, at the age of fifty- 
seven years. Nanc.y C. (Sites) AA'atts was 



640 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



a daughter of Johu Sites, who came to Mis- 
souri in 1818. He was a prosperous farmer 
iu this section of the state but died in the 
ante-belhuu days. He was a native of North 
Carolina and was descended from stanch old 
German stock. Mrs. Watts passed to the 
great beyond in March, 1911, at the vener- 
able age of eighty-seven years. In the ag- 
natic line Mr. Watts, of this notice, traces 
his ancestry to old English stock. Of the 
nine children born to ilr. and Mrs. Reuben 
Watts but three are living at present, namely, 
Mrs. ]\lary J. Whitener, of Madison county, 
Missouri : Mrs. Missouri C. Bess, likewise of 
iladison county; and Napoleon B., the im- 
mediate subject of this review. 

Mr. Watts passed his boyhood and youtli 
on the old homestead farm, his education con- 
sisting of .such crude advantages as were 
afforded iu the schools of the locality and 
period. At the age of twenty-two years he 
launched out into the business world on his 
own account, engaging in the general mer- 
chandise business. Subsequently he turned 
his attention to farming and in 1882 was hon- 
ored by his fellow men with election to the 
office of county clerk, serving with the ut- 
most efficiency iu that capacity for a period 
of eight years. In 1882 he established his 
home at Fredericktown, where he has since 
resided. In 1890 he became interested in 
the banking business and was instrumental 
in the organization of the Madison County 
Bank, one of the most substantial monetary 
concerns iu southeasteru 3Iissouri. Mr. 
Watts acted as cashier until 1901. The se- 
curity of the bank had been previously in- 
corporated with a capital .stock of ten thou- 
sand dollars and the original officers were : 
Val Sehlesinger, president; J. F. Anthony, 
cashier. In April, 1904, the capital was in- 
creased to twenty thousand dollars and the 
institution reorganized as a state bank. In 
January, 1901, Mr. Watts became cashier, 
continuing in that office until January, 1910. 
The present officers are: N. B. Watts, presi- 
dent; E. H. Day, vice president; J. W. Blan- 
ton, cashier ; and J. F. Glaves, assistant cash- 
ier. Under the shrewd management of its 
eminently capable officers, the bank has pros- 
pered iu cverv connection, as shown b.y a 
recent statement, in which the surplus and 
profits amount to $4,513.38 ; the deposits, 
.$170,165.53; the cash on hand, .$58,090.96; 
and the loans and discounts, $136,587.95. In 
January, 1910, Mr. Watts was elected presi- 



dent of the bank and ably tills that position 
at the present time. Iu addition to his bank- 
ing interests he has extensive farming inter- 
ests iu ]\Iadisou county, ilissouri, being the 
owner of the fine old farm on which he was 
born and reared. 

In the year 1870 was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Watts to Miss Luraney I. 
Whitener, a daughter of the late J. Q. A. 
Whitener, a prominent farmer and merchant 
in Madison county for a number of years 
prior to his death. Mr. and ilrs. Watts have 
two children, concerning whom the follow- 
ing brief data are here inserted. Duty S. is 
cashier of the ilarciuand Bank and he is also 
interested in farming in the vicinity of that 
place. He married Josie Hahn and they 
have five children, Ethel I., Bessie, Ru.ssell, 
Bryan and Charles. Minnie is the wife of 
Judge F. J. Parkin, former incumbent of 
the office of presiding county judge of iladi- 
son county. 

In politics Mr. Watts is an uncompromis- 
ing supporter of the cause of the Democratic 
party and as previously noted he served as 
count.v clerk for eight years. He was a mem- 
ber of the Fredericktown school board for 
a period of years, from 1884 to 1910, resign- 
ing in the latter year. As a result of his 
enthusiastic interest in educational affairs 
the schools of this city have been materially 
benefitted, many of the improvements along 
that line being due to his initiative. Socially 
he is a valued member of the local Knights 
of Pythias lodge and in religious matters he 
is a devout member of the Congregational 
^Methodist church, in the different depart- 
ments of whose work he is an active factor. 
The beautiful Watts home is located on Col- 
lege avenue, in the southwestern part of the 
town. 

I\L\ETiN C. Krueger. In view of the no- 
madic spirit which is gradually growing to 
animate all classes of American citizens to 
move restlessly about from place to place, 
it is most gratifying to come in close touch 
with one who has passed practically his en- 
tire life thus far in the place of his nativity, 
where his exemplary life has won him the 
unalloyed confidence and esteem of those who 
have been familiar with his career from 
earliest youth. ]\Iartin C. Krueger was born 
at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on the 17th of 
January, 1877. His father was born at 
Bremen, Germany, and his mother, Elizabeth 




Y,/^^f I'L^ /3ih-tL^a^yhj^^ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



641 



(Schraeder) Krueger, was a native of uppei- 
Prussia. ]\Ir. and Mrs. Krueger immigrated 
to America as young people and their mar- 
riage was solemnized at Cape Girardeau, 
where were born to them six children — three 
boys and three girls. The daughters are all 
deceased, as are also the parents, and the 
three sons are now living at Cape Girardeau. 
Martin C. Krueger is the immediate subject 
of this review; Louis Krueger is the present 
able incumbent of the office of clerk of the 
common pleas court and on other pages of 
this work appears a sketch dedicated to his 
career; and the third son is the present jan- 
itor at the Federal Building. The father was 
engaged in the butcher business during a 
goodly portion of his active career and at 
the time of the inception of the Civil war 
he served with valor and distinction as a 
member of the Missouri Home Guards. 

The rudimentary educational training of 
JIartin C. Krueger was obtained in the 
Lorimer School at Cape Girardeau and sub- 
sequently he was a student in the Normal 
School for a period of two years. After 
leaving school he was variously engaged for 
a time, eventually entering into a part- 
nership alliance with Mr. Heinze, his 
father-in-law, to engage in the hardware 
business. A splendidly equipped establish- 
ment is now conducted at Cape Girardeaii, 
under the firm name of Heinze & Krueger, 
and the same commands an extensive and 
most profitable trade. In addition to his 
business affairs Mr. Krueger is an enthusi- 
astic collector of Indian relies,- his collection 
being one of the rarest and most complete 
in this section of the country. Most of his 
specimens were picked up in the close vicin- 
ity of this city and a number of them are 
extremely valuable on account of their an- 
tiquity. In his political convictions Mr. 
Krueger is aligned as a stalwart in the ranks 
of the Republican party, and while he has 
never manifested aught of ambition for the 
honors or emoluments of public office of any 
description he was at one time incumbent 
of the position of city assessor, having been 
in tenure of that office from 1900 to 1902. 
In fraternal channels he is affiliated with 
the local lodge of the Benevolent and Pro- 
tective Order of Elks and he is also a valued 
and appreciative member of the Sons of Vet- 
erans, by reason of his father's service in 
the Civil war. 

On the 26th of September, 1899, was solem- 

Vol. 1—41 



nized the marriage of Mr. Krueger to Miss 
Alma Heinze, who was reared and educated 
at Cape Girardeau. Mrs. Krueger was a 
woman of rare charm and attraction and at 
the time of her death, in 1901, just two years 
after her marriage, her loss was deeply 
mourned by a wide circle of admiring and 
affectionate friends. In his religious faith 
Mr. Krueger is a consistent member of the 
Lutheran church, in whose faith he was 
reared, and he is a liberal contributor to 
all kinds of philanthropical w'ork. He is a 
man of broad sympathy and generous im- 
pulses and as a business man and citizen is 
accorded the highest regard of all with wliom 
he has come in contact. 

Joseph M. Brasher. Judge Brasher is a 
Tennesseean by birth, and his journey 
through this changing scene was begun on 
March 22, 1851. His parents resided on a 
fai-m and their son grew up in that environ- 
ment, early taking a responsible part in the 
conduct of the home place. His parents, 
John L. and Jlartha Davis Brasher, were in 
moderate circumstances, and although they 
suffered somewhat from the war, they were 
able to give their son a fair education for 
that time. As he was more than ordinarily 
apt, and Avas fond of reading, he made the 
best possible use of such advantages as he 
enjoyed. 

At the age of twenty-one Mr. Brasher 
came to Pemiscot county and bought a farm 
near Cottonwood Point. Being a farmer of 
enterprise, he soon had acquired an estate of 
three hundred and twenty acres. The Judge 
still owns this large farm, although he and 
his family now reside in Caruthersville. 

Mr. Bra.sher had always been a consistent 
and ardent Democrat, and before he had 
been long in the county he was recognized 
as one of the strong men of the party. His 
interest in public affairs was always of tlie 
sort which is concerned primarily with the 
advancement of the general welfare and this 
the people were quick to recognize. The 
capacities in which he has served the county 
are many. For years he was a member of 
the school board, and during that time he 
did not merely attend the meetings and con- 
sider that he had fulfilled his duty, but he 
studied the needs of the schools and set him- 
self to supply them wherever possible. In 
1878 he was elected justice of the peace and 
served for four years. At the close of this 



642 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



period he was chosen to fill the office of 
judge of probate, and for another four years 
he tilled that office. He was then selected to 
represent his district in the legislature, and 
at the capital he worked zealously to carry 
out the views of his constituents. In 1898 
Mr. Brasher was elected district judge of 
the county court, and in 1906 he was elected 
presiding judge. After four years in this 
office he was again selected as candidate for 
the position of probate judge and in Novem- 
ber, 1910, was elected for four- years. 

To those who are acquainted with Judge 
Brasher, this frequent selection for judicial 
positions is most natural, for he has all the 
qualities which are desirable for that calling. 
He is an excellent judge of evidence and also 
of human nature. He is fearless in the ren- 
dering of his decisions, and is scrupulously 
just and impartial in all cases. Personally 
he is a man of genial manners and possesses 
a large share of tlmt courtesy which we char- 
actenze as being of the old school. In the 
Judge's case, this manner is the expression 
of a truly kind and sympathetic nature, one 
which attracts and keeps friends wherever 
he meets them. 

In Caruthersville, the present home of the 
Brasher family, the Judge is prominent in 
fraternal circles. He holds membership in 
the ]\Iasonic order, in the Woodmen and in 
the Red Men. The family attend the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. South, of which Mrs. 
Brasher is a member, the Judge being a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church. Previous to her 
marriage to Mr. Brasher, Mrs. Brasher was 
Mrs. Mary S. Pate, of Cottonwood Point, 
whose father was Judge Jesse Huffman, of 
that city. Her union with llr. Brasher oc- 
curred in 1875 and they have a family of 
three daughters and one son. 

Edward A. Stierberger, M. D., of Union, 
Franklin county, IMissouri, represents the 
medical profession here and is supreme in 
this field as a practitioner. Rare, indeed, is 
the instance where a single physician holds 
in the palm of his hand the confidence and 
goodwill of an entire community, and when 
such a situation is encountered the solution 
must lie in the individual himself. It is not 
so far to seek. Acute in his perceptions, 
widely read in his profession and skillful in 
applying his acquirements to practical use, 
his value as a physician and surgeon is of 
the highest character. 



Dr. Stierberger is indigenous to the en- 
vironment of Union. Here his birth oc- 
curred on April 16, 1875, and the people to 
whom he now ministers so successfully have 
known him in every phase of life from baby- 
hood up. His childhood training was se- 
cured amidst the scenes in whicli he now 
lives and labors. His one-time playmates 
are now his patrons and the seniors of his 
childhood are now his social and business com- 
panions. These unbroken early attachments, 
coupled with his recognized proficiency in 
his profession, explain, perhaps, why Dr. 
Stierberger stands alone and without a col- 
league in Union. 

The family to which Dr. Stierberger be- 
longs was established in Franklin county by 
his father, Charles R. Stierberger, who came 
here from St. Louis about the year 1859. He 
w'as of German birth, his nativity having oc- 
curred in Prussia in 1824. He possessed 
those fine national characteristics which make 
the German nation one of America's most 
desirable sources of immigration and his 
business associations served to make him 
widely known. When he died in 1876 he 
was a man scarcely past his prime. He was 
twice married. His first wife was Miss 
Elizabeth Giebler, of Union, and to them 
were born the following children: The late 
Charles R. Stierberger, of Union; John, who 
passed away unmarried; Mrs. Emile Szy- 
manski, of Union; Mrs. Amanda Brown, 
wife of Postmaster Clark C. Brown, of 
Union ; Mrs. Clara Allersmeyer, deceased ; 
and Miss Mattie Stierberger, for many years 
one of the teachers in the Union public 
schools. After the demise of his first wife 
Mr. Stierberger married iliss Lizzie Lind- 
ner, who survives him, making her residence 
at Union, Missouri. Her parents were Al- 
bert and Marie (Kline) Lindner, and she 
was born at Union, Missouri. 

Dr. Stierberger, immediate subject of this 
biographical record, is the only child of the 
second marriage. He received his prelim- 
inary education in the common schools and 
is one of the many strong practical men who 
have secured some of their most valuable 
early impressions in a printing office. When 
a young lad he secured a position in the 
office of the Tribune and spent the follow- 
ing five years in that field of activity, add- 
ing much of value to his fund of general 
information and leaving its portals better 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



643 



fortified aud with greater capabilities thau 
when he entered it. 

The mind of the young fellow had been 
busy with the great question of a future 
vocation and it was finally solved in favor 
of medicine. His first studies were pursued 
under the direction of Dr. Bridgeford in 
Union and he subsequently became a student 
in the old jMarion Sims Jledical College in 
St. Louis, which later on was to be incor- 
porated in the St. Louis University. He 
received his degree in 1897 and his first lo- 
cation for professional work was in Sioux 
City, Iowa, where for two years he had 
charge of a hospital. Following this he spent 
six months in Cherokee, Iowa, and a like 
period in St. Louis before coming to his 
home town and entering the practice here. 
In 1898 he took a post-graduate course in 
the institution from which he had received 
his degree, it being his laudable ambition to 
keep abreast of the strides in discovery made 
constantly iu his particular field. Since 1898 
he has been occupied with his professional 
duties and with unconsciously coi-nering the 
medical business of the county seat. It will 
scarcely be doubted that there is not to be 
found a busier young physician in all Mis- 
souri. 

Dr. Stierberger holds membership in the 
Franklin County Medical Society, in the 
Missouri State Medical Society, aud in the 
American Medical Association. He is local 
surgeon for the Rock Island Railway Com- 
pany at Union and belongs to the Association 
of Railway Surgeons. Nor is his activity 
limited by his pi-ofession, for he has sub- 
stantial business connections, these confined 
chiefly to financial- investments. He is a 
stockholder of both the Bank of Union and 
the Citizens' Bank and is vice-president and 
a director of the former. 

In politics Dr. Stierberger acts with the 
dominant party of Franklin county. He 
asserts himself as a good citizen should when 
questions of public policy come up for ad- 
justment at the polls or elsewhere, but has 
never manifested ambition for public office 
himself. His social proclivities are such 
that he finds great pleasure in his lodge re- 
lations, which extend to the Knights of 
Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order 
of Elks and the Modern Woodmen. He is 
unmarried. 



Charles F. Bidewell. In 1851 Henry 
Bidewell came to Bollinger county from En- 
gland. He acquired a farm of two hundred 
and forty acres in that county and only in- 
terrupted his pursuit of agriculture to fight 
in the Union army. He married Lucrecia 
Killion, a native of Missouri, and they had 
eleven children. Charles F. is the second of 
the eleven children, seven sons and four 
daughters, of whom but four are living, the 
two sisters being married and are now Mrs. 
W. H. Hobbs, of Stoddard county, Missouri, 
and Mrs. Arthur George, also of Stoddard 
county. Their home farms join similarly to 
those of the brothers, Charles and George 
Bidewell. 

Mr. Charles Bidewell was born December 
9, 1871, in Bollinger county, and lived on 
his father's farm until he was twenty-three 
years of age. A year later his father died, 
and Charles disposed of his share of the 
estate to his brother George, whose life ap- 
pears elsewhere in this volume. 

He then bought fifty-one acres of land 
near Dongola, to which he soon added two 
hundred and fifty-one and a half acres. At 
present he farms three hundred and two and 
a half acres. On this large estate he carries 
on general farming and stock raising. 

Mr. Bidewell was married in 1895 to Miss 
Ursula Simpkins, whose parents, Rufus and 
Flora Simpkins, are natives of Indiana. Four 
boys and one girl were born to Ursula and 
Charles Bidewell, who are still living. The 
daughter, Nora, was born in 1901. The 
names and dates of birth of the sons are as 
follows: Walter A., 1896; Ora G., 1905; 
Leamon, 1908; Elvin, 1910. 

A popular and public-spirited citizen, Mr. 
Bidewell is a member of the Masonic order 
and of the Modern Woodmen. He is a com- 
municant of the General Baptist church. 
While in no sense a politician, Mr. Bidewell 
holds the political faith of his father and is 
a Republican. 

J. AV. Sexton. Does Dunklin county go 
a hunting, it asks J. W. Sexton to be its 
master. Does it require a competent, hon- 
orable man to look after its funds it elects 
J. W. Sexton. Is it asked for one of its 
most up-to-date farmers, J. W. Sexton is the 
man it names. Are the Democrats looking 
for some one to fill the office of clerk of the 
county court, J. W. Sexton is the obvious 



644 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



selection. Thus in all kinds of activities in 
the county Mr. Sexton is a leader. 

He was born in Kennett, January 28, 1859. 
His father, Lafayette Sexton, was born in 
Lexington, Kentucky, and was brought up 
in Kentucky and ^Missouri, coming to Mis- 
souri with his mother in 1840 and settling 
then in Bollinger county. His father had 
died in Kentucky about — . In 1858 La- 
fayette and his mother came to Kennett. 
She died at Hot Springs, Arkansas, whither 
she had moved. Lafayette lived one mile 
from Kennett, on land that he received from 
the Government. He spent almost all the 
rest of his life on the farm, which he used 
for the purposes of stock raising. He en- 
listed in the Confederate army when the 
Civil war broke out and after seeing con- 
siderable service came home on furlough. 
During this time he was stincken with the 
cholera and died October 30, 1863. Soon 
after he came to Kennett, he had married 
Nancy G. Evans, nee McCuUougli, a widow, 
born in Frankfort, Kentucky. Her parents, 
Benjamin W. and Mary (Glasscock) Lle- 
Cullough, came to Missouri in 1832. They 
settled one mile south of Kennett and ob- 
tained Government grants of land. He be- 
came a land owner in the county that \yas 
then known as Stoddard's county and died 
on his farm at the age of fifty. His widow 
survived him many years, living until she 
was eighty years old. Only one of their 
children is living still, William JlcCullough, 
living in Breckenridge county, Kentucky. 
Nancy JlcCullough had married John H. 
Evans when she was a young girl and had 
borne him four children, Franklin, Ellen, 
Callie and Kate, all of whom are dead. Mr. 
Evans was a native of Kentucky, of Welsh 
descent, but the marriage took place in Mis- 
souri. After she married Lafayette Sexton 
she became the mother of two children, J. W. 
and R. E., the latter a merchant at Maiden, 
Missouri. Mrs. Sexton had practically to 
raise the six children alone, as her first hus- 
band had died when his four children were 
small and Mr. Sexton, too, died young. She 
died in 1900, having lived a life of useful- 
ness for her children. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
Sexton were members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. 

When J. W. Sexton was only four years 
old his father died, so that he never re- 
members having had a father's care. His 
mother, however, did all in her power to 



take the place of both parents and in his 
turn J. W. Sexton cared for her until the 
time of her death. When he was twenty- 
one lie took elmrge of the farm and con- 
tinued a farmer for many years. In 1888 
he was elected county treasurer, which office 
he filled for the term of two years. At the 
expiration of his term he went back to farm- 
ing, devoting most of his farm to stock rais- 
ing. On November 2, 1910, he was elected 
to the office of clerk of the circuit court, 
assuming the active duties of the office Jan- 
uary 1, 1911. He was nominated by the 
Democratic party, for which lie had always 
been an active worker, in conventions and 
elsewhere. He devotes himself to his office, 
fulfilling the duties involved in an exemplary 
manner. 

In 1885, wlieu he was thirty-six years old, 
Mr. Sexton married Mrs. Anna Floyd, a 
young widow in Dunklin county. She was 
the daughter of W. T. Meredith. Two chil- 
dren have been born to the union, Kate and 
Ruth. 

Mr. Sexton is a member of the Mutual Pro- 
tective League and of the Modern Woodmen 
of America, standing high with the members 
of both those organizations. As a relief 
from his strenuous duties he spends his va- 
cations either hunting or fishing, being an 
expert in both of these sports. Mr. Sexton 
is a thoroughl.y capable man and besides that 
is conscientious, a combination which can- 
not fail to result in success. He is very pop- 
ular both socially and in his business rela- 
tions, as he has the ability to command love 
as well as respect. 

Jesse M. Elvins. With the history of St. 
Francois county the name of Elvins has been 
long and prominently identified, and the sub- 
.jeet of this memoir well upheld the prestige 
of the same through his sterling character 
and large and worthy accomplishment. The 
thriving little city of Elvins, this county, 
was named in his honor and he was long 
numbered among the influential citizens of 
this favored section of the state, where he 
did much to further civic and industrial 
progress. 

Jesse Mahagan Elvins was born in St. 
Francois county, on the 12th of May, 1841, 
and he died at his home in Doe Run, this 
county, on the 25th of April. 1910, secure 
in the high regard of all who knew him. 
He was a son of Moses and Sarah (Flan- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



645 



nigan) Elvins and a grandson of William 
Elvins, who was a native of England, a clock- 
maker by trade and the founder of the fam- 
ily in America. In the year 1840 Moses 
Elvins established his home in Farmington, 
St. Francois county, Missouri, and here he 
continued to reside until his death. He be- 
came one of the prosjierous fanners of the 
county and also had other interests of im- 
portant order. He was a man of the most 
inflexible integrity and ever commanded the 
confidence and esteem of his fellow men. His 
wife survived him by a number of years. 
Jesse M. Elvins was reared and educated in 
his native county aud as a youth he served 
an apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, 
to which he continued to devote his attention, 
as a contractor and builder, for many years, 
within which he contributed materially to 
the upbuilding of various towns aud villages 
in the county, as did he also through his 
various real-estate operations, which reached 
wide scope. He had much to do with the 
development of the lead industry in this dis- 
trict and was the virtual founder of the pres- 
ent fine little city which perpetuates his 
name. He supervised the construction of 
the lead mills at Bonne Terre and Doe Run 
and was known as a business man of ability, 
enterprise aud scrupulous integrity. His 
progressive policies and thorough business 
methods enabled him to achieve large and 
worthy success in connection with his va- 
rious undertakings, and no citizen in the 
county commanded more secure vantage 
ground in popular confidence and esteem. 
He was signally true and lo.yal in all the 
relations of life and his name merits an 
enduring place of honor on the roster of 
those who have contributed in conspicuous 
measure to the development and prosperity 
of his native county, within whose gracious 
borders his entire life was passed. He was 
aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause 
of the Republican party and was admirably 
fortified in his opinions as to matters of 
public import. 

In the year 1861 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Elvins to jMiss Zelma Politte, a 
representative of one of the old and dis- 
tinguished French families of Missouri. I\Irs. 
Elvins, a Avouian of most gracious and gentle 
personality, was summoned to eternal rest 
on the 5th of January, 1885, secure in the 
affectionate regard of all who had come 
within the sphere of her influence. Of the 



seven children of this union three died in 
infancy and Rice, the fourth in order of 
birth, died in 1899. The surviving children 
are Linn, William and Politte, and concern- 
ing the last mentioned specific record is. 
given on succeeding pages of this work. The 
loved wife and mother was a devout com- 
municant of the Catholic church and her 
life was marked by kindly words and gen- 
erous deeds. On the 11th of December, 1888, 
Jesse M. Elvins contracted a second mar- 
riage, by his union with Miss Elizabeth Meh- 
ring, who survives him, as does also the 
younger of their two children, Charles Par- 
sons Elvins. The ekier son, Jesse Pierce, died 
at the age of five years. 

Measured by its rectitude, its strength and 
its definite accomplishment, the life of Jesse 
M. Elvins counted for much, and his name 
will be held in lasting honor in the county 
which ever represented his home aud the 
center of his varied interests. 

Hon. Politte Elvins is engaged in the 
practice of law and the banking business in 
the city of Elvins, St. Francois county. A 
staunch and active Republican, he repre- 
sented the thirteenth congressional district in 
the sixty-first congress of the United States, 
in which he made an admirable record and in 
which he had the distinction of being the 
youngest member. 

Mr. Elvins was born at French Village, St. 
Francois county, Slissouri, on the 16th of 
March, 1878, and is the youngest of the three 
surviving children of Jesse M. and Zelma 
(Politte) Elvins. On preceding pages of 
this publication is entered a memoir to his 
honored father, and the family data incor- 
porated in said article are such as to render 
it \innecessary to repeat the same in the 
present sketch. Mr. Elvins is indebted to 
the public schools of his native county for 
his early educational discipline, which was 
supplemented by a course in Carlton College 
and the University of IMissouri, at Columbia, 
from which he received the degree of Bache- 
lor of Laws in 1899, being forthwith admitted 
to the bar. 

On the 25th of November, 1901, he was 
married to Miss Florence Kells, of Arcadia, 
Jlissouri. Mr. aud Mrs. Elvins are popular 
factors in the social activities of the com- 
munity and their pleasant home is known 
for its generous hospitality. 



646 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



John H. Himmelberger. Among the men 
of fine initiative and constructive powers wlio 
are contributing materially to the industrial 
and civic stability and progress of south- 
eastern Missouri, a place of no slight promi- 
nence must be accorded to this well known 
and public-spirited citizen of Cape Girardeau, 
where he is president of the Himmelberger 
& Harrison Lumber Company and where he 
has other capitalistic interests of important 
order. Sterling character, alert and pro- 
gressive ideas and marked civic loyalty and 
liberality make Mr. Himmelberger a valuable 
factor in the various activities of the com- 
munity, and he is distinctively one of the 
representative business men of the fine little 
city in which he maintains his home. 

A scion of staunch German stock long and 
worthily identified with the history of Penn- 
sylvania, Mr. Himmelberger finds a due 
sense of pride in reverting to the fine old 
Keystone state of the Union as the place 
of his nativity. He was born at Myerstown, 
Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, on the 30th 
of October, 1861, and is a son of Isaac and 
Catherine (Haak) Himmelberger, both of 
whom were born and reared in that sturdy 
old commonwealth, where the respective fam- 
ilies were founded in an early day. In 1867 
Isaac Himmelberger removed with his fam- 
ily to Logansport, Indiana, where he owned 
and operated a sawmill and was otherwise 
prominently identified with the lumber busi- 
ness for more than a decade. In 1879 he 
came to Missouri and established his busi- 
ness at Buffington, Stoddard county, continu- 
ing, however, to reside at Logansport, In- 
diana, in W'hich place he continued in the 
same line of enterprise and built up a pros- 
perous business. He passed the closing years 
of his long and useful life at Logansport, 
and was sixty years of age when he was 
summoned to eternal rest, in July. 1900, se- 
cure in the high regard of all who had known 
him. His widow now maintains her home in 
Logansport, and he is survived also by one 
son and three daughters. The father was 
a stalwart Republican in his political pro- 
clivities, was a man of sincerity and stronc 
individually, and his religious faith was that 
of the Universalist church. His widow has 
long been a devoted member of the Reformed 
Lutheran church. 

John H. Himmelberger was a lad of six 
years at the time of the family removal to 
Logansport, Indiana, in which thriving little 



city he gained his early educational disci- 
pline b.y duh' availing himself of the advan- 
tages of the excellent public schools, in which 
he completed the curriculum of the high 
school. In the meanwhile he began to assist 
his father in the operation of the sawmill and 
other details of the lumber business, and he 
thus continued after the removal to Buffing- 
ton, ilissouri, at which time he was eighteen 
years of age. Through this means he gained 
a thorough knowledge of all details of this im- 
portant line of industrial enterprise and was 
well equipped for successful operations in an 
independent way. In 1885 his father admitted 
him to partnership, and this alliance con- 
tinued about a decade, within which he won 
his spurs as a practical and successful busi- 
ness man of excellent constructive ability. 
In 1895 he became one of the interested 
principals in the organization of the Himmel- 
berger-Luce Land & Lumber Company, at 
Morehouse, New IMadrid county, this state, 
and he was chosen its secretary at the time 
of incorporation. This company continued 
operations in the lumber business and the 
handling of timber lauds until 1904, when 
it was succeeded by the Himmelberger & 
Harrison Lumber Company, of which he has 
since been president. This company is in- 
corporated with a capital stock of six hun- 
dred thousand dollars and its operations are 
of broad scope and importance, including 
the ownership of valuable timber lands and 
the manufacturing of lumber through the 
agency of a well equipped and thoroughly 
modern plant located at Slorehouso, ilissouri. 
The enterprising spirit of ]\Ir. Himmelberger 
and associates was significantly manifested 
in 1907, when they instituted the erection of 
the Himmelberger & Harrison building, on 
Broadway, in Cape Girardeau. This is a fine, 
modern structure of brick and stone, is five 
stories in height and is conceded to be the 
finest office and bank building in the city. 
Here are maintained the offices of the South- 
east ilissouri Trust Company, which is one 
of the substantial and popular financial in- 
stitutions of this section of the state and of 
which Mr. Himmelberger is a director. It 
is one of the strongest institutions of the 
Idnd in this part of the state and bases its 
operations upon a paid-up capital stock of 
five hundred thousand dollars. He has been 
a valued factor in the directing of the pol- 
icies of this institution, of which he is vice- 
president and which has done much to fur- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



647 



ther the financial prestige of Cape Girardeau. 
Mr. Himmelberger is also a member of the 
directorate of the Sturdivant Bank at Cape 
Girardeau and of the Bank of Morehouse at 
Morehouse, Missouri, where he still retains 
other interests, and he has also identified 
himself with various other enterprises in his 
home city of Cape Girardeau and he stands 
exemplar of the most progressive civic pol- 
icies, as he is ever ready to lend his aid and 
influence in the furtherance of measures and 
enterprises projected for the general good of 
the community. He is the president of the 
Board of Supervisors of the Little River- 
Drainage District. This drainage district 
has for its object the draining and reclama- 
tion of five hundred thousand acres of wet 
and over-flowed lands in Cape Girardeavi, 
Scott, Stoddard, New Madrid, Pemiscot and 
Dunklin counties. He enjoys unqualified 
popularity in both business and social cir- 
cles in his home city, and here he is afiSliatecl 
with the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks and the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. Both he and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian church. 

January 1, 1889, marked the solemniza- 
tion of the marriage of Mr. Himmelberger 
to Miss Mary A. Kesling, who was born and 
reared in Cass county, Indiana, of which 
Logansport is the judicial center. She is a 
daughter of Oliver and Kate (Paunebaker) 
Kesling, who still reside in that county, 
where the father has long been a representa- 
tive farmer and honored citizen. Mr. and 
Mrs. Himmelberger have four children, 
Harry I., Charles, John and Katharine. 

George K. Williams. One of the most 
widely known and most important names to 
be encountered in connection with the lead 
district of this part of the state is the name 
of George K. Williams, of Farmington, Mis- 
souri, who is acting superintendent for the 
Potosi Mines Company, of Boston and New 
York, with mines located at Leadwood. He 
also served under two gubernatorial adminis- 
trations as state mine inspector, his thorough 
knowledge of mining making him a man ad- 
mirably incumbent of the offlce which in a 
state of such vast mineral resources of Mis- 
souri is an important one. 

Previous to his present association, Mr. 
Williams was for fifteen years with the Doe 
Run Lead Company, and it was his portion 
fairly to grow up in an atmosphere of mines 



and mining, for his father was a man of im- 
portance in the field. That gentleman, 
George M. Williams, was born in St. Francois 
county, March 4, 1830. He early became a 
miner and driller and possesses the distinc- 
tion of being the first man to do drilling at 
Bonne Terre with a churn drill, the same 
striking disseminated lead ore. 

St. Francois county was the scene of the 
birtli of George K. Williams, and the date 
of his advent on this mundane sphere was 
September 9, 1864. He received his educa- 
tion in the schools at Bonne Terre, and, fin- 
ishing the school at the age of seventeen 
years, he entered upon his career in some 
comparatively unimportant capacity in the 
mines. In a short time he accepted a posi- 
tion with the Doe Run Lead Company, at Doe 
Run, ilissouri, and was sent to the Plat 
River district with the first prospecting dia- 
mond drill to Flat River, and struck the first 
deep disseminated lead ore that was struck 
in the Flat River district. This being at the 
depth of four hundred feet. 

The greater part of Mr. Williams' connec- 
tion with the Doe Run Lead Company was 
in the Diamond drill department. He was 
appointed state mine inspector by Governor 
A. M. Dockery, governor of the State of Mis- 
souri, in 1901, and was re-appointed in 1905 
to that office by Governor Joseph W. Folk, 
holding the position until February 15, 1909, 
and in the eight years in which he had min- 
ing afi'airs in the state in his hands and un- 
der his supervision he proved himself with- 
out possibility of doubt to be the right man 
for the place, knowing the mining situation 
as it is given to few to know it and possess 
it,- — splendid judgment in addition. 

In December, 1910, he and his associates 
took up the Jacob Day land which was lo- 
cated in the Leadwood district, consisting of 
three hundred and fifty-seven acres, and sold 
it to Boston and New York capitalists. The 
property was tested with a diamond drill and 
a shaft is being sunk near the center of the 
property, and is called the Alma Shaft, be- 
ing named after his daughter. Mr. Williams, 
who is superintendent of the Boston and New 
York Company, is, of course, directing the 
work. 

Mr. Williams man-ied in 1897 Miss Bar- 
bara Adams, of Irondale, Missouri. She is 
the daughter of Richard Adams, superin- 
tendent of the Old Irondale Company. Mr. 
and J\Irs. Williams have two sons and one 
daughter — Naive, Alma and Richard, — thus 



648 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



sharing their delightful home with a trio of 
young people. 

Mr. "Williams is Democratic in polities, giv- 
ing heart and hand to men and measures. 
He and his family attend the Methodist 
Episcopal church. South, and he exemplifies 
in his daily living the fine principles promul- 
gated b}^ the jMasonic Lodge, in which he is 
entitled to wear the white-plumed helmet of 
the Knight Templar. 

Dr. John P. Wagnee, a progressive young 
medical practitioner of Greenville, Wayne 
county, is a son of the widely known edu- 
cator. Professor L. 51. AVagner. The father 
was born in Washington county, Tennessee, 
on the 1st of April, 1851, aud received a 
theological education at Mosheim College, one 
of the fir.st institutions of higher learning 
esta])lished in that state east of the Alle- 
ghany mountains. Soon after his gradua- 
tion he commenced preaching in Missouri 
under the auspices of the Lutheran synod. 
At the same time, in order to eke out a live- 
lihood, he taught school, most of this work 
in that state being in connection with va- 
rious parochial institutions connected with 
his church. 

Professor Wagner first came to Missouri 
in 1877, locating in the northern part of 
what is now Cascade, Wayne county, where 
he founded Concordia College, in which so 
many of the professional men of that sec- 
tion of the state have received the early 
literary training which fitted them to assume 
the higher courses of their education. While 
conducting that select institution Professor 
Wagner also preached to many scattering 
charges aud those without regular pastors. 
He was thus busily and worthily employed 
until 1909, when he retired from professional 
work altogether and entered the employ of 
the Williamsville, Greenville & St. Louis 
Railroad at Cascade, his present occupation. 
The Professor also cultivates aud operates 
a farm, and has been serving on the local 
Board of Education since 190U. He had 
previously been a member of the County 
Board of School Commissioners for three 
terms, and there has never been a time since 
he became a resident of Wayne county that 
he has failed to show his unbounded interest 
in her educational progress, or that her peo- 
ple have failed to show their faith in his 
ability and high-minded motives. His wife 
(formerly Miss Emma Whitener) is also liv- 



ing and highly respected as an intelligent and 
lovable woman. Of their nine children, the 
following seven are living: Virda, now the 
wife of Zark Souderman ; John P., of this 
biography ; Effie, who became Mrs. William 
E. Pabor, of Predericktown, IMissouri ; Harry, 
a citizen of Cape Girardeau ; and Otto, Gus 
and Irving, still living at home. 

John P. Wagner was born at Gravelton, 
Wayne county, on the 20th of December, 
1882; was reared on the family homestead; 
educated in his preparatory courses at his 
father's school (Concordia College), and in 
1902 was matriculated at the American Med- 
ical College, St. Louis, from which he grad- 
uated in 1906. He established himself in . 
practice at Cascade iu 1906, but finally located 
at Greenville, where he has founded a sub- 
stantial and a high-grade professional busi- 
ness. He continues the family tendencies in 
his adhesion to the Lutheran church, as well 
as in his general support of Democratic 
principles and policies. His professional 
relations are with the Missouri Eclectic 
Medical Society and the National Electic 
Medical Association, and his fraternal con- 
nections are with the Modern Woodmen of 
America. 

Dr. Wagner was married, JMarch 7, 1911, 
to Miss Stella Rhodes, born in Greenville, 
a daughter of John P. and Sarah (McGhee) 
Rhodes, who have spent their lives here. 
IMr. Rhodes has filled nearlj^ all county offices, 
including that of Representative, and owns 
a fine farm near Greenville, Missouri. 

Jesse A. ]McGlothlin, the present circuit 
clerk and count,y recorder of Bollinger 
county, Missouri, is a man whose position as 
one in whom all who know him impose im- 
plicit trust, and whose name has come to he 
s.vnonymous with progressive enterprise, 
makes it impossible to omit his name from 
an.y record of the history of Southeastern 
^lissouri. He was born in Reynolds county 
on his father's farm. ]\Iarch 10, 1869. His 
father, Joseph IMcGlothlin, was a native 
Hoosier, while his mother, prior to her mar- 
riage ]Mi.ss Louisa Allison, was born in the 
state of Tennessee. In 1879 the family 
moved to Wayne county, this state, and there 
Jesse A. McGlothlin lived until his twentieth 
year. His early education he obtained in 
the district schools of the locality, meantime 
being a willing a.ssistant in the various duties 
of the home farm. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



649 



At eighteen Jesse McGlotliliu inaugurated 
his independent career as a school-master, 
his first school being in Carter county. In 
Wayne, Bollinger and Madison counties he 
Avas known as a leading member of the 
pedagogic profession. He augmented his 
early education during his teaching career by 
attendance at Concordia College at Gravetta, 
and also at Hales College in Wayne county 
for two years. 

In 1S99 McGlothlin became interested in 
the mercantile business, and he entered a 
dry-goods store at Glen Allen, in which es- 
tablishment he remained until 1906. After 
seven years he left Berry's employ and was 
elected in that year, on the Republican ticket, 
to the offices of circuit clerk and county 
recorder for a term of four years. So effi- 
cient and honorable was the record of his 
first term's service that he was re-elected to 
the same office, and he is now serving his sec- 
ond term. 

Mr. McGlothlin 's active interest in edu- 
cational matters has never wavered, and he 
is now wielding his influence for what is best 
in that field as a member and secretary of 
the boai'd of directors of Mayfield College. 
The old Snyder farm of seventy-one acres 
adjoining the municipality of Marble Hill 
is now in Mr. McGlothlin 's possession, and 
is prospering under his management. 

On October 7, 1894, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. McGlothlin, the lady of his 
choice being Miss Dora L. Rhodes. She was 
born and reared in Bollinger county, the 
daughter of Robert and Georgia (Floyd) 
Rhodes, prominent residents of that county. 
Four children have been born to the union 
of Jlr. and Mrs. McGlothlin, namely: Maud, 
born in 1895; Helen, born in 1897; Lee A., 
born in 1901; and Jesse Robert, born in 
1910. In their religious affiliation, the Mc- 
Glothlin family are identified with Baptist 
church. Fraternally IMr. IMcGlothlin is a 
member of that historic order, the Ancient 
Free and Accepted INFasons, and belongs to 
both the Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
and the ^Modern Woodmen of America. 

Captain W. I. IMcDaniel. A venerable and 
respected resident of Senath, Captain AV. I. 
IMcDaniel, now living with his son, C. P. Mc- 
Daniel, of whom a brief personal account is 
given elsewhere in this work, fought bravely 
in defense of the Confederacy during the 
Civil war, and now bears upon his body a 



sear which resulted from a wound received 
on the field of battle. A native of Tennessee, 
he was born November 14, 1827, in Sumner 
county, but as an infant was taken by his 
parents to Natchez, ilississippi, where he 
lived until six years of age. 

Returning to Obion county. West Tennes- 
see, in 1834, he continued his residence there 
for nearly forty years, serving in the mean- 
time for awhile as captain of a company of 
State Militia, having been commissioned by 
Isham G. Harris, war-Governor of Tennes- 
see. On September 9, 1861, he enlisted ,as 
a private in the Thirty-third Tennessee 
Regiment, of which he was elected first ser- 
geant. After the battle of Perryville Cap- 
tain Mc Daniel was promoted to the rank of 
second lieutenant, and subsequently, at Shei- 
byville, Tennessee, was chosen as the bravest 
man of his company, OAving to an order is- 
sued by the Confederate Congress that each 
and every company in that division should 
elect or appoint the bravest man in the com- 
pany. At j\Iissionai\y Ridge, while serving 
as second lieutenant, he had charge of his 
company, as he had had much of the time 
during his enlistment, even at the battle of 
Chickamauga leading his company. He was 
subsequently confined in the hospital four 
months, and on rejoining his regiment as- 
sumed the same position, and held it until 
the close of the war, having command of 
Company D. The Captain saw. many hard- 
fought engagements, at Shiloh twenty-one of 
the sixty-six men of which he had command 
being either killed or wounded. At the en- 
gagement at Franklin, Tennessee, Captain 
McDaniel received a severe wound from a 
l)ayonet, and still carries the scar that 
ensued. He w-as often detailed on special 
duty with squads of men of whom he had 
charge, serving under different commanders, 
including General Clark, who was afterwards 
governor of Mississippi ; Brigadier General 
A. P. Stewart ; and under General Strahl, 
wlio lost his life at the battle of Franklin. 
The brigade to which the Captain belonged 
assisted in protecting the rear of Hill's army 
on its retreat from the battle of Nashville, 
keeping up a constant fight with the enemy. 
He subsequently surrendered at Raleigh, 
North Carolina, with Johnston's men, and 
there took the oath of allegiance. 

After his surrender Captain ilcDaniel 
returned to his old home in western Tennes- 
see, which he had visited but twice during 



650 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JHSSOURI 



the entire war. His good wife, however, had 
visited him after the battle of Stone River, 
having ridden on horseback one hundred and 
fifty miles to do so, carrying a young child 
with her, crossing several rapid streams and 
fording some, and after meeting the enemy 
in the road riding straight through the Fed- 
eral lines. 

Coming to Dunklin county, ^Missouri, in 
1870, Captain McDaniel resided at Clark- 
ton for six years. ^Moving then to Texas, he 
was for several years employed as a builder 
and a painter in Frio eountj-. At a recent 
reunion in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Cap- 
tain was there met by his son, C. P. McDaniel. 
who brought him to Senath. and he is now 
spending the closing years of his long and 
useful life with this son. 

C. P. McDaniel. The wide-awake, busy 
little town of Senath owes its strong vitality 
and its great popularity to the enterprise 
and active spirit of its broad-minded and 
keen-sighted iDusiness men, who are putting 
forth practical efforts to aid its growth in 
every line of industry. Prominent among 
the number thus employed is C. P. ilcDaniel, 
the leading furniture dealer and undertaker 
of this part of Dunklin county. He was 
born April 30, 1851, in Fulton comity, Ken- 
tucky, but was taken to Obion count>-, 
Tennessee, when but a year old, and resided 
there until 1869, when he made his way to 
Dunklin county, Mis.souri. which seemed to 
offer special inducements to a young man of 
vim and energy, being in the center of a rich 
and highly productive country. 

Locating in Clarkton, Mr. McDaniel there 
followed his trade of a blacksmith for nearly 
thirty years. Coming from there to Senath 
in 1897, he was here not only the "Village 
Blacksmith" for six years, but was also suc- 
cessfully engaged in the undertaking liusi- 
ness. Giving up his smithy in 1903, Mr. Mc- 
Daniel has since built up a substantial trade 
as a dealer in furniture, having gained an 
extensive and lucrative patronage in Senath 
and vicinity, his systematic and upright 
methods attracting customers from all parts 
of the county. This business he is carrying 
on siiccessfully * in connection with under- 
taking, in both lines being well patronized. 

Mr. McDaniel has been twice married. He 
married first, at Union Citj^, Tennessee, 
Ozella B. Starrett, of Dunklin county, Mis- 
souri, a daughter of Robert C. Starrett, an 



early settler of Clarkton. She died at Clark- 
ton, Missouri, in 1894, after twenty years 
of happy married life, having four children, 
namely: Florence E., wife of F. E. Wil- 
liams, of J\Ialden, ilissouri ; Edna May, wife 
of Alexander T. Douglass, of Senath ; Clara 
Ann, of Senath ; and Arthur S., who is en- 
gaged in business with his father, Mr, Mc- 
Daniel married in 1900, in Senath, Hnldah 
C, Douglass, an aunt of Robert Sidney Doug- 
lass, editor of this work, and a sister of Rev. 
Robert Douglass, pastor of the Baptist 
church at Senath. 

Mr. JMcDaniel is not identified with any 
political organization, but takes an active 
interest in the advancement of local affairs. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a member 
of the Baptist church, to which ]\Irs. IMcDaniel 
also belongs, and in which she is and has ever 
been an active worker, even as a young girl 
having taken a great interest in the Sunday 
school work. She attends the Baptist Asso- 
ciation meetings, in which she is frequently 
an earnest speaker, A stanch advocate of 
temperance, Mrs, McDaniel at one time ad- 
dressed the court on the matter of local op- 
tion, presenting a remonstrance so effectively 
that she carried her point without the as- 
sistance of an attorney. 

]\Ir, McDaniel is a son of Captain W. I, Mc- 
Daniel, a venerable and highly esteemed resi- 
dent of Senath, of whom a brief biographical 
sketch precedes this. 

Robert A. Anthony. Among the distinc- 
tively prominent lawyers and jurists of the 
state of Missouri, none is more splendidly 
equipped for the work of his profession than 
Judge Robert A. Anthony, whose home and 
business headciuarters are at Fredericktown, 
^Missouri. Throughout his career as a dis- 
tinguished attorney and well fortified coun- 
selor he has, by reason of unimpeachable 
conduct and close observance of the unwrit- 
ten code of professional ethics, gained the ad- 
miration and respect of his fellow practition- 
ers, in addition to which he commands a high 
place in the confidence and esteem of his fel- 
low citizens. He has served as judge of the 
Twenty-seventh judicial circuit of Missouri 
and for four years was prosecuting attorney 
for Madison county. 

A native of the Lone Star state. Judge 
Anthony was born in Kaufman county, Texas, 
the date of his birth being the 10th of March, 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



651 



1859. He is a son of Patrick Henry and 
Elizabeth (Matthews) Anthony, both of whom 
were born and reared in Madison county, 
Missouri. The fatlier was born in 1826 and 
he died at Fredericktown in 1878. He was 
a farmer and millwright by occupation and 
at the time of his demise was the owner of 
considerable valuable farming property. He 
resided in Texas from 1854 until 1865, and 
in that state was an extensive plantation and 
slave owner. He lost heavily dui'ing the 
Civil war and shortly after the close of that 
sanguinary struggle returned to Missouri, 
where he operated saw and grist mills for 
a number of years. His father was Samuel 
Anthony, who came to ilissouri from Ten- 
nessee in 1816. Samuel Anthony was a 
farmer and he reared to maturity a large 
family of children, a number of whose de- 
scendants reside in Texas and Missouri. Pat- 
rick H. Anthony was one of the forty-niners 
who made the perilous overland journey to 
California, where he was fairly successful 
in his mining ventures. Elizabeth (Mat- 
thews) Anthony, mother of the Judge, was 
born in Madison county, Missouri, as already 
noted, and she was descended from stanch 
French stock, her mother having been a Miss 
Tesreau. She died in 1890, at the age of 
fifty-four years. Her father was Samuel C. 
Matthews, a farmer in Madison county dur- 
ing the greater part of his active career: 
He died in 1861. Sir. and Mrs. Anthony 
were devout communicants of the Catholic 
church, in the work of which denomination 
they were most active factors and in whose 
faith they reared their children. 

Judge Anthony was a child of seven years 
of age at the time of his parents' return to 
Madison county, Missouri, to the public 
schools of which place he is indebted for 
his early educational training. As a young 
man he read law under the able preceptor- 
ship of Judge Fox, at Fredericktown, and 
he was admitted to the bar in 1884. He 
initiated the active practice of his profession 
in this place and for a number of years was 
associated in the practice of law with Emmet 
Williams, now of the Bankers Trust Com- 
pany, of St. Louis. He was also associated 
in law work with H. Clay Marsh, who is now 
a farmer in Madison county. At the pres- 
ent time Judge xlnthom^ is a member of the 
well known law firm of Anthony & Davis, 
the same being assistant attorneys for the 
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, repre- 



senting that concern in seven counties in 
southeastern ]\Iissouri. 

In ilarch, 1905, Judge Anthony was ap- 
pointed, by the Supreme Court of Mi.ssouri, 
as commissioner to take testimony and try 
the case of the state of Missouri versus the 
Standard Oil Company of Indiana, the 
Waters-Pierce Oil Company of ilissouri and 
the Republic Oil Company of New York, 
the charge being a combination, conspiracy 
or trust to monopolize and control the oil 
business in the state of ]\Iissouri. After some 
two years' investigation of the case in the 
states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Ohio, 
New York and Illinois, Judge Anthony held 
the companies above named to be guiltj' and 
so reported the case to the Supreme Court 
of the state, which affirmed and adopted that 
decision. The report and opinion covered 
over three hundred pages in book form and 
showed judiciovis foresight and remarkable 
knowledge of the science of jurisprudence 
on the part of Judge Anthony. It is con- 
ceded to be one of the most important cases 
ever taken up in Missouri. The prosecution 
was instituted by the then attorney general 
of Missouri the present Governor Hadley. 
Judge Anthony was appointed, in 1902, by 
Governor Dockery, as circuit judge of the 
Twenty-seventh Judicial Circuit of IMissouri, 
to fill out the unexpired term of Judge James 
D. Pox. He served as circuit judge for a 
period of two years and from 1886 to 1890 
he was prosecuting attorney for Madison 
county. He has always been aligned as a 
stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party, 
in the local councils of which he has been an 
active and zealous worker. He is affiliated 
with a number of professional and fraternal 
organizations of representative character and 
in all the relations of life has so conducted 
himself as to be popular with all classes of 
people. He is possessed of a cheery, kindly 
disposition and is intensely religious. 

In 1888 was solemnized the marriage of 
Judge Anthony to Miss Jennie Wiley, who 
was born in Peoria, Illinois, whence she ac- 
companied her parents to Madison county, 
Missouri, at the age of fifteen years. For 
some time prior to her marriage she was a 
popular and successful teacher in the public 
schools of ]\Iadison county. She is a woman 
of gracious personality and is deeply be- 
loved by all with whom she has come in con- 
tact. Judge and Mrs. Anthony have no chil- 
dren. They are communicants of the St. 



652 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Michaels Catholic church, at Prederiektown, 
this mission having been established at a 
very early day. It did not become a regular 
pastorate until 1830, however. At the pres- 
ent time the church has a membership of 
one hundred and fifty Catholic families and 
in addition to a fine church it also has two 
good school buildings, a pastor's residence 
and a home for the Sisters, who conduct the 
school. The present pastor is Rev. Father 
McCartney. 

Louis Stein", actively identified with mill- 
ing interests in Southeastern Missouri, makes 
his home at Cape Girardeau, where he is 
general manager of the Cape City Mills. He 
is deeply interested in community affairs 
and his efforts have al.so been a potent ele- 
ment in the business progress of this section 
of the state. He has with ready recognition 
of opportunity directed his labors into va- 
rious fields wherein he has achieved .success. 
and at the same time has promoted a busi- 
ness enterprise that has proved of more than 
local value. In 1911 he was given proof of 
the high regard of his fellow citizens in that 
he wa.s then elected city treasurer of Cape 
Girardeau, an office he is filling with the 
utmost credit to himself and his con.stituents. 

Louis Stein is a native of Cape Girardeau, 
where his birth occurred on the 12th of Au- 
gust, 1864, and he is a son of Christian and 
Margaret (Mertz) Stein, both of whom were 
liorn and reared in Germany, where was cele- 
brated their marriage and whence they im- 
migrated to the United States in the year 
1859. Settlement was first made at New 
Orleans, where the family home was main- 
tained for one year, at the expiration of 
which removal was made to a more northern 
section on account of Yellow fever epidemic. 
Coming to ]\Iissouri, the father settled at 
('Ommerce. where lie entered the employ of 
James Whitelaw, a prominent miller in that 
place. Three years later, in 1863, the fam- 
ily located at Cape Girardeau, where Mr. 
Stein began to work for 6. C. Thelineus. in 
the flour-mill business. His cherished and 
devoted wife passed away in 1892, but Mr. 
Stein is still living. 1911. Tliey were the 
parents of seven chihlren. six boys and one 
girl, of whom Louis was the fifth in order 
of birth. 

In the German school at Cape Girardeau 
Louis Stein received his early educational 
training and this discipline was later sup- 



plemented by a course of study in the normal 
school. When eighteen years of age he en- 
tered the employ of the F. Fiedemann Com- 
pany, at Jackson, Jlissouri, as miller. Four 
years later he was proffered and accepted a 
position as expert miller for the Barnard & 
Leas Manufacturing Company, at Moline, 
Illinois. In 1887 he assumed charge of all 
the mills of the Cape County ^Milling Com- 
pany and three years later he came to Cape 
Girardeau, where he has since resided and 
where, in 1897, he organized the Cape City 
Mills, of which he is now in charge. He is 
a business man of splendid ability and 
his success in his chosen line of work has been 
on a parity with his own well directed en- 
deavors. In his political affiliations he is a 
stanch advocate of the cause of the Democratic 
party, in the local councils of which he is a 
most active factor. In 1905 he was elected a 
member of the city council and he served in 
that capacity for a period of two years dur- 
ing Mayor Whitelaw 's administration. In 
1911 he made the race for and was elected city 
treasurer, meeting with practically no opposi- 
tion. He is showing himself a capable ad- 
ministrator of the fiscal affairs of the city and 
in this connection is giving the utmost satis- 
faction to his constituents. Mr. Stein is a 
charter member of the Commercial Club of 
Cape Girardeau and he is also a valued and 
appreciative member of the organization 
known as the Sons of Veterans, being eligible 
for representation therein by reason of his 
father's seiwice in the Civil war. In a fra- 
ternal way he is connected with the Modern 
Woodmen of Amei'ica, the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen and the Knights and Ladies 
of Security. His religious faith is in harmony 
with the tenets of the Presbyterian church, in 
which he is president of the board of deacons. 
In the year 1886 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Stein to iMiss Marguerite Bar- 
rett, who was reared and educated at Cairo, 
Illinois. To this union have been born three 
children, whose names are here entered in re- 
spective order of birtli. — Harve.v. Carroll and 
ilarguerite, — all of whom remain at the pa- 
rental hom.e. The Stein family are well 
known and popular in the best social circles of 
Cape Girardeau and here they are accorded 
the tmalloyed confidence and esteem of their 
fellow citizens. 

Baebeau Andrew Roy is one of the strong, 
practical men who have had a helpful expe- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



653 



rience in that popular and immensely valu- 
able educational institution knoAvn as jour- 
nalism. Beginning life as a teacher, in 1890 
he came to Bonne TeiTe and entered the 
newspaper field, eventually becoming editor 
of the Bonne Terre Register, and probably 
no one factor has been as potent as his influ- 
ence through the eloquent columns of his 
paper in changing tlie county from Demo- 
cratic to Republican. After eighteen years 
he abandoned the Fourth Estate and became 
in January, 1910, postmaster of the city, the 
office now being one of the four largest iu 
Southeastern Missouri. 

Mr. Roy's father. Ferdinand A. Roy, was 
born in Prairie du Rocher. Randolph county, 
Illinois, June 5, 1817. He came to iMissouri 
in 1844, when a young man, and was em- 
ployed by a Mr. Deloge, of Potosi, Missouri, 
in his mercantile business. In the early '50s 
he removed to Sainte Genevieve county, 
where he went into a business association 
with Francis A. Rozier, in the line of mer- 
chandise, and later embarked independently 
in the same business, carrying it on for some 
time, including the Civil war period. He 
was a man held in respect and confidence, 
and after retiring from business his useful- 
ness was by no means at an end and he held 
several offices, being county judge and for 
fifteen years ji;stiee of the peace. The last 
years of his life were passed with his daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Joseph Flynn, of Cape Girardeau, 
Missouri, the date of his death being Febru- 
ary 18, 1898. He was married at about the 
age of thirty-two years to Rosine Goin and 
ten children were born to them, only two be- 
ing alive at the present time, namely : Ferdi- 
nand Roy, Jr., of Prairie du Rocher. and the 
subject. The church of this well-remem- 
bered gentleman was the Catholic and in 
polities, unlike his son, he was a stanch 
Democrat. 

Barbeau Andrew Roy was born November 
25, 1866, in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, and 
within its pleasant boundaries he passed his 
early life. He received his education in the 
common and high schools and after finishing 
such advantages as they had to offer he 
taught school for a time in Sainte Genevieve 
county and then went on to Soiith Dakota, 
where he engaged in the mercantile business. 
In 1890 he came to Bonne Terre and here en- 
tered into the newspaper business with his 
brother-in-law, Joseph Flynn, the two gentle- 
men editing and publishing the Bonne Terre 
Democrat. In the fall Mr. Roy bought out 



the interests of Mr. Flynn and continued in 
publication of the paper alone until 1893, 
when he bought the Bonne Terre Register 
and consolidated the two papers under the 
name of the Register, the policy of the sheet 
being Republican. He continued in com- 
mand until iiay, 1908, when he sold the Reg- 
ister to ]\Ir. George Staufill. He proved him- 
self a talented and influential editor and the 
Register flourished under his regime. After 
quitting the newspaper field, Mr. Roy en- 
tered for a time the accounting department 
of the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Rail- 
road, where lie remained until he was ap- 
pointed postmaster in January, 1910, and 
which office he holds at the present time. 
The i^ostoffice has made rapid and definite 
strides, for it was but a short time ago third 
class. In July, 1910, six months after 
Mr. Roy became its head, the office was 
entered as second class and it is now one of 
the four largest offices in Southeastern ]\Iis- 
souri. Mr. Roy, as all are ready to agree, 
has ever discharged its duties with prompt- 
ness and fidelity. 

Mr. Roy was married on the 20th day of 
January, 1897, to Onna G. Thomure, of 
Bonne Terre, and their happy and congenial 
union has been blessed by the birth of two 
children, namely : Edgar L. and Lucian T. 
Mv. and Mrs. Ro.y are communicants of the 
Catholic church and the head of the house 
is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, 
of which he holds the important office of 
.state secretary. He is also a member of the 
Commercial Club and stands as a thoroughly 
helpful and public spirited member of 
society. 

- Henry C. Vossbrink is the efficient recorder 
of Franklin county, in Boone township of 
which his birth occurred November 25, 1872. 
His father, John H. Vossbrink, was born in 
Hanover, Germany, and came to the United 
States as a youth in 1845, locating in St. Louis, 
where he completed his trade as a tailor and 
then engaged as clerk in a furniture store, 
spending eleven years of his early manhood in 
St. Louis. He was born in 1830 and was un- 
der thirty years of age when he came out to 
Franklin county. Here he abandoned his 
trade and adopted as his own the great basic 
industry, engaged in the wholesale cultiva- 
tion of wheat and succeeded in building up a 
splendid estate. He is now a resident of the 
communit.v of Gerald. 
John H. Vossbrink has given a graphic illus- 



654 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tration of what industry and perserverance 
can accomplish upon the farm. The aim of his 
life has been the achievement of financial in- 
dependence, and while this has been in process 
of accomplishment, he has infused habits of 
industry and thrift into the younger genera- 
tion of his household. He has kept away from 
politics, except in the capacity of the voter, 
and as such is aligned in harmony with the 
Republican party. He married Wilhelmina 
Keller, who survives, and the issue of their 
union are as follows : Louis H. ; Edward C. ; 
Julia C, wife of Julius Wulfert; Emma E., 
who married Dr. A. T. Kessler; John "VV. ; 
William H. ; Henry C. ; George H. ; Julius A. ; 
and Minnie A., now Mrs. W. H. Linstrom- 
berg. 

Henry C. Vossbrink was educated in the 
public school and is an excellent German stu- 
dent, having acquired the parental tongue 
with unusual aptitude. At the age of eighteen 
years he began his career as a business man by 
forming a partnership with one of his 
brothers at Shotwell, near the family home. 
They established a thriving mercantile busi- 
ness and continued the same for four years. 
A change in conditions caused him to seek em- 
ploj-ment in St. Louis and he spent eighteen 
months there as a street car conductor. Sub- 
sequently he spent a period engaged in the 
retail liquor business at St. Louis and after 
spending a few months as a clerk in Sullivan 
he associated himself with a brother in Tolo- 
na, Missouri, and there spent a year. Fol- 
lowing this he spent nine months at Shotwell 
engaged in clerking and then went to Wash- 
ington, I\Iissouri, where he tended bar for two 
years. He passed the next twelve j'ears as 
bartender for Kramolowski in Union and 
terminated it when he assumed the office of 
recorder in 1911. 

]\Ir. Vossbrink was reared to loyalty to the 
principles of what its admirers call "The 
Grand Old Party," and his residence at sev- 
eral points in Franklin county gave him an 
unusually large acquaintance and an enthusi- 
astic one, so that when he became a candidate 
for office, support came to him from many 
sources. He made the race before the primary 
against five competitors and distanced them 
all for the nomination, winning the election 
from his Democratic opponent by better than 
the party vote. He is making a record as a 
popular official. 

Mr. Vossbrink is one of the directors of the 
Bank of Union ; is interested in the Helling 
Manufacturing Company and was its secre- 



tary and treasurer for more than three years. 
He is also a stockholder in the National Cob 
Pipe Works of Union and is an important fig- 
ure in the Masonic Blue Lodge and the ilod- 
eru Woodmen. 

On January 27, 1900, Mr. Vossbrink mar- 
ried in Union iUss Ida E. Gehlert, daughter 
of an old settler of Franklin county, Louis H. 
Gehlert, who was of German blood and birth. 
Mr. and Mrs. Vossbrink share their delightful 
home with a daughter and son, namely : Meta 
W. and J. Henry. 

Felix G. Lambert. In the forefront of the 
enterprising gi-oup of citizens whose efforts 
have established and maintained the progress 
and prosperity of Bollinger county stands 
Felix G. Lambert. He practically built Don- 
gola, and though that is perhaps his most 
notable achievement it is by no means his 
only one. He was born November 13, 1847. 
in Cape Girardeau county, ilissouri. and 
both of his parents were natives of Missouri. 
His father, Ira B. Lambert, died when Felix 
G. was but two years old, in the year 1S49. 
After this sad event the mother, Polly Lam- 
bert, moved to Cape Girardeau county, where 
she had inherited about two hundred acres 
of land. Here she later married Brazilus 
Estes. Her death occurred in 1865, when Mr. 
Lambert was but eighteen years old. Up to 
this time he had followed the usual course of 
the sons of that generation, as-sisting in the 
farm work and attending the district school. 

The year after his mother's death Mr. 
Lambert started out to work for himself. 
Though young, he was a keen business man 
and one who had the genius for management. 
M-hich is largely the ability to work hard and 
look after details. He bought a grist mill in 
Cape Girardeaii county, which he ran for 
twelve years and developed into a most profit- 
able business. After selling this mill Mr. 
Lambert bought one hundred and sixty acres 
of land in Bollinger county. He continued 
to add to his farm acreage until he is now 
farming two hundred and twenty acres. 
Both stock raising and general farming en- 
gage his attention. 

In 1882 he came to his farm near Dongola. 
which at that time was a settlement of one 
house. Since that date the history of the 
town has been mostly of his making. His first 
contribution to the industrial resources of the 
village was a saw mill. With this start, the 
town sprang up and has continued to grow 
steadily. ]\Ir. Lambert's enterprises did not 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



655 



eud with tlie saw-mill. He built a plaiiiug 
mill and a grist mill, both of which attracted 
desirable citizens to the town and increased 
its value as a place of residence and as a busi- 
ness centre. 

Though pre-eminentlj' a business man, Mr. 
Lambert is a citizen who takes the liveliest in- 
terest in all public questions, and one who is 
ready to fulfill all duties whether of public 
or private import. Of this he has given evi- 
dence by his twelve years' service in the of- 
fices of the county. He was eight years jus- 
tice of the peace and four years public admin- 
istrator. In politics he is a Democrat, and is 
regarded as a most influential member of his 
pai-ty, because of those qualities which make 
for his eminence in all things in which he 
engages. 

IMr. Lambert has been married three times. 
His first wife was Levina Mayfield, daughter 
of Elisha Mayfield, a native of jMissouri. She 
died in 1879, leaving a son, Shelby, three 
years old. Mr. Lambert was later united to 
Amanda Plumraer, daughter of George Plum- 
mer, born in Ohio. Her son, Grover Cleve- 
land Lambert, was born in 1886. He is now 
married to a daughter of Missouri, whose 
maiden name was May Zimmerman. Amanda 
Plummer Lambert died in 1888. Mr. Lam- 
bert's third wife was Mrs. Sarah V. Brown, 
nee Smith, a Keutuckian by birth. She 
passed to her reward in 1909. 

John H. Beadley was born near Senath, 
Dunklin county, Missouri. His parents were 
Reuben and Anna Aletha (Myracle) Brad- 
ley. Reuben was born near Viucit, in Dunk- 
lin county, January 7, 1847, and when 
he was very small both of his parents died. 
When he was seventeen years old he enlisted 
in the Confederate army, in. which he served 
until the close of the Civil war. After he was 
mustered out he returned to Dunklin eount}^ 
where he bought a farm at Senath and he was 
a farmer all of his life. His wife died in 1890 
and he has recently come to live with his son 
at Kennett. Mr. Bradley never laid claim to 
being a politician, but he worked for all mat- 
ters of public advancement. He has a family 
of three son.s, all of whom have made suc- 
cesses of their lives. The eldest is James A., 
the clerk of Dunklin county. John Hender- 
son is the .second, while the third, IMilton Mil- 
lard, has a driTg store at Smith. 

John received his general education in the 
public schools and in the Cape Girardeau 
Normal, after which he took a law course at 



the State University, from which he was 
graduated in the class of 1902. In 1908 he 
was elected prosecuting attorney, serving in 
1908 and 1909, living in Kennett. In 1910 
he was re-elected, without opposition. 

On the 6th of October, 1903, Mr. Bradley 
married J\Iiss Hettie Horner, of Caruth, 
Dunklin county. Four children have been 
born to this union, two of whom died in in- 
fancy. The two living are Lethe and Eugene. 

Mr. Bradley has done excellent work dur- 
ing his service as prosecuting attorney and as 
he is but a young man, just at the beginning 
of liis career, he will doubtless rise still higiier 
in his profession, thereby finding opportunity 
to be of greater service to the state. 

Harry A. Miller. The junior member of 
the well known and popular mercantile firm 
of Miller Brothers, of Elvins, St. Francois 
county, is one of the representative young 
business men of this county, which has been 
his home since his boyhood days and in which 
his circle of friends is coincident with that of 
his acquaintances. He was born in the city of 
Nashville, Tennessee, on the 22d of May, 1886, 
and is a son of Rulien and Ida (Bloom) Mil- 
ler, concerning whom more specific mention 
is made in the sketch dedicated to their elder 
son. Isadore W., on other pages of this work, 
said son being senior member of the firm of 
]\Iiller Brothers and being a resident of Des- 
loge. St. Francois county. 

Harry Abraham Miller was a lad of thir- 
teen years at the time when his parents re- 
moved to Missouri and established their home 
at Elvins. He had previously attended the 
public schools and after coming to Missouri 
he was enabled to continue his studies in the 
city schools of St. Louis. His initial Imsiness 
experience was gained in his father's well or- 
dered mercantile establishment at Elvins and 
upon attaining to his legal majority he was 
admitted to partnership in the enterprise, 
which was thereafter conducted for two years 
under the firm name of Miller & Son. The 
father then sold his interest to his elder son. 
Isadore W., and the two brothers have since 
continued the business with ever increasing 
success. Harry A. Miller ha.s the direct man- 
agement of the establishment, which is 
admirably equipped and in which is carried 
a large and comprehensive line of general 
merchandise. Fair and honorable dealings 
have gained to the concern an appreciative 
patronage and he whose name initiates this 



656 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



sketch has a secure place in the confidence 
and esteem of the community. He is also in- 
terested with his brother in the conducting 
of a prosperous mercantile business at Lead- 
wood, in the same county. He is vigorous 
and alert as a business man, liberal and 
progressive as a citizen, is a Republican in 
his political proclivities, and is affiliated with 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 

On the 27th of June, 1909, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. ]Miller to Miss Minnie 
]\Iagidson, of St. Louis, who presides most 
graciously over their pleasant home, which is 
further brightened by the presence of their 
little daughter, Mildred. 

Dr. Edward Griffin. Among the prom- 
inent and valued citizens of Plat River and 
Saint Francois county stands Edward Grif- 
fin, who is particularly well entitled to a 
place in this volume devoted to representa- 
tive men and women of southeastern Missouri 
as a talented member of his profession — the 
dental — and as president of that flourishing 
monetary institution, the Miners & Merchants 
Bank. By no means one to be content with 
the theory of "letting well enough alone." he 
is a constant • student of his profession and 
has well succeeded in keeping in touch with 
the stead.y march of progress which is the re- 
sult of dental investigation. The bank of 
which he is the head holds a position of 
prominence among the monetary institutions 
which emphasize and exert marked influence 
in conserving the financial stability and com- 
mercial prestige of the city. 

Dr. Edward Griffin is still to be numbered 
among the younger generation, his birth hav- 
ing occurred in Sainte Genevieve countv, 
March 20, 1879. The father, George Griffin, 
was born in Knoxville. Tennessee, in 1841, 
and was a soldier of the Civil war, serving for 
the whole four years in the army of General 
Thomas and participating in many notable 
engagements, among them being the battles 
of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and 
Shiloh, and was with Sherman on his famous 
march to the sea. After the war he came to 
the state of Missouri and located in the west- 
ern part of Union township, in Sainte Gen- 
evieve county, where he has ever since been 
engaged in farming, although his fine ability 
has by no means been solely devoted to the 
great basic industry. He was judge of the 
Sainte Genevieve county court for two years 
and has the distinction of having been the 
first Republican judge ever elected in that 



county. A man of fine citizenship, he is 
widely known and everywhere honored. He 
was married in 1866 to Sarah J. Haines, of 
Knoxville. Tennessee, and to their union 
eight sons and daughters were born. Dr. Grif- 
fin being the seventh in order of birth. 

The early education of Edward Griffin was 
obtained in the public schools of Sainte Gen- 
evieve county and he attended for one term 
the old Baptist College at Farmington. He 
went thence to the Dental College at St. 
Louis and there prepared for the work he had 
elected to follow. In the year 1901 he was 
graduated from the Washington University 
at St. Louis, Missouri, taking the degree of 
D. M. D., and soon thereafter he located at 
Flat River and there hung out his profes- 
sional shingle, and in the intervening decade 
has Iniilt up a large and enthusiastic prac- 
tice as one of the leading dentists of the sec- 
tion. In 1906 he became director of the 
Miners & Merchants Bank and two years 
later he received the compliment of being 
elected to the presidency of that financial in- 
stitution. Dr. Griffin previously was secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Flat River lee & 
Cold Storage Company, but upon becoming 
identified with the bank he has severed that 
association to devote his attention to his other 
concerns. Although by no means an office 
seeker. Dr. Griffin is active in local politics, 
giving hand and heart to the man and meas- 
ures of the Republican party, to which he has 
given his suffrage since his earliest voting 
days. At the time of the recent Prohibition 
campaign he acted as president of the 
Amendment County Committee of Flat River. 

On the 7th day of April, 1903, Dr. Griffin 
formed a happy life companionship by his 
union with Marietta Sebastian, of Flat River, 
daughter of R. Sebastian, a blacksmith and 
wagon maker of this place. Their home is 
one of the popular gathering places of the 
community and they are particularly val- 
uable factors in society. They are members 
of the Christian church, the subject being a 
deacon of the same. Dr. Griffin is a member 
of the ancient and august Masonic order and 
is also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen 
of America. 

ISA.\c N. Daffron. a widely known and 
highly esteemed citizen and public official is 
Isaac N. Daffron, county collector of Wayne 
county, Missouri, and a blacksmith by trade. 
With the expiration of his present and third 
term in the responsible position mentioned he 



< 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



657 



will have served twelve years in that capac- 
ity, and he is well recommended by his serv- 
ices which have been a credit to himself and 
a benefit to the community. He is a native 
son of Wayne county, his birth having oc- 
curred in Benton township October 23, 1860. 
Rlr. Daii'ron is the son of Smith and Elizabeth 
(Gilbert) Datfrou, the former of whom was 
born in the vicinity of Ringgold, Georgia, in 
1819. and died at the age of fifty-three 
years. The mother was born in Tennessee 
July 19, 1829, and is still living, a vener- 
able and worthy woman whom makes her 
home with the subject. After the death 
of Smith DaiiPron she was married a 
second time, to William Stokley, who is 
now deceased. The subject is one of three 
children, two of wliom survive. His brother, 
Thomas E., resides in Piedmont, Missouri. 
The father of him whose name inaugurates 
this review, came from Georgia to Mis- 
souri in the year 1857 and located upon the 
farm which a few years later was the birth- 
place of his children. He secured three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of wild land, which he 
cleared and Itrought to a state of cultivation. 
He was a lilacksmith and carpenter by trade 
and he followed these callings throughout his 
life, also engaging in milling, having pur- 
chased a water power grist mill partially fin- 
ished, whose construction he completed. He 
was a man successful in all his business under- 
takings and liis citizenship was admirably 
public-spirited. In his political convictions 
he was in harmony with the teachings of the 
Democratic party and he and his wife be- 
longed to the Missionary Baptist church. 
Smith Daffron and a Mr. Ivy practicall.v built 
the first church and the first school-house in 
this part of Wayne comity. 

Isaac N. Daffron was reared on his father's 
farm and gained his preliminary education 
behind a desk in the district school room. 
Having finished its curriculum, he matricu- 
lated at the state normal school at Cape Gir- 
ardeau and there spent a profitable year and 
a half. He then started in to learn the trade 
of his father, that of blacksmithing, a smat- 
tering of wliich he had alreadv gained under 
the tutelage of bis brother. He was of Pied- 
mont when a blacksmith of that place was 
deserted by his assistant and ]\Ir. Daffron was 
asked to help out — ^which the young fellow 
consented to do. What was supposed to be a 
temporary ari-angement lasted for a number 
of years. The first week he received twenty- 
five cents a day and the second one dollar a 

Vol. I— 4 2 



day, a hasty advancement which speaks well 
for his ability. Jlr. Daffron worked in all 
eleven and one-half years in the blacksmith 
business, the last five years of this period for 
himself. He has always had a good business, 
for his work is good and reliable, but he has 
not always managed advantageously for him- 
self and he does not have the competence 
wliich he deserves. In 1896 he was elected 
county assessor and removed to Greenville, 
where he served in the office for a tenn of 
four years. That was his first experience in 
public life and he was well recommended by 
his services. His efficiency was not forgotten 
and in 1902 he was elected county collector 
and succeeded himself at the elections in 1906 
and 1910. He is not without some experience 
in the pedagogical field, having taught school 
for a time in his young manhood. He has 
been a Democrat since his earliest voting days 
and he is very lo.yal to the interests of the 
party. His fi-atemal affiliations extend to 
the Knights of Pythias and the Modern 
Woodmen of America. 

Mr. Daffron was married October 23, 1887, 
to Georgia E. Miller, who was born in Cape 
Girardeau county, Missouri, August 18, 1866. 
Mr. and Mrs. Daffron 's union has been further 
cemented by the birth of three daughters, 
namely: Nellie, wife of Scott Judy, of Gar- 
nett. Kansas; Clara and Ann, at home. 

James F. Tatum. We all of us look to- 
wards the future as having something greater 
in store for us than that we have already ex- 
perienced, or at least if such is not the case 
Ave are to be pitied. Every man hopes for a 
future better than the present or the past. 
In the case of James F. Tatum, he has al- 
ready realized tlie future, some two years 
ago; of that we know nothing, but we do 
laiow what his past has been. 

He was born January 5, 1850, in Howard 
county, Missouri. He was a son of the late 
A. C. Tatum, who moved from Virginia to 
Howard county, Missouri, soon after his mar- 
riage. There James received his education 
and after he left school he started into busi- 
ness, first working for a relative at St. 
Charles, traveling through the state as a to- 
bacco salesman. His travels brought him to 
Dunklin county, where he saw the possibil- 
ities for a young man and he entered the 
mercantile Imsiness in Dunklin county, being 
one year at Maiden and then in Kennett until 
three years ago, when he retired and turned 
the business over to his two sons, Frank and 



658 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Ira, wlio removed the stock to Clarkton. 
There they are successfully following in the 
footsteps of their father. 

Mr. Tatum was married in 1877, to Miss 
Lillie Bragg, daiighter of the late Captain W. 
G. Bragg and a sister of Mrs. Sturgis and 
Mrs. Towson and of that wonderful family of 
nine splendid "Bragg girls," as they were 
known. W. G. Bragg of this city is a brother 
of Mrs. Tatum. Luther P. Tatum, the mer- 
chant and capitalist at Kennett, is a half 
brother of James F. Tatum, and Mrs. Nannie 
Newby is his cousin. Of the six children born 
to I\Ir. and Mrs. Tatum live survive him, as 
does their mother. John the fourth son, died 
about eleven years ago. Frank and Ira are 
in business at Clarkton, while Richard M. is 
in business here. Susie, the only daughter, is 
just blossoming into womanhood and is a 
student of William Woods College, Fulton. 
Bernie is at Central College at Fayette, 
Howard county, Missouri. 

Mr. Tatum "died December 13, 1909, not 
having quite attained his three score years. 
He had been in failing health for two years, 
though he was up and able to attend to bus- 
iness. He was a member of the Masonic 
order, being a member of the Kennett lodge, 
No. 68, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. 
The funeral service was conducted by the 
Masons. Dr. Paul Baldwin being the presid- 
ing master. Mr. Tatum had for years been 
a member of the Christian church and relig- 
ious services at the home were conducted by 
Elder Rolley Ney, pastor of the Christian 
church, assisted by the ministers of tlie 
Presbyterian, the Baptist and the Methodist 
Episcopal churches. The fact that these min- 
isters of different denominations came to pay 
him their last tribute is significant of the 
liberal attitude Mr. Tatum liore towards all 
religious bodies. He believed in any organ- 
ization which had for its aim the betterment 
of mankind and inasmuch as there are all 
kinds of men, it takes all kinds of religious 
creeds to reach them. At the time of his 
death IMr. Tatum was a member of the Ken- 
nett school board, having always taken the 
deepest interest in all educational matters. 
He was vice president of the Bank of Kennett 
and was interested in much Kennett property, 
for he was well off in this world's goods. He 
was thoughtful for others, as is evidenced by 
his having a fifteen thousand dollar life in- 
surance policy. He was a man of deliberation 
and good judgment, was reliable and houor- 
able and inasmuch as his past has been full of 



thoughts for others, full of kindly deeds, we 
can feel that the future which he is already 
experiencing must be in keeping ^^ith his past, 
therefore we' rejoice. Since he left us, time 
has to a certain extent mercifully softened the 
keenest first feelings of loss which his widow 
and children felt, yet they feel, as does the 
whole of Kennett and Dunklin county, that it 
is impossible to exactly fill his place, be his 
successor in the business and church spheres 
ever so good. He was a man who had the loft- 
iest ideals and he came as near to attainiug 
them as it is possible for any one to do. 

Sam J. McMiNN. A man firmly established 
in the business and social life of the county 
and intimately connected with the historj' of 
its development in Sam J. IMcMinn, now the 
a.ssistant cashier in the Consolidated Bank, 
formerly the People's and the Bollinger 
County Banks. He was born in Buchanan, 
ilissouri, in the southwestern part of Bol- 
linger countv. the date of his nativitv being 
August 11. 1869. He is the .son of W." A. and 
Elizabeth C. (Burk) :\Ic:\Iinn. His father 
was a native of the county, and well known 
for his wise administration of the office of 
county judge. His grandfather. Samuel JIc- 
Minn, was a native of North Carolina, who 
left the old North state in 1819 to try his 
fortunes in the then far western territory of 
^lissouri. After the death of W. A. McMinn 
his wife, the mother of the subject of this 
lu'icf personal review, continued to make her 
home on the old home farm, where she still 
lives. During his early life Sam J. McMinn 
attended the public schools of the county, and 
also did his share of the work on the parental 
farm. Following that took a course at the 
Kentucky Universit.v in Lexington, Ken- 
tuckv, and was gi-aduated from that institu- 
tion. 

In 1893 he began the business career that 
has made his name a guarantee of stabilit.y 
in an,v undertaking, and entered the merchan- 
dise and milling business at Zalma with his 
brother, Andrew J. McMinn. The two 
brothers operated the mill for their father, 
and mauaged the store as their own venture 
until 1897. In that year their father passed 
to the "Great Beyond," and left his affairs 
entirely in the hands of his sons. 

From 1897 until 1899 ]\Ir. McMinn took 
charge of the farm, an occupation which he 
gave up at his election on the Democratic 
ticket to the office of circuit clerk, an office 
in whicli he gave honorable and highh' effi- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



659 



cient service, wliieli is evidenced by the fact 
that he was returned to oiSce upon the ex- 
piration of his first term, thus making liis 
tenure of that office eight years. In 1907 he 
entered the People's Bank in the capacity of 
assistant cashier, soon becoming cashier, a 
position of trust and responsibility which he 
held until the consolidation of the bank with 
the Bollinger county institution, June 7, 1911, 
upon which he assumed the po.sition of as- 
sistant cashier of the Consolidated Bank. Be- 
sides stock in the bank, iir. Mciliun is a di- 
rector and one of the principal stockholders 
of the Peoples Telephone Company, an In- 
dependent Company now operating in Bol- 
linger, Wayne, Madison, Cape Girardeau, 
Iron and Stoddard counties; is also a stock- 
holder and director of the Lutesville Milling 
Company ; has a half interest in a tract of 
farming and woodland of one thousand nine 
hundred and seventy acres, and himself owns 
one thousand eight hundred and fifty acres 
and some fine residence property in ilarble 
Hill. 

In 1903 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
McMinn to Miss Maude Conrad, the charm- 
ing and accomplished daughter of Judge 
Conrad, of Bollinger county. She was sum- 
moned to eternal rest in April, 1909v leaving 
one son, Samuel Joseph, Jr., born in 1904. 

Mr. ]\Ic]\Iinn "s cordial personality finds nat- 
ural outlet in his fraternal relations, and he 
is a prominent member of the esteemed Ma- 
sonic order, being affiliated with the A. F. & 
A. M. at Fredericktown, the Commandery at 
Cape Girardeau, and having taken the thirty- 
second degree, Scottish Rite, at Saint Louis. 
]\Ir. ]Mc]\Iinn is also a member of the Benevo- 
lent and Protective Order of Elks, the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
Knights of the Maccabees, in all of which he 
maintains an active interest. 

T. C. McHaitoy. a prosperous druggist 
of Senath, and one of its substantial and 
prominent business men, T. C. ilcHaney is an 
imjiortant factor in promoting its advance- 
ment, and is held in high repute as a man and 
a citizen. He was born April 22, 1876, in Hen- 
derson county, Tennessee, where he was bred 
and educated. 

Beginning life for himself at the age of 
seventeen years, Mr. MeHaney entered a drug 
store as a clerk, and proved himself so well 
adapted for the business that he made himself 
familiar with its every detail, in due course 
of time becoming a .skilled pharmacist. In 



1901 he located at Senath, Missouri, where he 
has since built up a large and lucrative trade, 
his patronage having steadily increased from 
year to year. He has made wise investments 
in real estate, and now owns a farm of eighty 
acres lying about two miles from Senath, 
and this he rents to tenants, who devote al- 
most the entire tract to the growing of 
cotton. 

Mr. MeHaney married, April 20, 1903, 
Grace Sando, who was liorn in Indiana, but 
was brought up in Dunklin county, ^lissouri, 
her early home having been near Cotton Plant. 
The following children have been born of 
their union, namely: Robert, Neal, James, 
Elizabeth and Nellie. Politically Mr. Me- 
Haney is an earnest suporter of the prin- 
ciples of the Democratic party, and in local 
campaigns is cjuite active. Fraternally he 
belongs to the Woodmen of the World, ilrs. 
JIcHaney is a most estimable woman, and a 
valued member of the Christian Church. 

Felix J. Parkin. A citizen of prominence 
and influence at Fredericktown, IMissouri, is 
Judge Felix J. Parkin, who gave efficient 
service for a period of four years as county 
.iudge of Madison county, retiring from that 
office in 1910. At the present time he is en- 
gaged in the abstract business, having 
launched out into that line of enterprise in 
1900. Judge Parkin was born in Madison 
county, Missouri, on the 18th of September, 
1859, his parents being Joseph T. and Mary 
(Lanpher) Parkin. The father, who is still 
living, resides at Fredericktown and the 
mother passed to the life eternal in 1876, at 
the age of thirty-seven years. Joseph T. 
Parkin was likewise born in Madison county, 
this state, and he is descended from stanch 
English stock, his father, Joseph Parkin, 
having immigrated to America from Eng- 
land prior to the year 1818. On his arrival 
in the United States Joseph Parkin proceeded 
directly to Missouri, locating in Jladison 
county, where he entered a tract of govern- 
ment land, the same consisting of six hun- 
dred and forty acres. At one time he oper- 
ated a grist mill in Madison county 'and he 
was the first miner in southeastern Missouri 
to use powder. He and his brother, Thomas 
Parkin, with others, came together from Eng- 
land. The Parkin brothers conducted a mill 
one mile west of Fredericktown, in 1838, 
and subsequently they were engaged in min- 
ing and milling enterprises for a number of 



660 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



years, using negroes for the work. Both 
these pioneer brothers are buried in the fam- 
ily cemetery on the old farm near Frederick- 
town. 

Joseph T. Parkin was reared to the invig- 
orating discipline of his father's farm and 
his rudimentary educational training con- 
sisted of such advantages as were afforded in 
the schools of the locality and period. He was 
identified with agricultural pursuits during 
the greater portion of his active career but 
he is now living in virtual retirement at Fred- 
ericktown, enjoying to the full the fruits of 
his former years of earnest toil and endeavor. 
In 1858 was solemnized his marriage to Miss 
JIary Lanpher, who traced her ancestry to 
stanch French extraction, her mother having 
been a member of the celebrated Nifong fam- 
ily. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph T. Parkin became 
the parents of two children, — Lizzie, who 
married Robert Murray and who died in 
188-4; and Felix J., the immediate subject of 
this review. 

Judge Parkin passed his boyhood and 
youth at Fredericktown, where he attended 
the public schools. At 'the age of eighteen 
years he went to Colorado, where he main- 
tained his home for fourteen years and 
where he was most successfully engaged in 
mining operations. For a period of four 
years he was circuit court clerk and recorder 
in Ouray county, Colorado. Eventually dis- 
posing of his interests in that state, he re- 
turned to Missouri, in 1891, engaging in 
farming operations in Madison eount.v for the 
ensuing nine 3'ears. In 1900 he turned his 
attention to the abstract business and it is 
wortliy of note here that he has the only com- 
plete set of abstract records in Madison 
county, the same including all the old rec- 
ords. In politics Judge Parkin is an un- 
swerving advocate of the principles and poli- 
cies for which the Democratic party stands 
sponsor and while he is not an office seeker 
he is deeply and sincerely interested in com- 
munity affairs. In 1907 he was elected judge 
of Madison county and he was the able and 
popular incumbent of that important office 
for a period of four years, retiring therefrom 
at the close of 1910." 

In 1890 was recorded the marriage of 
Judge Parkin to Miss Minnie "Watts, a daugh- 
ter of Napoleon B. Watts, a sketch of whose 
career appears on other pages of this work, 
go that further data concerning the family 
history is not deemed essential at this junc- 



ture. Mr. and Sirs. Parkin are the parents of 
three children, whose names and respective 
ages, in 1911, are here entered, — Maurice, 
seventeen j'ears; Lelia, fourteen years; and 
Reva, seven years. In their religious faith the 
Parkin family are devout members of the 
Baptist church and they are popular factors 
in connection with the best social activities 
of Fredericktown, where their spacious and 
attractive home is recognized as a center of 
gracious refinement and hospitality. In a 
fraternal way the Judge is an appreciative 
member of the local lodge of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. He is a man of 
broad human sympathy and generous im- 
pulses and in the various walks of life is hon- 
ored and esteemed as a man of high ideals 
noble principles. 

William C. Bebgmann. The United 
States ranks as the foremost nation of the 
modern civilized world. It has served as 
the melting pot of the best characteristics 
of all other nations and the outcome is a 
fine sterling American citizenship consisting 
of strong and able bodied men, loyal and 
public-spirited in civic life, broad-minded 
and honorable in business, and alert and en- 
thusiastically in sympathy with every meas- 
ure tending to further the material welfare 
of the entire country. The great Empire of 
Germany lias contributed its fair quota to 
the upbuilding of this great nation and 
among its representatives in this counti-y are 
to be found successful men in every walk of 
life, from the professions to the prosperous 
farmer and business man. William C. Berg- 
ma nn, whose name forms the caption for this 
article, was born in Germany but he has re- 
sided in the United States since he was a 
child of eight years of age. He has main- 
tained his home at Cape Girardeau for fully 
a half century and here he has long been en- 
gaged in the general merchandise business. 
He is a fine old veteran of the Civil war and 
as a citizen and well known business man he 
commands the imqualifled confidence and es- 
teem of all with whom he has had dealings. 

William C. Bergmann was born at Briins- 
wick, Germany, on the 16th of February. 
1841, and he is a son of Dr. Staats Henry 
Bergmann, who held distinctive prestige as 
a skilled physician and surgeon at Cape 
Girardeau during the period of his residence 
in this city. Dr. Bergmann was married to 
iliss L. C. Lehne in his native land and to 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI 



661 



them were born five children, three of whom 
were born in Germany and of whom the sub- 
ject of this sketch was the second in oi-der of 
birth. In 1849 the Bei-gmann family immi- 
grated to the United States and settlement 
was made immediately in Cape Girardeau 
county, Missouri, where for the ensuing few 
.years the father was engaged in agricultural 
operations. Dr. Bergmanu removed to this 
city in 1851 and here he was engaged in the 
practice of his profession until the time of 
his demise, in 1862. The mother was sum- 
moned to the life eternal at an advanced age. 

To the public and private schools of Cape 
Girardeau William C. Bergmann is indebted 
for his preliminary educational training. 
When eighteen years of age he left school 
and engaged in the portrait business, con- 
tinuing to be identified with that line of en- 
terprise for a period of three years. At the 
time of the inception of the Civil war he 
tendered his services as a soldier in the Home 
Guards, serving in that capacit.y for a pe- 
riod of three months. In 1863 he enlisted in 
the Eighth Provisional Regiment of the Mis- 
souri Militia, in which he was first sergeant 
for six months. As a Union soldier he saw 
some hard fighting and after the close of the 
war, when he had received his honorable dis- 
charge, he returned to Cape Girardeau, 
where he engaged in the general merchandise 
business. In this connection he had been ex- 
ceedingly prosperous and his present large, 
well-equipped establishment is recognized as 
one of the finest of its kind in the entire city. 
A large and representative trade is con- 
trolled and the business is now largely in the 
hands of Mr. Bergmann 's sons, W. F. and 
A. W. Bergmann. 

In the year 1868 Mr. Bergmann was united 
in marriage to IMiss Mary C. Eggimann, 
whose birtli occurred iu this county and who 
is a daughter of B. Eggimann, and to them 
have been born nine children. 

While not a politician, strictly speaking, 
Mr. Bergmann gives a stanch allegiance to 
the principles and policies for which the Re- 
publican party stands sponsor. He is always 
ready to do all in his power to advance the 
best interests of the community in which he 
resides and while he has never manifested 
aught of ambition for the honors or emolu- 
ments of public office of any description he 
was honored by his fellowcitizens, in 1900, 
with election to the office of city treasurer. 
He was the popular and highly efficient in- 



cumbent of that position for a period of nine 
.years and during all that time discharged 
the duties connected therewith with all of 
honor and distinction. He is deeply and sin- 
cerely interested in educational affairs and 
for eleven years was a member of the board 
of education. In their religious belief the 
Bergmanns are devout and valued members 
of the Lutheran church and they are popular 
and proDiinent factors in connection with 
the best social activities of the community. 
Thrifty and industrious, Mr. Bergmann is 
eminently well deserving of the admirable 
success it has been his to achieve and it is with 
plea.sure that a history of his life and career 
is here inserted. 

David W. Breid is one of the representative 
attorneys of this part of Missouri and is a 
member of the Franklin Realty Company of 
Union. He is a native of the state and was 
born near- Fulton, Callaway county, Febru- 
ary 1, 1873. Nicholas Breid, his father, was 
a farmer, and was born iu Trier, Prussia, in 
1830. Like many another of his countrymen 
he hearkened to the call of Opportunity from 
the shores of the New World and arrived in 
this country shortly before the Civil war. He 
located in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, and 
entei-ed the volunteer army of" the United 
States, spending two of the dread years of 
the great conflict between the states "in Sher- 
man's army, battling with the forces of the 
Confederacy. Soon after the war he brought 
his family to Missouri and engaged in farm- 
ing in the vicinity of Fulton, where he was 
gathered to his fathers in 1892. He married 
Susan Cleck, a daughter of David Clock, of 
Juniata county, Pennsylvania, and the sur- 
viving children of their family of twelve are 
as follows : Isaac R. ; Charles ; Mary, wife of 
John R. Level ; Dr. Jacob, who is in the 
government service at Washington, D. C. ; 
William; David W., immediate subject of this 
record; Samuel; Martha, now Mrs. Pease; 
and Helena, wife of Gooch Bartley. All save 
David W. and Dr. Jacob are residents of 
Callaway county, Missouri. 

I\rr. Breid spent nearly the first thirty years 
of his life upon the farm of liis liii-th. He 
acquired his education in Avalon College, 
Trenton, ]\rissouri, after completing the cur- 
riculum of the coimtry school, and then spent 
several winters as a teacher in the rural 
schools near his home. In 1902 he left the 
farm and took a position with the meat in- 



662 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



spection department of the government at St. 
Louis, spending six years in the service. 
While there he prepared himself for the law 
by night study and school attendance and 
was acbuitted to the bar by the supreme court 
of Missouri in 1907. In 1909 he removed to 
Union and identified himself with the Frank- 
lin county bar. He soon afterward entered 
the real estate business and is associated with 
Mr. A. W. Hoft'mau in exploiting the lauds 
of this county. The Franklin Realty Com- 
pany works in harmony with the migration 
department of the Rock Island Railway and 
a thrifty and vigorous new citizenship is being 
introduced into the county on this account. 

In the matter of political conviction Jlr. 
Breid is a Republican and stands high in 
party councils. He is active in public life 
and in times past has served as justice of the 
peace in Union. At the present time he is 
assistant prosecuting attorney of the county 
under William L. Cole, and he is police judge 
of Union and city attorney of St. Clair. He 
is interested in the success of good govern- 
ment and aids in the promotion of social and 
professional harmony by a straightforward 
course as a citizen. 

Mr. Breid laid the foundation of a happy 
union when on January 4. 1901, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Maytie Rose Freiberger, daughter 
of Godfrey Freiberger. their wedding being 
at Fulton, the bride's home. They have no 
issue. 

In his fraternal association Mr. Breid is 
past venerable consul of the Modern Wood- 
men and is affiliated with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 

George Bidewtell presents that happy 
combination of farmer and scholar which, 
though not unusual, is seldom found in the 
measure that makes a successful teacher out 
of a fine farmer. 

The sTibject of the present sketch was born 
]May 18, 1885, a son of Henry and Lucreeia 
Bidewell. As stated elsewhere in this work, 
Henry Bidewell was a native of England, 
who came to this county in 1854. Upon the 
inception of the Ci\^l war, his convictions 
brought him to the Union army. He joined 
Company K, Third Missouri Mounted 
Cavalry, in 1861 and remained in the war 
until its close, seeing much active service. 

George gi-ew up on his father's farm and 
attended the district school. He still lives on 
the extensive homestead which his father 
acquired, having bought out the shares of the 



other heirs. Like his brother he follows both 
general farming and stock raising on the 
two hundred and forty acre farm. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Bidewell entered 
Will Mayfield college at IMarble Hill. Here 
he took a year's course and obtained a teach- 
er 's certificate. He has taught for four years 
and is stiU engaged in that profession. 

In March, 1906, his marriage to Miss Jane 
Crites was solemnized. Mrs. George Bide- 
well is the daughter of J. M. and Adeline 
Crites and the sister of Charles Crites, an- 
other of the substantial farmers of Bollinger 
coiuaty, whose life is also briefli' outlined in 
this work. Two of the three children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. George Bidewell are still liv- 
ing: Cletis, bom in 1906, and Ivan, bom in 
1910. Mr. Bidewell's fraternal affiliations 
include the Ben Hui- lodge and the Modern 
Woodmen. In politics he is aligned with the 
Republican party. 

DA\aD W. Owen, proprietor of a fine farm 
and home in Dunklin county, was in debt 
when he began his career some twenty years 
ago. Depending on his own industry and 
good management, he has left his success to 
the destinies presiding -over this great South- 
east Missouri coiuitry, and it has rewarded 
him with a generous share of its general 
prosperity and fruitfulness. 

He was born in Greene county, Arkansas, 
October 3, 1869. His parents were farmers, 
and along with most other residents of that 
section were poor. School facilities were 
meager, and he got about three months each 
year. When he was nineteen, in 1888, he 
married Miss j\Iary Rowe in Greene county. 
His liabilities showed a debt of thirty-six dol- 
lars, and his resources included nothing mate- 
rial, only the spiritual qualities of courage 
and industry possessed by his wife and him- 
self. After their marriage they moved west 
to Lawrence county, Arkansas, where he 
made a crop on poor land, and in 1890 he 
came to Dunklin county, and for three years 
share-cropped north of his present place. He 
then bought a team on credit and began 
farming on a rented place. For six years he 
was on fifty-five acres near Hornersville, and 
during this time managed to get ahead a 
little. His next move was to the Uncle Nap 
Wilkins' farm a mile north of his present 
homestead, and he farmed at first fifty-five 
acres, then ninety-two acres, and the last 
year one liundred and fifteen acres. In 1900 
he had bought forty acres now comprised in 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



663 



his present estate. It was all in the woods 
when he bought, and while he continued 
farming as a renter up to 1905 he improved 
his other place, and when he moved to it in 
li)05 he was owner of eighty acres, which he 
at once began to clear up. He built his pres- 
ent comfortable cottage home of five rooms 
and also a good barn, sixty by sixty feet, has 
fenced his fields, and has all his original place 
in cultivation. In 1910 he purchased eighty 
acres more, half of which is in cultivation. 
He leases sixty acres of his place to a ten- 
ant. Corn is his principal crop, and he is 
known through the country-side as an indus- 
trious and prospering farmer and citizen, 
who has earned all he has. To supplement 
his income at different periods he has baled 
hay and hauled logs. 

Mr. Owen affiliates with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Wood- 
men of America and the Mutual Protective 
League of Hornersville. In politics he is a 
Democrat, and is a member of the IMethodist 
church. South. He and his wife are the 
parents of the following family : Suda, born 
December 30, 1890, now the wife of Thomas 
Hitt; Viola, born in 1891, died at the age of 
fifteen ; Charles, born in 1893 ; Mary, born in 
1897; Mattie, born in 1899; and Thomas, 
born in 1901. 

ilr. Owen's parents were Rev. John Syl- 
vester and South Carolina Owen, the former 
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
South, during all of his active life. He was 
born in Tennessee and died at Caruthersville, 
Missouri, in 1899, aged fifty-five years. He 
was a Mason and active in lodge affairs. His 
wife had died at the age of forty-two years, 
in 1887, in xVrkansas. David W. Owen was 
the second of ten children, of whom six are 
living: Daniel, of Mississippi county, Arkan- 
sas; Liueinda (Lomax), of Dunklin county, 
Missouri; Willie, also of Dunklin county; 
Catherine (Busby), of Noble, Clay county, 
Arkansas; Walter, of Dunklin county, 
Missouri; and Caretha (Pitts), also of Dunk- 
lin county, Missouri. Mrs. David W. Owen 
was born in Greene county, Arkansas, in 1872, 
a daughter of John and Sarah Rowe, both 
now deceased, but early residents and farm- 
ers of Greene county, Arkansas. 

John T. McKay, practicing attorney at 
Kennett, is a man who has distinguished 
himself in the field of law, even as his father 
was noted as an educator. The father's 
achievements lie all in the past, but to the 



son, in addition to the deeds which may al- 
ready have been accredited to him, belongs 
the precious present, the time when he can 
prepare for the future, the time when he can 
continue to work out that success which does 
not come unasked, but must be wrought out 
by ambition, plus preparation and work. 

A brief svirvey of the early history of John 
T. McKay and his immediate ancestors will 
give us a fuller realization of his present 
status. Forty-two yars ago, January 11, 
1869, John T. McKay was ushered into the 
world, the scene of his arrival being New 
Madrid county, Missouri. The grandparents 
of the subject of this sketch, Walter McKay 
and Mary (Holcomb) McKay, were natives 
of Georgia, where they spent the early years 
of their lives, were educated and married. 
In 1833, a few years after their marriage, 
Mr. and Mrs. Walter McKay left their 
home and came to Missouri, where they set- 
tled on a farm in New Madrid county. 
There they reared their children to ma- 
turity, educating them in the subscription 
schools of their vicinity. Mr. McKay gained 
the confidence of the people in the com- 
munity, as is evinced by his election to the 
office of sheriff of the county, a position 
which he filled in an eminently satisfactory 
manner. 

His son, John McKay, was born in the 
Georgian home of his parents, but had only 
hazy recollections of his southern birthplace, 
as he was only three years old when he came 
to Missouri with his parents. The early 
years of his life were spent in New Madrid 
county, where he attended the subscription 
schools, being self educated. He virtually 
spent his life as a teacher, for which he was 
admirably qualified both by nature and 
training. John McKay was possessed of the 
faculty of I'ealizing the difficulties of the 
student and could explain all his perplexities 
in the most clear, concise manner. In addi- 
tion to this, he was a disciplinarian of the 
highest type, as he was not only able to main- 
tain order, but at the same time secure the 
good will and respect of his pupils. For a 
period of thirty years Mr. McKay taught in 
New Madrid, Stoddard and Dunklin counties, 
losing none of his force and interest during 
those several years of faithful work. He 
taught up to the age of sixty-seven, only two 
years before his death, his last professional 
work being in the preparatory schools of 
Dunklin county. He died in 1898, ending a 
life of self-sacrifice, as does every teacher 



664 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



who spends his years in unremitting efforts 
to develop the capabilities of others, for 
which abnegation, as a rule, the educator re- 
ceives none of the credit. John McKay was 
twice married, his first wife being iliss Mary 
Adams, like himself a native of Georgia, who 
had come to Missouri with her parents when 
she was a young girl. She died in 1865, leav- 
ing two children to be the companions of 
their father. Virgil and Fernando. The 
latter died in 1884 and Virgil is a prominent 
attorney of Kennett, of whom mention is 
found elsewhere in this work. His second 
marriage was to Mary F. Adams, a native of 
Missouri, who died in 1879, leaving four chil- 
dren : Annie L., wife of J. H. Ham; John 
T. ; Benjamin A. ; and Ola 0., wife of \V. J. 
Allison. 

John T. McKay, one of the four children 
mentioned, spent the first four years of his 
life in New Madrid county, where he was 
born, his father then moving to Stoddard 
county, Missouri. When he was eleven years 
old his mother died and the same year his 
father brought his family to Dunklin county. 
There John T. McKay attended the public 
schools and afterward entered the normal 
school at Cape Girardeau. Without any de- 
liberate planning on his part, it seemed 
natural that he should follow in his father's 
footsteps and enter the educational field, and 
when he was only eighteen he commenced to 
teach. Before long, however, he discovered 
that he had not the inclination to follow 
teaching, but was possessed of very decided 
tastes and capabilities in other directions. 
All his tastes seemed to point towards law as 
the calling in which he could best find scope 
for his talents. As he did not possess the 
funds to take a regular college course, he 
began to read law during the time he could 
spare from his teaching, working far on into 
the night in his eager desire to become pro- 
ficient. His progress was not as speedy as 
it would have been if he could have devoted 
his whole time to study, but after ten years 
of teaching and of close application to his 
legal studies he was admitted to the bar be- 
fore Judge Wear, in September, 1897. The 
success which was the immediate result of his 
admission to the bar and the commencement 
of practice was ample justification of ]\Ir. 
McKay's choice of a profession. 

On April 4, 1910, he formed a partnership 
with John H. Bradley. Mr. McKay has 
gained distinctive recognition and high rep- 
utation by reason of his broad and exact 



knowledge of jurisprudence and his ability 
in applying this information effectively, both 
as a trial lawyer and as a counselor. 

On the 28th day of June, 1894, Mr. :\Ic- 
Kay was united in matrimony to Miss Lucy 
Laden, the daughter of R. A. Laden, an in- 
fiuential resident of Kennett. To the union 
of Mr. and Mrs. i\IcKay one child was born, 
AVeltha. Airs. McKay died January 8, 1901, 
and on January 28, 1902, Mr. jMcKay was 
married to Miss Ethel McHaney, whose birth 
had occurred in Tennessee, but her educa- 
tion had been obtained in Kennett, where slie 
lived until she was married and has since 
continued in the town where she has passed 
most of the years of her short life. 

If we were called upon to decide which 
profession is the more worthy, that of a 
lawyer or a teacher, we should be utterly at 
a loss, but comparisons are unnecessary ; both 
are noble professions and both call forth the 
highest quality of ability and endeavor. Mr. 
ilcKay, as an influential lawj^er, holds the 
power to do an immense amount of good for 
the state of Missouri, and being a loyal ilis- 
sourian, he is availing himself of every op- 
portunity. He is especially devoted to Dunk- 
lin county, where he has spent practically 
his entire life and where he has a great fu- 
ture before him. 

Carr Hartshorn. It is indeed a pleasure 
to the publishers of this work to offer in its 
pages an appreciation of the young men of 
southeastern ]\Iissouri, to whom this portion 
of the state must look for its future prosper- 
ity and prestige. Among the able young men 
of Saint Francois county is eminent C'arr 
Hartshorn, cashier of the Bank of Elvins and 
former iiostmaster of the place. Mr. Harts- 
horn is a man of varied abilities and he pre- 
ceded his present manner of usefulness as a 
teacher, clerk in a grocery establishment, as- 
sistant postmaster and then incuml>ent of the 
office. 

Carr Hartshorn, whose name inaugurates 
this review, was born August 13, 1877, and is 
a son of John Hartshorn, who was born in 
St. Louis county, Missouri. December 20, 
1830. The senior Mr. Hartshorn came to 
Saint Francois county in 1872, a few years 
previous to the birth of the subject. In 
March, 1875, he was united in marriage to 
Susan Adeline Evans, and to their union were 
born three children, namely: Carr, David, of 
Kansas City. Missouri, and Susie, deceased. 
The mother was a daughter of David and 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST BHSSOURI 



665 



Catlieriue Evaas, pioneer farmer-folk of Saint 
Francois county. Tlie father of the subject 
came to Saint Francois county as a school 
teacher and afterward engaged in news- 
paper work, becoming the editor of the 
Saint Franco-is County Democrat. John 
Hartshorn, although a prominent man, was 
not an office holder, for he was a Republican 
in his views, and in his day a Republican had 
little chance in local politics. He belonged to 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
he and his wife were consistent members of 
the Presbyterian church. This gentleman 
died in April, 1895, and his cherished and 
devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal 
in August, 1906. 

Carr Hartshorn passed his early life in 
Farmingtou and after receiving his prelim- 
inary education in the public schools of that 
city he attended a trio of collegiate institu- 
tions, namely : Elmwood, Carlton and Baptist 
Colleges, his name being enrolled at these for 
short terms. His education acquired, he 
taught school for a couple of years and then 
accepted a position in a grocery concern at 
Farmington. His identification with Elvins 
dates from July, 1899, and in the years in- 
tervening he has accomplished much. For a 
time he worked in a local grocery — that of J. 
(!. Westover — and at the same time engaged 
in the duties of assistant postmaster, to which 
office he was appointed. He was subsecpiently 
appointed to a similar position at Desloge, 
but eventually returned to Elvins and found 
employment in the Evans & Howell Store 
Company, After remaining there for a time 
lie was appointed postmaster by President 
Roosevelt, in the month of January. 1908, and 
has held that office to the present time. In 1911 
he became cashier of the Bank of Elvins. and 
in addition to the important duties of this 
post, he also carried on a large fire insurance 
business, fie owns considerable real estate 
and is helpfully interested in all that pertains 
to the prosperity of Elvins and Saint Francois 
county. 

On'the 7th day of August. 1902, Mr. Harts- 
horn was happily married to Mary Belle 
Dunklin, of Flat River. Their union has been 
blessed hy the birth of three children, whose 
names are Harold, John Carr and Helen. 

The family are Calvinistic in their religious 
conviction and attend the Presbyterian 
church, to whose good causes they willingly 
contribute their assistance. The fraternal 
relations of the subject extend to the Ancient 



Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of 
Pythias and the Modern Woodmeu of Amer- 
ica. In polities he gives warmest allegiance 
to the Republican party and is a very active 
member of the county Republican committee, 
to which he has belonged for fully ten years. 

Dr. Gustav B. Schulz, the prominent 
physician and surgeon of Cape Girardeau, 
is universally respected. He is considered a 
most skilled surgeon by the members of the 
profession, indeed he specializes in that 
In-anch. This has not been the result pri- 
marily of deliberate intent; he has not sought 
the specialization, but rather it has been 
thrust upon him by reason of his marked abil- 
ities in that line. The num, in the medical 
profession, who specializes before he has had 
niuch experience in general practice, is apt to 
make a mistake. It is only after he has es- 
tablished his general practice that his ability 
along certain lines is apt to show itself. So 
it was with Dr. Schulz. 

He was born in Wittenberg, Perry county, 
Missouri, September 13, 1870, and was the 
son of a physician, Dr. F. B. Schulz, who 
was a native of Germany, where he received 
his education, both general and medical. 
He came to America when he was a young 
man and after a short stay in New Yoi-k, he 
went to Texas, where he practiced medicine. 
There he met and married Augusta Zedler. 
a young German girl who had come to Amer- 
ica with her parents locating in Texas. There 
Augusta received her education. In 1876 Mr. 
and i\Irs. Schulz came to ilissouri and lo- 
cated in Cape Girardeau. He soon gained 
repute as an able physician and he remained 
at Cape Girardeau in active practice until 
the time of his death in 1908, having survived 
his wife by ten years. 

Gustav came to Cape Girardeau with his 
parents, his four half brothers and sisters 
and his six full brothers and sisters when he 
was six years old. He entered the public 
schools, then St. Vincent's college and the 
state normal school. At that time he had no 
intention of following in the footsteps of his 
father, but rather had let his choice of a pro- 
fession wait until circumstances should de- 
cide. After leaving the state normal school 
he entered a drug store, but it was only a 
very short time before he decided that he did 
not care to be a business man, but that on the 
other hand he felt strong desire to study med- 



666 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



icine. He stayed at the store for two years, 
studying- hard all the spare time he could 
get. He then entered the St. Louis Univer- 
sity and graduated from its medical depart- 
ment in 1892. After spending one year in 
the city hospital he located at Altenburg, 
Perry county, Missouri, where he remained 
for ten years and a half, engaged in general 
practice. In December, 1903, he came to 
Cape Girardeau, where he has been ever 
since. Although he is a general practitionei', 
his abilities in the surgical line have caused 
him to be considered somewhat of a specialist. 
He is a member of the Cape Girardeau 
County Medical Society, of the Missouri 
State ]\Iedical Society and of the American 
IMedical Association. He is a member of the 
state board of health and of the city board 
of health. He is a Republican of a very de- 
cided character. He is greatly interested in 
all matters pertaining to public welfare and 
especially in educational ways. He realizes 
the advantages to be gained from an educa- 
tion, the culture that it gives, the satisfac- 
tion that is gained by its possession, apart 
from the dollars and cents that it helps one 
to gain. He is president of the board of 
education, always active in promoting the 
welfare of both pupil and teacher. He is a 
man who is only at the beginning of his ca- 
reer, but he has already made his presence 
felt in the county. 

Bex.jajiin H. Hughes. "Some men are 
born to greatness ; some achieve greatness, 
and some have greatness thrust upon them." 
The "greatness" which Mr. Hughes enjoys 
has been achieved my him. Born and reared 
on a farm, it was entirely owing to his own 
capabilities that the responsible position 
which he so ably fills was bestowed on him, 
and was even thrast on him a second time. 

Mr. Hughes was born October 24, 1875, in 
St. Francis township, "Wayne county, Mis- 
souri. He belongs to the Hughes family who 
are so well known as pioneers in Wayne 
county. Mr. Hughes' grandfather, William 
Hughes, was a native of Virginia, where he 
was educated and learned the blacksmith 
trade. He was there married and thence 
came to iMissouri, locating near Lodi, Wayne 
county, on some wild land which he pro- 
ceeded to bring \inder cultivation. There 
his first wife died and he married a second, 
Miss Delphia Brown, and to this union A. C. 
Hughes (father of Ben. H.) was born, Feb- 



ruary 2, 1849, in Cedar Creek township. 
Grandfather Hughes trained his son in the 
knowledge of farming and also blacksmith- 
ing, and with these two industries Mr. A. C. 
Hughes has occupied himself. When a 
young man he purchased a farm four miles 
west of Greenville, iMissouri, and settled on 
the wild, uncultivated prairie, which he 
graduall.y cleared and improved until it be- 
came a productive farm. His wife was Mar- 
tha Rodgers, born in Carter county, Mis- 
souri, who died when she was thirty-three 
years of age, in 1886. Mr. and Mrs. A. C. 
Hughes became the parents of seven chil- 
dren, five of whom are living, and all are 
residents of Wayne county. Their names 
are as follows, — W. W., living near the old 
homestead which his grandfather owned in 
St. Francis township ; Benjamin ; Joseph D. ; 
G. W. ; and Lulu, the wife of William H. 
Lane. Father Hughes is living a retired life 
on the farm which his son superintends, and 
where the father spent so many years of his 
life and where he still retains the interests of 
his youth. He has always been a stanch Dem- 
ocrat, but has never desired any public office 
for himself. He has for years held member- 
ship in the Missionary Baptist church — the 
church in which he and his young wife 
worked together during the short years of 
their wedded life. 

Ben. Hughes obtained his education in the 
district school of the township and after leav- 
ing school he assisted his father with the 
work of the farm, remaining at home until 
1906. In the fall of 1906 he was elected to 
the office of treasurer of Wayne county, and 
that his services in the capacity of treasurer 
were eminently satisfactory is evinced by the 
fact that in 1908 he was reelected to the 
same office to serve a four-year term. In 
January, 1910, he became cashier of The Iron 
Exchange Bank for a year. 

]\Ir. Hughes was married to Miss Sarah 
Eads on the 11th day of April, 1901. Mrs. 
Hughes is a daughter of J. N. Eads, formerly 
a prosperous farmer in Wayne county, where 
he died in the year 1907. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hughes are the parents of five sturdy sons, — ■ 
Ralph. Robert, Raymond, Roy and Russell; 
they lost one .sou, Richard, by death. Both 
husband and wife are members of the Baptist 
church, where they have many friends. Mr. 
Hughes has always been aligned as a Demo- 
crat, and in a fraternal way he is affiliated 
with the Masonic Order, the Independent 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



667 



Order of Odd Pelows, the Rebekahs and the 
Modern Woodmen of America. His is a per- 
sonality that wins friends and admirers in 
all his relations of life — political, fraternal, 
religious and social. 

G. B. Snider, cashier of the Bank of 
Marble Hill and one of the leading citizens 
of the town, is as popular as he is influential. 
Throughout his career his maxim has been to 
do the duty which lies nearest, not worrying 
about what the next might be, and it is be- 
cause of this simplicity of action that Mr. 
Snider has made such an unmitigated suc- 
cess of his life up to the present time, He 
has by no means reached the limit of his 
capabilities, and it is safe to predict that in- 
asmuch as he has heretofore filled all posi- 
tions in a highly satisfactory manner, that 
he will continue to have greater responsibil- 
ities thrust upon him. 

Mr. Snider 's birth occurred January 27, 
1880, near Lafliu, Bollinger county, on the 
old homestead which has been in the family 
for one himdred years or more. Early in 
the nineteenth century George Snider (one 
of G. B. Snider 's ancestors) came from his 
home in North Carolina and took up a tract 
of land in Bollinger county, which he re- 
ceived by government grant ; he cultivated 
the land and built the house which has re- 
mained in the family ever since. His son 
was Andrew Snider, who married and farmed 
in Bollinger county and there reared his 
family; one of his children was George P., 
the father of G. B. Snider. Mr. George P. 
Snider passed his whole life on the old 
homestead, engaged in agi-icultural pursuits. 
As a young man he married Miss ilartha E. 
Clippard, and to this union one son, G. B., 
was born. The father died when their son 
was a mere child and in course of time the 
mother married again. She is now living in 
Kennett, the wife of Dr. W. B. Finney of 
that town. 

G. B. Snider received his preliminary edu- 
cational training in the public schools and 
was graduated from the State Normal at 
Cape Girardeau in 1900. When he was 
twelve years old he accompanied his mother 
to Kennett and remained there until 1902, 
when he returned to Marble Hill in Bol- 
linger county. The last two years of his resi- 
dence in this county he was the editor of the 
Bollinger County Times. In 1902 he sold 
his interest in the paper, moved to Laflin and 
entered the mercantile business. In 1906 he 



commenced his connection with the Bank of 
Marble Hill, serving successively as book- 
keeper, assistant cashier and later as cashier, 
which responsible position he still occupies. 
Mr. Snider was one of the original stock- 
holders, as the bank was organized in 1906, 
with C. A. Sanders, M. D., as its president. 
During the five years of its existence the 
stockholders have each year received div- 
idends and the capital is now fifteen thou- 
sand dollars. Today (1911) the deposits 
amount to fift.y-one thousand dollars and tlie 
bank is doing a thriving business under the 
management of its efficient cashier. Mr. 
Snider has other interests besides his bank 
c'onnection ; he is a stockholder of the Ad- 
vance Telephone Company and is the owner 
of two hundred and seventy-five acres of 
land in Bollinger county and another tract 
of one hundred and twenty acres in Dunklin 
county. 

On the 17th day of December, 1903, Mr. 
Snider was united in marriage to Miss Anna 
Drum, a daughter of Senator Robert Drum, 
of Marble Hill. Mr. Snider is afBliated with 
the Masonic fraternal order and with the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 
his direct membership in the former being in 
the Blue Lodge at Marble Hill, Ancient Free 
and Accepted I\Iason, and he hoJds member- 
ship with the Elks at Cape Girardeau. His 
is the personality that gains friends, who re- 
spect him for his sterling characteristics and 
esteem him for his genial, . affable manners. 

W. T. Caneer, Jr. Possessing in an em- 
inent degree the energy, keen foresight and 
sound judgment that ever command success 
in the business world, W. T. Caneer, Jr., 
general manager of the Caneer Store Com- 
pany, holds a place of note among the lead- 
ing merchants of Senath, and is numbered 
among the representative citizens of Dunk- 
lin county. A native of Tennessee, he was 
born July 29, 1866, in Gibson county, near 
Milan, where the days of his youth were 
spent. 

Soon after attaining his ma.jority Mr. 
Caneer spent a year in Missouri, and was so 
well pleased with its future possibilities that 
when looking about for a permanent location 
he came to Dunklin county, in 1894 locating 
in Senath, which has since been his home. 
The following four years he was employed 
as a clerk in the store of Caneer & Karnes, 
and then, with his brothers, bought the en- 
tire business, which was conducted for sev- 



668 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



eral years under the firm name of Caneer 
Brothers, he being manager of affairs. 

In 1904: the Caneer Store Company was in- 
corporated, with a capital of fifty-two thou- 
sand dollars, and is now doing an immense 
business, its trade extending not only 
throughout the southern portion of Dunklin 
county, but over a large i^ortion of Arkansas. 
This business was founded by J. I. Caneer, 
who at the inception of the town of Senath 
established the first mercantile house in the 
place, it being a small building, sixteen by 
twenty-four feet. He began on a modest 
scale, and afterward enlarged his stock and 
his operations. In 1891 Mr. J. I. Caneer be- 
came sole proprietor of the business, which 
increased so rapidly that more commodious 
quarters were needed, and he erected a large 
frame building, which soon proved none too 
large for his extensive trade. In 1898 he 
with his two brothers, W. T. Caneer and A. 
A. Caneer, engaged in business together 
under the firm name of Caneer Brothers, "W. 
T. Caneer becoming manager of the store 
and A. A. Caneer, bookkeeper, collector, etc. 
Mr. J. I. Caneer, who had been instrumental 
up to that time in the upbuilding of the busi- 
ness, simply holding a third interest in it. 
Mr. J. I. Caneer was a man of wonderful 
resources, and in addition to having man- 
aged a business amounting to about fifty 
thousand dollars a year had also made much 
money in the buying and selling of lands, 
and is now living retired in Los Angeles, 
California, although his financial interests 
are mainly in Missouri, as he retains an in- 
terest the Caneer Store Company and owns 
upward of a thousand acres of land in Dunk- 
lin county. 

The Caneer Store Company is owned 
mo.stly by Senath people, and has the fol- 
lowing named gentlemen as officers : A. W. 
Douglass, president ; E. Baker , vice-presi- 
dent ; A. T. Douglass, secretary; xV. A. 
Caneer, treasurer ; and W. T. Caneer, Jr., 
general manager. The store building which 
the firm occupies has a hundred feet front- 
age, and is one hundred and fifteen feet 
deep, a part of it being two stories in height, 
and in addition has outside warerooms. The 
Company carries ou a general supply busi- 
ness, handling tools and implements of all 
kinds, its stock being valued at thirty-two 
thousand dollars, while its sales in this line 
amounts to upwards of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars annually. The firm likewise 
handles hay, feed and cotton, buying and 



ginning about fifteen hundred bales of the 
latter production each year, its sales from 
cotton exceeding one hundred and twenty- 
five thousand dollars a year. 

Mr. W. T. Caneer is also interested in 
^Missouri lands, Caneer Brothers owning 
large tracts that are under cultivation and 
are highly productive. He is also a stock- 
holder and the vice-president of the Citizens' 
Bank of Senath. He is a stanch Republican 
in polities, and fraternally is a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
of the Woodmen of the World. 

Mr. Caneer married, in 1903, Kate Law- 
son, a daughter of the late iloses Lawsou, 
of Kennett, who was for many years a prom- 
inent attorne.v and county official of Dunk- 
lin county. ^Irs. Caneer passed to the higher 
life November 19, 1909, leaving no children. 

Peter R. Conr.\d traces his ancestry in a 
direct line back to the Revolution. He is the 
son of David, son of Peter, son of Rudolph, 
son of Peter, who probably came to America 
from Prussia about 1750. Rudolph and his 
brother Jacob went from the neighborhood 
of Ilarrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Lincolnton, 
North Carolina, during the Revolutionary 
days. Both brothers were soldiers in the 
Revolutionary war and probably witnessed 
the battle of Cowpens, accounts of which 
have been handed down to the children of 
the third and fourth generation; how the 
men rode two by two to battle under the gal- 
lant General Greene. 

Rudolph Conrad was three times married. 
His first marriage was with a Miss Schuford. 
The issue of this union was one child, Daniel. 
By his union with Miss Shell, Rudolph had 
five children, Peter, Jacob Lewis, Mary 
(Kline), Susan (Baumgarten) and Charlotte 
(Plott). His third marriage was to Miss 
Stockinger, and their children were John 
Lewis, Ephraim, Rebecca, Elizabeth. Peter, 
the paternal grandsire of Peter R. of this 
sketch, married Sarah Abernathy, of North 
Carolina, and came to Missouri in 1820. 
David Conrad, the father of Peter R., was 
the oldest of his seven children. The others 
were Elizabeth, Jacob, William, Clarissa, 
George and Martha. The Conrads are a re- 
markably long-lived race and all these chil- 
dren except David and Martha lived to be 
over eighty. The latter died at the age of 
seventy-five and the former in 1890, at 
seventy-nine. George is supposed to be still 




(/hU/f ^. 4(ryvraol, 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI 



609 



living near Grinnell, Iowa, at the age of 
ninety-one. The father of this family was a 
cabinet maker by trade. He had been ap- 
prenticed to a worker in this oraft when a 
boy, being bound out for a number of years, 
as was the custom of the time. When he 
came to Marble Hill he settled near an uncle, 
Casper Shell, who gave him five acres of 
land, planted in corn. Peter was very poor 
at the time of his arrival in the county, but 
before he died he accumulated a fair compe- 
tence and a comfortable home. He died in 
August. 1842, at the age of sixty-two. 

David R.. son of Peter and father of Peter 
R., was born January 5, 1811. He married 
in 1833 Miss Mary Bollinger and lived and 
died on the farm now occupied by Daniel E. 
Conrad. This was a pai-t of the old Spanish 
grant purchased by David R. from Fred- 
erick Slinknrd. David Conrad had thirteen 
children, including Peter R., of this review; 
Jacob, who died on December 7, 1905, at the 
age of seventy : IMoses, who passed away at 
sixteen years of age ; Elizabeth, still living ; 
John ; Sarah and Priseilla, both deceased ; 
Clarissa, wife of William ITeitman ; George 
E., born in 1852 ; Benton, who died at the age 
of nineteen ; and Frances Jane, wife of 
Tnistin Gideon. 

Peter R. Conrad was educated in the 
county schools and at home. He had the ad- 
vantage of the insti'uction of his parents, 
both of whom were well educated and cul- 
tured. Peter spent nearly two years at 
Pleasant Hill Academy, north of Jackson. 
He lived with his father until lie was twenty- 
six years old, this being in the year 1860. 
At that date he began to farm for himself, 
but interrupted this peaceful pursuit a year 
later to enter the Union array. 

The First ^Missouri Engineers was Peter 
Conrad's regiment and he gave three years 
of service to the country which his great- 
grandfather had helped to make an inde- 
pendent nation. He served as a sapper and 
a miner and in the signal corps, in the rail- 
road repair work, in railroad building and 
in road making. In the course of perform- 
ing this important work Mr. Conrad saw 
much hard service and was present at the 
bombardment of Fort Henry. 

After the war agriculture again claimed 
Mr. Conrad's attention. He noAV owns 
two hundred and forty acres of land, one 
hundred of which is fine cleared land on 
Whitewater creek. He owns considerable 



live stock, including a small herd of sheep. 
A large fruit orchard is one of the most val- 
uable sections of his farm. 

Jlr. Conrad does not permit his work to 
absorb all his attention. He is a man of 
broad culture and wide reading. Geology is 
one of his favorite studies and he has studied 
the geological formation of the region with 
which he is thoroughly familiar. He is 
famed as a collector of minerals and Indian 
implements, as well as other curios. His col- 
lection of stone implements iised by the In- 
dians is one of the finest private collections 
in the state. 

ilr. Conrad has been twice married. His 
first wife was Anna Nugent, daughter of 
John II. Nugent, of West Virginia. Their 
marriage took place in May, 1860, and the 
union lasted until Mrs. Conrad's death, 
twenty-one years afterward. They had nine 
children, seven of whom are living. The 
names and dates of birth of the children are 
as follows : Rudolph, June 3, 1861 ; William, 
September 15, 1865, and died at the age of 
nine ; John I., May 20, 1867 ; George, May 28, 
1870; Mary, July 10, 1872; Albert, February 
28, 1875; Arthur 0., February 25, 1877; 
Augusta, February 22, 1878 ; and David, 
born June 2, 1869, who died in infancy. 

In 1886 Mr. Conrad was married to Emma 
Griffith, the adopted daughter of Dr. C. N. 
Griffith. Mrs. Conrad is a native of Den- 
mark. Her mother died on the ocean coming 
to America and her father in St. Louis in 
1852. The infant daughter Emma was 
adopted by Dr. and ]Mrs. Griffith, of Iron 
county. Mr. and Mrs. Conrad have two chil- 
dren living, Frances Eleanor and Julius C. 
Two others, a son and a daughter, died in 
infancy. 

Mr. Conrad is a member of the fast dimin- 
ishing Grand Army of the Republic. He is 
of the political party of Lincoln, Grant and 
McKinley. In religious doctrines, he sub- 
scribes to those of the Presbyterian church, 
of which he is an honored and valued mem- 
ber. 

Michael De Guiee. Great men are great 
in their methods. As contrasted to ordinary 
men. they draw their plans on a larger scale 
— think in bigger units — trudge to further 
horizons — climb longer hills — contest in 
greater arenas, and accept no compromise 
from opportunity. It is the size of the game 
as well as the size of the man that spells sue- 



670 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



cess. Michael De Guire is a scion of one of 
the oldest pioneer families in Missouri, his 
father having come to what is now Madison 
count}' as early as 1790. He has ever been 
imbued with the ancestral spirit of enter- 
prise and through his well directed endeavors 
has achieved a marvelous success as a busi- 
ness man and miller. He has lived retired 
from participation in active atfairs since 1903, 
and while he has now attained to the age of 
seventy-four years he is still liale and hearty 
and manifests a keen interest in community 
affairs. 

Michael De Guire was born in Madison 
county, Missouri, on the 5th of November, 
1837, and he is a son of Paul and Sarah (Ni- 
fong) De Guire, the former a native of Ste. 
Genevieve, this state, and the latter a native 
of North Carolina. Paul De Guire was a son 
of Paul De Guire, who came to America from 
France prior to 1800 and settled on a farm 
in the vicinity of Fredericktown. Paul De 
Guire, with three other French families, 
hewed the road through the wilderness to 
Madison county, theirs having been the fir.st 
wheeled vehicle to come over the trail. Paul 
De Guire, wliose birth occurred in 1792, died 
in 1875, at the venerable age of eighty-three 
years. He was engaged in lead-mining, 
smelting and shipping during the greater 
part of his active career, his product having 
been manufactured and sold after being 
shipped to the Mississippi river, where it 
commanded a price of two and a half cents 
per pound. He had a number of slaves and 
laired other negro help to carry on his busi- 
ness. He was also an extensive farmer. He 
married, in 1821, Sarah Ann Nifong. whose 
birth occurred in North Carolina, in 1805. 
and who was descended from German ances- 
tors. She came to Missouri as a child and died 
in 1887, at the age of eighty-two yeai's. She 
and her husliand were both devout comuui- 
eants of the Catholic church. Of their nine 
children the subject of this review was the 
tifth in order of birth and but three are liv- 
ing at the present time, namely,- — Mrs. Eliz- 
abeth Allen, of Kansas City, Missouri ; ]\Irs. 
Sarah Putnam, of California: and Micha<'l. 
of this notice. At this .iunctiire it is inter- 
esting to note that Paul De Guire owned the 
first hand-mill for grinding corn in this sec- 
tion of the state. The subject of this sketch 
still has the top stone in his possession, this 
being a very historical relic, as it represents 
part of the first mill of any description in 
Madison countv. 



Michael De Guire was reared to the pioneer 
life of liis native place and his rudimentary 
educational training consisted of such advan- 
tages as were afforded in the schools of the 
locality and period. In 1854, at the age of 
seventeen years, he accompanied two of his 
brothers, A. A. and Henry, on the overland 
trip to California. A. A., G. W. and Henry 
De Guire went to California in 1849. being 
members of a company of twenty-five, of 
whom A. A. De Guire was the last survivor, 
his death having occurred on the 4th of June, 
1911, in his eighty-third year. A. A. De 
Guire crossed the plains again in 1862. driv- 
ing cattle, and he made two more trips in '63 
and '64. In the latter years of his life he 
made three trips by railroad, making in all 
seven round trips to California, ^lichael De 
Guire i-emained in California from 1854 to 
1858. devoting his time to mining enterprises 
and achieving marked success. With the ex- 
ception of nineteen years he has spent his 
entire life in IMadison county, having main- 
tained his home in Fredericktown since 1876. 
For thirteen years he was engaged in the mill- 
ing business in St. Francois county and sub- 
sequently he was identified with that line of 
enterprise in Madison county, devoting forty 
years to that particular project. He started 
out with a fifty barrel mill and for thirty 
years conducted a two hundred barrel mill, 
this mill being now operated by others, at 
Fredericktown. In 1877 he built a brick mill 
in this place and owned the same until 1903, 
when he retired. He recently sold a fine 
farm directly north of the town and he re- 
sides in his beautiful home on West Llain 
street, where he has lived for the past twenty 
vears. 

On the ]9th of December. 1861. IMr. De 
Guire was united in marriage to Miss Eliz- 
abeth Blanton, a native of Iron county. 
IMissouri. and a daughter of Benjamin Plan- 
ton, who was born in Kentucky and wlio 
became a farmer in this state in an early day. 

Mr. and Mrs. De Guire became the parents 
of two daughters, concerning whom the fol- 
lowing data are here inserted. — Fannie mar- 
ried H. D. Christnff. who is a druggist at 
Fredericktown. and they have four children. 
Charles. John, Norman and Con.siiplo: and 
Flora, who is the wife of W. R. Nifong. of 
Oklahoma City, where he is a civil engineer, 
employed in setting up refrisreratinsr and ice 
plants. They have two children. Jennie and 
Robert. 

In politics Mr. De Guire is a Republican. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



671 



with Prohibition tendencies. He has never 
been ambitions for public office of any de- 
scription but has served with efficiency as a 
member of the board of school directors. In 
their religious faith he and his family are 
devout members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Mr. De Guire is strictly a self-made 
man, having himself built the ladder by 
which he rose to affluence. All his business 
dealings have been characterized by fair and 
honorable methods and as a citizen he com- 
mands the unalloyed confidence and esteem 
of his fellow men. 

Samuel Boutin. If those who claim that 
fortune has favored certain individuals 
above others will but investigate the cause 
of success and failure, it will be found that 
the former is largely due to the improvement 
of opportunity, the latter to the neglect of 
it. Fortunate environments encompass 
nearly every man at some stage of his ca- 
reer, but the strong man and the successful 
man is he who realizes that the proper mo- 
ment has come, that the present and not the 
future holds his opportunity. The man who 
makes use of the Now and not the To Be is 
the one who passes on the highway of life 
others who started out ahead of him, and 
reaches the goal of prosperity in advance of 
them. It is this qualit.y in Samuel Boutin 
that has made him a leader in the business 
world and won him an enviable name in con- 
nection with contracting and building affairs 
at Cape Girardeau, where he is recognized as 
a citizen whose lo.yalty and public spirit have 
ever been of the most insistent order. 

Samuel Boutin was born in "Windham 
county, Vermont, on the 19th of Jul.y, 1852, 
and he is a son of Joachim Boutin, who was 
born at Point Levis, Canada, the date of his 
nativity having been 1804. The grandfather 
of him to whom this sketch is dedicated im- 
migrated to America from his native land of 
France in the latter part of the eighteenth 
centui-y. After being reared and educated 
in Canada Joachim Boutin came to the 
United States, locating in the state of Ver- 
mont, where he turned his attention to agri- 
cultural operations. In 1826 was recorded 
his marriage to Miss ]\Iartha Warner and to 
them were born ten children, of Wliom Sam- 
uel was the seventh in order of birth and 
five of whom are living at the present time, 
in 1911. The father was summoned to the 



life eternal in the year 1879 and the mother 
passed away in 1883. 

In the public schools of his native state of 
Vermont, Samuel Boutin received his ele- 
mentary educational training. In 1872, at 
the age of twenty years, he decided to seek 
his fortunes in the west and in that year es- 
tablished his home at Hampton, Iowa, where 
he became interested in the contracting and 
building business, being associated in that 
line of enterprise with his brother, C. W. 
Boutin, until 1887. In the latter year he 
removed to Center-ville, Iowa, where he was 
superintendent of bridge-building for the 
Keokiik & Western Railroad Company for the 
ensuing fourteen years. In 1901 he went to 
Gary, Oklahoma, where he was general road- 
master for the Choctaw & Northern Railroad 
for about one year, at the expiration of which 
he came to Cape Girardeau to accept a posi- 
tion as superintendent of bridges and con- 
struction work on the St. Louis & Gulf Road. 
In 1903 his territory was extended over the 
third district of the Frisco system and he 
remained with that road until March, 1905, 
at which time he went to Muskogee, in the 
Indian Territor.A', where he was roadmaster 
over the Midland Valle.y. In September, 
1905, he returned to this cit.y, where he was 
employed as general foreman by the Frisco 
system to build the Chaffee yards. In 1907 
he was in Georgia with the Fall City Con- 
struction Company and soon thereafter was 
forced to give up railroading on account of 
the impaired condition of his health. In 
1908 he came back to Cape Girardeau and 
here opened offices as contractor and builder. 
He has been eminently successful in this line 
of enterprise and by reason of his extensive 
experience has won renown for the excellent 
quality of his work. 

At Hampton, Iowa, in the year 1874, Mr. 
Boutin was united in marriage to Jliss Julia 
Crawford, who was born in Canada, a daugh- 
ter of William Crawford. Mr. and Mrs. 
Boutin are the parents of four children, con- 
cerning whom the following record is here 
offered. — Maud is the wife of C. R. Porter, 
a prominent lawyer and politician at Center- 
ville. Iowa; Lottie is now Mrs. A. S. Duck- 
worth, her husband being engaged in the 
lumber business at Cape Girardeau ; Ralph 
G. is a dentist by profession and is engaged 
in that work at Harper. Kansas ; and Charles 
W. is auditor for the Bell Telephone Com- 



672 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



panj' in this city. In their religious faith the 
Boutin family are devout members of the 
Presbyterian church and they are popular 
factors in connection with the best social ac- 
tivities of Cape Girardeau. 

In his political affiliations Mr. Boutin is 
aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Re- 
publican party but aside from membership 
in the city council he has not been active in 
politics. In the time-honored Masonic order 
he is a valued and appreciative member of 
St. Marks Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons; 
Royal Ai'ch Masons; and St. John's Com- 
mandery, No. 21, Knights Templar. He is 
also connected with Za-Ga-Zig Temple, An- 
cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mys- 
tic Shrine. IMr. Boutin is a man of fine men- 
tality and broad human sympathy. He thor- 
oughly enjoys home life and takes great 
pleasure in the society of his family and 
friends. He is always courteous, kindly and 
aft'able and those who know him personally 
accord him the highest esteem. His life has 
been exemplary in all respects and he has ever 
supported tliose interests which are calcu- 
lated to uplift and benefit humanity, while 
his own high moral worth is deserving of the 
highest commendation. 

Charles Austin Cole.. It is not to be 
gainsaid that there is no office carrying with 
it so much of responsibility as that of the 
instructor who moulds and fashions the 
plastic mind of youth ; who instills into the 
formative brain those principles which, when 
matured, will be the chief heritage of the 
active man who in due time will sway the 
multitudes, lead armies, govern nations or 
frame the laws by which civilized nations are 
governed. To say that all learned men are 
capable of filling this high and important 
office is by no means the truth. One inclines 
to the belief that the true instructor is born 
and not made ; he must have a vast knowl- 
edge of human nature; he must know not 
only what is in books, but what is in man. 
also, that is, he must understand his pupil 
and deal with his mind according to his in- 
dividuality. 

Professor Charles Austin Cole is one of 
the able and efficient educators of Franklin 
county and is superintendent of the Union 
' public schools. He was born in this county 
and is descended from one of the earliest of 
the pioneers among the territorial settlers 
along the Missouri river. The honor of 
bringing the family patronymic into the state 



belongs to Jacob Cole, the grandfather of 
the subject, who came hither in 1797 from 
Lexington, Kentucky. Jacob Cole devoted 
his activities to pastoral and agricultural 
pursuits and was one of the highly known 
and highly honored men of his section. 

Jasper Cole, a son of Jacob, was born in 
Missouri in 1831. Following in the footsteps 
of his father, he adopted as his own the great 
))asic industry and beyond his assumption 
of the duties of the office of justice of the 
peace he had little connection with public 
affairs. During the Civil war his sympathies 
were with the Union and its preservation 
and he did his part as a member of the Mis- 
souri State Militia. He was Republican in 
jiolitics. The death of this prominent man 
occurred at Shotwell in iDol, when his 
years numbered sevent3'-three. He married 
Mrs. Susan Cooper, widow of John Cooper 
and a daughter of Joseph Smith, a Kentue- 
kian. Four sons and a daughter were born 
to the union, making a large household, for 
iirs. Cole had the following children by her 
previous marriage with ilr. Cooper: John 
Thomas; Elizabeth, first Mrs. Seaton and 
afterward Mrs. Cowan; and James. The 
subject is the eldest in order of birth of the 
Cole family. 

The country schools served to provide 
Charles A. Cole with his elementary educa- 
tion. He left his desk in the rural school to 
])reside over a school of the same kind as its 
teacher and thus began what proved to be a 
life work in the domain of public education. 
"While teaching he strengthened himself by 
home study and as a student in private 
schools, and advanced in the pedagogical pro- 
fession to supervisor of graded schools. 
Normal training in the state institution at 
Cape Girardeau aided him materially in 
grasping the essentials of success as a teacher 
and manager in graded work, which he be- 
gan as principal of the schools in Union in 
1893. After a year he was elected principal 
of the schools of Washins1:on and remained 
in such capacity for four years. He returned 
to Union at the end of that period and has 
since carried on his work here. 

As an educator in the lu'oadest sense Jlr. 
Cole has acquitted himself creditably. For 
four years he was county school commissioner 
and during his regime the old practice of 
jiolding county institute prevailed and he 
was in command of the work of training the 
county teachers, as provided then by law. 
Since the abolishment of the old plan he has 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



673 



conducted a summer school in Union for 
teachers, and such as feel the need of a prac- 
tical review of the common branches and of 
advice on method and management for a 
number of weeks each vacation season are 
afforded this great advantage. An experience 
of more than twenty years in the school- 
room has made Professor Cole a master in 
training both the pupil and the teacher. His 
high scholarship lias been awarded recogni- 
tion by a state life certiticate issued by State 
Superintendent William T. Carriugton. 

In politics Mr. Cole is a Republican and his 
inclination to participate actively in the bouts 
of his party in the county have been occasion- 
ally gratified. He won the Republican nom- 
ination for county clerk from a competitor 
who had been incumbent of the office for six- 
teen years and who had held other offices as 
long, totaling thirty j^eai-s continuous office 
holding, but was defeated in the election by 
the disloyalty of his beaten opponent to the 
l^arty ticket. He has served as secretary of 
the county central committee and has 
mingled frequently and fraternally among 
the public men of both his county and state. 

Mr. Cole was married in Franklin county, 
December 24, 1891, his chosen lady being Miss 
Cora. Fitzgerald, a daughter of W. H. and 
Talitha Fitzgerald, who were among Franklin 
county's old settlers. The first Mrs. Cole 
died March 3, 1905, the mother of three chil- 
dren: Raymond W., Edith M. and Herbei-t 
Allan. For his second wife Mr. Cole married 
Miss Minnie Faughnder. daughter of George 
W. and Sarah Faughnder, who came to Mis- 
souri from the Old Dominion. Their union 
was celebrated August 29. 1906. and their 
home is one of the attractive and hosjiitable 
abodes of the town. There are no children. 

Fraternally Mr. Cole holds membership in 
the State Teachers' Association of Missouri 
and he is past chancellor of the Knights of 
Pythias. He is one of the elders of the Union 
Presbyterian church. 

Charles M. Crites. Born July 6, 1887. 
Mr. Charles Crites has most of his history yet 
before him. His parents, J. M. and Adeline 
Crites, were both born in Bollinger county, 
this state. J. M. Crites bought a qixarter sec- 
tion of land near Dongola in 1901. being an 
experienced farmer during his entire active 
life. 

His deatli in 1910, aged fifty-six years, has 
left the two sons, Charles and Henry to man- 
age the farm. Stock and general farming 



engage the attention of the two young men. 
Mr. Crites is a Republican in politics, and 
while not active in political circles is none the 
less counted one of the influential citizens of 
Dongola, both personally and politically. 

J. W. TiMBERMAN, the county sheriff, is a 
man who stands high in the esteem of the 
people of Kennett. For a man to make a 
success of his life under any circumstances is 
a subject for congratulation, but when he has 
all the difficulties to encounter that Mr. 
Timberman has surmounted he may justly be 
proud of himself. As a matter of fact, how- 
ever, Mr. Timberman is a very modest man 
in regard to his own attainments and capabil- 
ities. 

He was born near Clarkton in Dunklin 
county, January 25, 1872. His father was 
Mathew Timberman, a native of Virginia, 
who came to Missouri, where he bought a 
farm. He died in 1875. He married Mar- 
garet A. Rayburn, whose family had come 
from Mississippi. She has always remained 
with her son, J. W. Three daughters were 
also born to Mr. and Mrs. Timberman. 

J. W. Timberman had the misfortune to 
lose his father when he was only six years old. 
His mother was left with the task of 
bringing up the little family of three 
girls and a boy. J. W. very early felt 
the responsibility of the family resting on his 
shoulders, as he tried in every way to spare 
his mother as much as possible. He was not 
able to get very much schooling himself, but 
he has educated his three sisters. He has 
done all kinds of work to keep things going. 
For ten years he operated a saw mill near 
Kemiett. He worked on the farm which his 
father had bought near Clarkton, farming in 
the summer and clerking in a store in the 
winter. He moved to Kennett for the sake 
of his sisters, so that they could have more 
advantages in the way of education. In 1908 
he was elected to the office of sheriff of the 
county, his term commencing Janiiary, 1909, 
and lasting four years. He is a representa- 
tive Democrat and active in primary work. 
He is a member of several fraternal orders, 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the 
Modern Woodmen of America, Ben Hur and 
the Masons. Mr. Timberman has never mar- 
ried, perhaps he has not yet found time or 
has not seen the right lady. His mother and 
he have always been most devoted to each 
other. He has found time in the mid.st of his 
busy life to devote a short period to the sports 



674 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



of lumting aud tishiiig, being an adept at 
both. 

Theodore Lewis Bunte, Jr. A well 
known citizen aud enterprising business man 
of Saint Francois county is Theodore Lewis 
Bunte, Jr., cashier of the St. Louis Smelting 
& Refining Company, one of the important 
industrial concerns represented in this sec- 
tion. He was born September 27, 1874, at 
St. Louis, Missouri. He is of Teutonic ex- 
traction, his father, Theodore L. Bunte, Sr., 
having been born in Hanover, Germany, 
March 30, 1845, and the subject shares in 
those tine characteristics which have made the 
German one of our most valuable sources of 
immigration. The father came to America at 
the age of twenty-seven years and located in 
St. Louis, where he engaged in mercantile 
business. The year 1889 marks an era in his 
career, for in that year he abandoned the 
mercantile field and went into the smelting 
business with the St. Louis Smelting & Refin- 
ing Company, engag:ing in general smelting. 
In 1873, the year after his immigration to 
this country, the father married Miss Bertha 
May, also from Germany, and to their union 
have been born three children, namely : T. L. 
Bunte, Jr. ; Alma B., wife of W. H. Nance, 
and Lewis H. T4ie father remained asso- 
ciated with the St. Louis Smelting Company 
until 1904, in which year he went back to his 
old occupation, the mercantile business, and 
he is thus engaged in St. Louis at the pres- 
ent time. He is in harmony with the policies 
and principles of government for which the 
Democratic party stands sponsor, and he is a 
member of the Lutheran church. 

Theodore L. Bunte. Jr., spent his early life 
amid the scenes of his birth — the city of St. 
Louis. He received his education in the ex- 
cellent public schools and was graduated from 
the high school. Very soon thereafter he 
entered business life and almost from the first 
he exhibited that fine executive capacity and 
acumen that has insured his success. He has 
been with the same company throughout the 
entire course of his career, first becoming as- 
sociated with them in 1892, the year he fin- 
ished school, and remaining with them in St. 
Louis until 1900. In that year Mr. Bunte 
came to Saint Francois county, representing 
the same company with which he now holds 
the office of cashier, headquarters being 
located at the lead mines. It is not to be 
gainsaid that much of the prosperity of the 



concern in this locality is due to the part he 
has played in its management. 

Mr. Bunte was married in 1898, Miss 
Louise A. Jacobi, of Kirkwood, Missouri, be- 
coming his wife and the mistress of his house- 
hold. Their union has been further cemented 
by the birth of two children, — Marie and 
Lewis. Mr. and Mrs. Bunte are valued mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian church and are 
active in the best social life of the community. 
In politics Mr. Bunte is an adherent of the 
Democratic party and his fraternal interests 
extend to the Ancient Free and Accepted 
Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and the Order of Columbian Knights, in 
which three organizations he is a prominent 
and popular member. 

Abneb Barrow. To owe one's success 
neither to chance nor to the happy circum- 
stance of the fortunate struggles of one's 
forebears, but to be able to look back over 
one's life and see success coming as the re- 
sult rather of innate talent, grit and manly 
persistence is a great thing. Few men are 
aft'orded this satisfaction, but Abner Barrow, 
now the honored and successful postmaster 
of Greenville, can recall the day when he 
came to Wappapello with the discouraging 
capital of thirty-five cents, from which small 
beginning he has wrought an ample compe- 
tence for himself and his family, as well as 
gained the sincere respect and hearty liking 
of the community where he nmkes his home. 

Abner Barrow was born in Jackson county, 
Illinois, June 29, 1858, a son of Marion and 
Elizabeth (Thomason) Barrow, both of whom 
were also natives of Jackson county. Be- 
sides the subject of this brief personal re- 
view they were the parents of the following 
children: Abner, John, James (deceased), 
George, Ed., Charles, Ellsworth, Frank, and 
Annie, the third child, is the wife of Ben F. 
Hill, of Hiram, ilissouri. With this large 
family of brothers and one sister he was 
reared among the homely but pleasant sur- 
roundings of the Illinois farmstead, and en- 
joyed the educational advantages of the 
neighboring schools. After his marriage in 
1882, to Miss Lewella Jones, the yovmg cou- 
ple started life on a small farm, but in the 
year 1886 he and his wife and his parents 
felt the call to a newer country, and, migrat- 
ing to the state of Missouri, first settled in 
Wappapello, this state. From that time the 
elder Mr. Barrow worked as a tiller of the 




■lA^B^ C^6/^ 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



675 



soil, dying in Greenville in February, 1893, 
at the advanced age of sixty-seven years. 
He had taught school in Illinois for many 
years. His wife survives him, and at present 
makes her home in Greenville. She is still 
young in appearance, although the date of 
her birth was in June, 1839. 

Upon his settlement in Wayne county Ab- 
ner Barrow engaged in the tie business, and 
was associated in his initial venture in that 
occupation with the Frisco & Hauck Rail- 
road. Following that, he came to Greenville 
and took a tie contract for ilr. Halliday, 
whose section boss he subsequently became 
during 'Sir. Halliday 's active interest in the 
building of the W. G. & St. L. Railroad. 
During the winter of 1892 Mr. Barrow man- 
aged the laying of the ties and steel through 
Greenville. 

In this connection it is a pleasure to re- 
call that Greenville owes much the same sort 
of gratitude to Mr. Barrow that Ohio owes 
to the famous "Johnny Appleseed, " whose 
early efforts are responsible for most of the 
oldest apple orchards in that state, for it 
was Mr. Barrow who set out most of the 
maple trees that are at the present time one 
of Greenville's most attractive features. Be- 
fore returning to work for Mr. Halliday in 
1896 Mr. Barrow turned his attention to the 
occupation that had been his father's dur- 
ing his boyhood days in Illinois, and for a 
brief time returned to farming. 

In the year 1897 he entered upon his first 
taste of public service, and accepted the posi- 
tion of postmaster, which position he held un- 
til 190-1, when he resigned to further serve 
the public in the position of sheriff, to which 
office he was twice elected, for two terms of 
two years each. On April 8, 1909, he was 
again appointed to the postmastership of 
Greenville, and he returned to his former 
post. 

By his first marriage Mr. Barrow became 
the father of six children, four of whom now 
survive, as follows : Lyman, of Bonne Terre ; 
ilalta, of East St. Louis; Waldo and Blanche. 
Three of the sons, Lyman, Malta and Waldo, 
with their uncle, Ellsworth Barrow, form the 
Barrow Quartette, well known in musical 
circles throughout southeastern Missouri. 
Lyman Barrow is a trombonist of ability and 
great renown, having toured the country as 
a trombone soloist two seasons with Wheeler's 
ilarine Band, appearing in almost every state 
of the Union. He has been in the ranks of 
professional musicians for the past fourteen 



j'cars. Malta Barrow has had long expe- 
rience with various bands and orchestras 
throughout the country and has appeared as 
saxophone and trombone soloist on various 
occasions. Waldo Barrow has been a profes- 
sional musician since twelve years of age, and 
is one of the youngest musicians appearing 
in concert to-day. His work is proclaimed by 
press and public of the highest type. Ells- 
worth Barrow^ the uncle, was for a number 
of years a teacher of wind instruments. 

In June, 1897, Mr. Barrow, of this review, 
contracted his second marriage, and ilrs. 
Alice (Baird) Barrow became the mother of 
one son, Ray, now at home. She died in 
September, 1909, aged thirty-six years. On 
jMarcli 27, 1911, Mr. Barrow was united in 
marriage with ^Irs. Rachel Goodwin. Both 
Mr. and Mrs. Barrow are valued and devoted 
members of the ^Missionary Baptist church. 

That Abner Barrow is indeed "one of the 
most popular and best-liked men in Green- 
ville," as has often been said of him, is at- 
tested by the number of his appreciative and 
enthusiastic fraternal affiliations. He is a 
member of the time-honored Masonic order, 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, a member of the Modern Woodmen 
of America and of the Court of Honor. In his 
political affiliations he avows a stanch alle- 
giance to the "Grand Old Party," whose in- 
terests he has ever been ready to serve and to 
represent. 

Dr. John D. Porterfield, now retired 
from active practice, although he is not an 
old man, is one of Cape Girardeau's most re- 
spected citizens. A professional man, and 
above all a physician, may be looked upon as 
making more or less a sacrifice of himself to 
aid humanity and the cause of science. He 
receives less monetary returns for his work 
than a business man and yet as a general 
thing he has expended much more time and 
money in preparation for his career than has 
the business man. The physician who looks 
upon his profession as merely a means of 
livelihood is an utter failure. Monetary con- 
siderations had very little to do with Dr. 
Porterfield 's choice of a calling. From the 
very beginning of his training he has felt 
that he wanted to learn all that it was possi- 
ble for him to learn in regard to diseases and 
their cures. A most profound reader and 
thinker, he hailed every new discovery with 
the deepest interest. 

He was born in Venango county, Pennsyl- 



676 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



vania, July 15, 1843. His father, Dr. Robert 
L. Porterfield, was also a physician, a native 
of Pennsylvania. He practiced m Pennsyl- 
vania and Illinois, locating in Danville about 
1848. His father, William Porterfield, was 
of Scotch-Irish descent and served during 
the Revolutionary war. Dr. Robert Porter- 
field married Ann Donaldson, a native of 
Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. 

Dr. Jolrn D. Porterfield has little recollec- 
tion of his Pennsylvania home amongst the 
mountains, as his parents moved away when 
he was very small. He was educated at Mari- 
etta, Ohio, and also attended the Jefferson 
Medical College at Philadelphia and the Mis- 
souri Medical College in St. Louis, Missouri. 
In 1864 he came to Cape Girardeau, but only 
stayed a very short time, not long enough to 
become established in his profession. He 
went to Commerce, Missouri, where he 
stayed for twenty-three years, practicing all 
the time. In 1888 he came to Cape Girar- 
deau, where he has lived ever since. He has 
been in practice in southeastern Missouri 
longer than any physician in the state. About 
1906 he retired from practice, leaving the 
carrying on of that work to his sons. 

In 1866 he was married to Sarah Hall, who 
died in 1872. The following year he mamed 
Fannie B. Cullum, who came from Mobile, 
Alabama. To this union were born one daugh- 
ter and three sons. The sous have all followed 
their father's profession, thus making three 
generations that have given themselves to the 
medical profession. Elmo, the eldest son, is 
practicing in St. Louis. John D., Jr., has 
taken his father 's practice in Cape Girardeau. 
Lowry is a physician and surgeon in Chicago. 
All three sons are graduates of the Chicago 
University -and Rush Medical College. Their 
sister Buiah C, is the wife of Harry H. Coff- 
man, son of Dr. John Coffman, a practicing 
physician of southeastern Missouri. 

In addition to his professional duties, the 
Doctor has taken an active part in public af- 
fairs. He was mayor of Cape Girardeau for 
one term. He is at pi-esent president of the 
Cape Girardeau Water Works and Electric 
Light Company. He was one of the organ- 
izers and is a director in the Southeast Mis- 
souri Trust Company and has other inter- 
ests in farm lands. He is a prominent Ma- 
son ; having joined that order in 1866, he has 
taken the thirty-second degree in Scottish rite 
masonry, one of the first men in southeastern 
Missouri to have that degree. He is also a 
member of the Elks, with a high standing in 



that organization. He was at one time Ex- 
alted Ruler and he took an active part in the 
erection of the new building, having raised 
the money to build same. The Doctor has 
lived in southeastern Missouri for forty-seven 
years, twenty-three years of that time in 
Scott county and the other twenty-four in 
Cape Girardeau county. Although he does 
not treat patients any more, he is by no means 
an idle man, but on the other hand is most 
active in all public affairs. Not only did he 
devote so many years of his own life to the 
science of medicine, but he has left three sons 
to carry on the work. There is no man in the 
county who has a wider reputation and no 
man who stands higher in the respect and 
affections of those with whom he comes in 
contact. 

Carroll P. Bennett. Greenville owes a 
double debt to Carroll P. Bennett, for not 
only is he conspicuous as the scion of a family 
long known in Wayne county as sturdy sup- 
porters of all that was advanced for the best 
interests of the community, but, by his own 
enthusiasm and untiring energy he has led 
others after him, and has always shown, both 
in industry and public affairs, that quality 
of leadership which inspires others to go and 
do likewise. 

Born near Coldwater on St. Francois 
river, Wayne county, December 14, 1871, he 
was the son of John L. and Mary (Mathes) 
Bennett. His father was born on Bear creek, 
Wayne county, March 7, 1845, and died at 
Piedmont February 11, 1906. His mother 
was also born on Bear creek, the date of her 
nativity being September 14, 1845, and she is 
still living, at Greenville, Missouri. 

Not only were his father and mother born 
on Bear creek, but also his paternal grand- 
father, Larkin Bennett, 1810 being the year 
of his birth, and he survived to the ripe old 
age of eighty-seven years, his demise not oc- 
curring until 1897. His wife, who prior to 
her marriage was Miss Mary Hughs, came to 
Wayne county with her father who migrated 
to that district at an early date and there 
entered a farm. The father of Larkin Ben- 
nett and the great-gi-andfather of the citizen 
to whom this record is dedicated was a native 
of North Carolina, who migrated from that 
state, moving first to Kentucky, and siib- 
sequently to Wayne county, where h^ located 
on section 30. 

The maternal grandfather of Carroll Ben- 
nett, l\rilliurn Mathes, was a native of eastern 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



677 



Tennessee, who came early to "Wayne county 
and died before his prime. His marriage with 
Jane Ivy is tinged with a bit of pioneer 
romance that helped to make bright tliose 
days of not too easy life in tlie sparsely popu- 
lated districts of the middle southwest. She 
had started with her father and brother to 
found a home in the state of Kentucky, when 
she met, loved and consented to become the 
bride of Milburn Mathes. 

Carroll P. Bennett was one of two children. 
His sister, who became Mrs. Jennie Barnett. 
died in 1906. He spent his early life in the 
invigorating and strength-giving environment 
of the home farm, and so satisfactorily did he 
complete his work in the common schools of 
the district that he in turn became teacher in- 
stead of the taught, and occupied the 
pedagogue's desk until 1898. In that year he 
came to Greenville and compiled a set of 
abstract books. He then entered the real 
estate and insurance business. Considering 
the fact that to all who know him "his word 
is as good as a U. S. bond," and that he has 
insight and farsightedness combined with an 
unusual portion of that quality of electric 
energy that marks the successful American 
business man, it is no wonder that every en- 
terprise he undertakes prospers. Besides his 
substantial business interests already men- 
tioned, he is the owner of two or three farms 
in Wayne count.v. and is vice-president of the 
Wavne Countv Bank. 

On December 22. 1895, Mr. Bennett estab- 
lished the charming home that is now his by 
his marriage to Miss Effie Smith, liorn in 
Wayne county, near Piedmont. She is a 
daughter of William R. Smith, a prominent 
farmer of Wayne county and at one time 
sheriff and probate .iudge of the county. To 
them have been born three children, Hal, 
;\Tai-y and Hiram. Politically Mr. Bennett is 
recorded among the able and valued members 
of what its devoted adherents love to term 
"the Cxrand Old Party." 

AiiBERT A. Parnsworth is one of the w^ell- 
known and representative farmers in Bol- 
linger county. Since he first engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits the status of a farmer has 
undergone a radical change and the man him- 
self is viewed in a very different light from 
that in which we used to regard him years 
ago. A farm and a mortgage used at one time 
to be synonymous terms, and a man burdened 
with debt is not apt to be beautiful either in 



looks or disposition. Now all of this has been 
changed and ' ' back to the farm ' ' means a re- 
turn to efficiency, health and life; we reach 
the farm by going forward, not by going back- 
ward. The business of the farmer who pro- 
duces food must be regarded as a fine art, not 
to be left to the whipped-out and the dis- 
couraged, as in former times. Much of this 
changed condition has come about within the 
recollection of Mr. Farnsworth, and it is due 
to the work and example of such as he that 
ideas in regard to farmers have become so 
modified. 

]\Ir. Farnsworth was born August 18, 1865, 
in Johnson county, Missouri, the son of Chris- 
topher L. and Nancy Caroline (George) 
Farnsworth, natives of Greene county, Ten- 
nessee. In the fall of 1854 Mr. and ilrs. 
Christopher Farnsworth came to Henry 
county, Missouri, with the idea of becoming 
permanently located there, but in the spring 
of 1855, they determined to move to Johnson 
county, where they raised their first crop that 
season. After harvest they bought a tract of 
land in Cass county, where they resided until 
General Ewing's command was issued to va- 
cate the border counties, in 1863. They then 
returned to Johnson county and lived there 
until death summoned the father. IMareh 7, 
1909, while his widow still maintains her resi- 
dence in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Christo- 
pher Farnsworth were the parents of ten 
children, nine of whom are living. 

Albert A. Farnsworth. the seventh of the 
family in order of birth, was reared on his 
father's' farm in Johnson county and attended 
the district school in his neighborhood. After 
completing his schooling he assisted with the 
work of the farm and remained at home until 
1890, at which time he was twenty-four years 
of age. He then rented from his father a 
farm in Johnson county of one hundred and 
seventy acres in area, where he lived until 
March", 1910, the .year following his father's 
demise. He removed to Bollinger county, and 
with the savings he had accumulated and his 
share of his father's estate he bought four 
hundred acres of land near Scopus, Bollinger 
county. This tract was only in his possession 
a very short time before he re-sold it to the 
original owner and bought instead two hun- 
dre'd and twenty acres of fine land between 
Marble Hill and Lutesville. Seventy acres 
of this tract is bottom land and the remainder 
hill land, admirably adapted for the uses to 
which "Sir. Farnsworth puts it. He raises 



678 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



horses, mules, cattle, sheep and hogs; also 
com, grass, Kaffir corn and cow peas, thus 
utilizing all of his farm. He is regarded as 
one of the most enterpi-isiug, progressive 
farmers in his section of the country. 

In 1890 Mr. Farnsworth married Miss 
Florence Redford, born March 6, 1872, the 
daughter of W. W. and ]\Iary E. (Rutledge) 
Redford, of Henry county, Missouri, and 
they now have a family of three children,— 
Nellie P., born in 1891, married to J. W. Gib- 
son, of Johnson county ; Cvrus Paul, born in 
1894 ; William Ernest, born in 1898. Mr. and 
Mrs. Fai-nsworth lost two children by death, 
one, Archeles Earl, the twin brother of Wil- 
liam Ernest, dying at four and one-half 
months and Albert Clyde, died at seven 
weeks. 

Mr. Farnsworth is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows and both he 
and Mrs. Farnsworth are members of the Mis- 
sionary Baptist church. He is a devout Chris- 
tian worker and consistently religious in his 
every day life. 

E. Baker. It is the lot of some men to be 
born great, while others have to achieve great- 
ness, and Mr. E. Baker of Senath, was clearly 
destined to be the architect of his own for- 
tune. He began life for himself on a low rung 
of the ladder of attainments, but by sturdy 
industry, untiring energy and a diligent use 
of his faculties and opportunities has met 
with well deserved success in his agricultural 
operations, his large farm being one of the 
best cultivated and most productive of any in 
the vicinity. Born in Pontotoc county. Mis- 
sissippi, December 9, 1853, he there lived on 
his father's farm for ten years, having no 
educational advantages whatever. 

AAHien ten years old lie accompanied his 
parents to Tennessee, and from that time un- 
til attaining his ma.jority he assisted his 
father on the home farm. In 1874 his pare.nts 
came to ilissouri, Imt after a year's residence 
in this state they moved to Texas. Jlr. Baker 
remained in Dunklin county when his parents 
settled in Texas, and although he had no 
capital, with the exception of thirteen dollars 
in cash and a Texas pony, he bought sixty 
acres of the land included in his present es- 
tate, paying four dollars an acre for it. buy- 
ing it on credit. He continued work, how- 
ever, as a farm laborer the following year, but 
at the end of that time married, and, with his 
bride, assumed possession of his land. Labor- 
ing resolutely, he cleared and improved a 



good farm, and from time to time judiciously 
invested in other land, having now a fine farm 
of four hundred and forty acres, the greater 
part of which is in a high state of culture, 
having been cleared and made productive 
through liis own efforts. In 1904 Mr. Baker 
added to the improvements already inaugu- 
rated a substantial house, which, * with the 
three barns on the place, make a good set of 
farm buildings. Mr. Baker's farm is carried 
on by tenants, being rented to different 
people, there being five good tenants on his 
land, which is devoted principally to the rais- 
ing of corn and cotton. 

Mr. Baker married, in Dunklin county, 
Missouri, in 1876, Fannie Roniines, a native 
of this part of Missouri, and into their home 
four children have been born, namely: Zella, 
wife of Clarence Ilutchins, of Dunklin 
county: Willie, wife of Edward Wallace, one 
of Mr. Baker's tenants; Maddie ; and Charles, 
at home. Politically Mr. Baker is a sound 
supporter of the principles of the Democratic 
party, and for nine years has served as school 
director. Religiously he is a member of the 
Methodist Church, and an active worker in 
Harkey's Chapel, having been trustee fifteen 
and steward fourteen years, and still holds 
the office of trustee. 

Frank Schulte is a noble illustration of 
what Independence, self-faith and persistency 
can accomplish in America. He is a self- 
made man in the most significant sense of the 
word, for no one helped him in a financial 
way and he is self-educated. As a young man 
he was strong, vigorous and self-reliant. He 
trusted in his own ability and did things 
single-handed and alone. Today he stands 
supreme as a successful business man and a 
loyal and public-spirited citizen. Most of his 
attention has been devoted to mining and 
prospecting enterprises and at the present 
time he is vice-i)resident of the Bank of 
Fredericktown, an institution that lias l)('ne- 
fitted greatly bv his shrewd counsel. 

A native of the great Empire of German.y, 
Mr. Schulte was born near the citv of Berlin, 
on the 10th of May, 1842. He is a son of 
Anton and Elizabeth Schulte, who immi- 
grated to the United States in 1845. bringing 
with them their famil.v for four sons and two 
daughters, of which Frank was the youngest. 
Anton Schulte, after his arrival in America, 
proceeded directly to Madison county, l\Iis- 
souri. where he engaged in mining operations, 
entering the employ of the Flemings, ownei-s 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



679 



of the Mine LaMotte. For a number of years 
he worked for that compan.y on the ten per 
cent royalty basis but later he turned his at- 
tention to farming. In 1861 his health be- 
came impaired and he lived retired from that 
year until his death, in 1867. His cherished 
and devoted wife passed away in 1866. They 
were devout communicants of the Catholic 
church and to the rigid principles of that 
denomination reared their children. Only 
two of their children are living at the pres- 
ent time, namely, — Frank, of this notice ; and 
Anton, a farmer near Fredericktown. Joseph 
Sehulte died in 1899, his active career having 
been devoted to mining and farming ; he was 
also associated with his brothers Frank and 
John in the general merchandise business at 
Fredericktown for a number of years and in 
1850 he made the overland trip to California, 
where he mined for a time. John Sehulte was 
a merchant and miner in Madison county dur- 
ing his life time and he died in February, 
1883. Elizabeth Sehulte, who married John 
A. AVeber, a merchant at Farmington, ]\Iis- 
souri, died in 1880; and Gertrude was the 
wife of Jacob Lohrey, a merchant at Middle- 
brook, this state. She died in 1897. 

Frank Sehulte was reared to adult age in 
Madison county, where he attended the public 
schools up to the age of sixteen years. For 
a year and a half thereafter he worked at the 
carpenter's trade and later he spent several 
years as a blacksmith. In 1864 he enlLsted as 
a soldier in Company F, Fiftieth Missouri 
Regiment, serving for twelve months under 
Captain Robert Lindsay in the Union army. 
He was mustered out of sei'vice in the spring 
of 1865 and immediately returned to Madison 
county, where he has since resided. For a 
time he was identified with mining ventures 
and later he engaged in the general mercan- 
tile business, continuing therein until 1880. 
In the latter year he again became interested 
in mining and prospecting, along which lines 
he has achieved marvelous success. He devel- 
oped the Buckeye and the Madison (now the 
Phoenix) mines, both of which are located in 
Madison county, and he has prospected ex- 
tensively in this county for lead. In all his 
ventures he has met with unqualified success 
and the same is due, not merely to good for- 
tune, but to energy and perseverance. Since 
1906 he has been vice-president of the Bank 
of Fredericktown, in which substantial mone- 
tary institution he has invested a great deal 
of money. 

In Madison county, in 1895, Mr. Sehulte 



was united in marriage to Miss Amanda Mil- 
ler, who was born in Iron county, this state, 
and who is a daughter of Henry and Mar- 
garet ililler, both natives of Germany. Mrs. 
Sehulte 's father died in 1885 and her mother 
resided in the Sehulte home until her death, 
July 1, 1911, at eighty-one years of age. Mr. 
and jMrs. Sehulte have no children. Mrs. 
Sehulte is a consistent member of the Luth- 
eran church. In a fraternal way Mr. Sehulte 
is afSliated with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. In politics he is a stalwart sup- 
porter of the cause of the Republican party 
but has never manifested aught of desire for 
political preferment of any description, pre- 
ferring to devote his undivided attention to 
his extensive business affairs. He is held in 
high esteem by his fellow men, who honor him 
for his exemplary life and his sterling integ- 
rity and worth. 

Dr. George W. WaJjKee, physician and 
surgeon at Cape Girardeau, has practiced his 
profession in this city for nearly six years 
and has gained high favor among a large and 
representative patronage. He is a practi- 
tioner of equipment equal to that of the best, 
and he has been a devoted student of his pro- 
fession for the past decade. His broad knowl- 
edge of his science and sympathetic manner 
have given him rank among the most skillful 
and popular physicians and surgeons in this 
city. 

A native of the state of Illinois. Dr. Walker 
was born near Jonesboro, that state, on the 
26th of January, 1876. and he is a son of Wil- 
liam W. and Sarah I. (Williford) Walker, 
both of whom were likewise born in Illinois, 
the former on the 3d of April, 1849, and the 
latter on the 1st of February, 1850. The 
father was a farmer during the major portion 
of his active career but in December, 1901, he 
came to Cape Girardeau, where he is now liv- 
ing virtually retired, en.joying to the full the 
fruits of his former years of earnest toil and 
endeavor. Mr. and Mrs. William W. Walker 
were the parents of eleven children, of whom 
the Doctor was the third in order of birth 
and the ninth of whom are living, in 1911. 

The rudimentary educational discipline of 
Dr. Walker was obtained in the country 
schools of Union county, Illinois, and subse- 
quentl.y he pursued a course of study in the 
Indiana State Normal School, at Danville. 
For five .years thereafter he was engaged in 
teaching school in his native county and at 
the expiration of that period he entered the 



680 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Hospital College, at Louisville, Kentucky, 
where be pursued a two-year medical course. 
He was then matriculated as a student in the 
Washington University, at St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, and iu that excellent institution he was 
graduated as a member of the class of 1903, 
duly receiving his degree of Doctor of Medi- 
cine. Immediately after graduation he initi- 
ated the active practice of his profession at 
Jonesboro, Illinois, where he succeeded in 
building up a large and representative pat- 
ronage and where he continued to maintain 
his home and professional headcjuarters for 
the ensuing two years. On the 1st of Aiigust, 
1905, however, be decided to seek greater 
fame and fortune in the west and that date 
marks his advent in Cape Girardeau, where 
he has resided during the intervening years 
to the present time and where lie is recog- 
nized as a physician and surgeon of unusual 
skill. 

At Jonesboro, Illinois, in the year 1897, 
was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Walker 
to JMiss EfiSe M. Pulenwider, who was born at 
Jonesboro, Illinois, in 1877, and who is a 
(laughter of William M. Fulenwider, long a 
representative citizen of Jonesboro. Dr. and 
Mrs. Walker have three children, — i\Iarie, 
Helen and Louise, all of whom are attending 
school iu this city. In their religious faith 
the Walker family are consistent members of 
the English Lutheran church, to whose chari- 
ties and benevolences they are most liberal 
contributors. 

In politics Dr. Walker is aligned as a stal- 
wart supporter of the principles and policies 
for which tlie Democratic party stands spon- 
sor and while he is not actively interested in 
local politics he manifests a deep and sincere 
interest iu all matters projected for the good 
of the general welfare. In the grand old Ma- 
sonic order he is affiliated with St. Mark's 
Lodge, No. 93, Free & Accepted jMasons, of 
which he is past master. Dr. Walker is a man 
of broad human sympathy and kindl.v, genial 
manner and it may be said concerning him 
that the circle of his friends is coincident 
with that of his acquaintances. 

J. M. PoRTERPiELD, like man.v otlier young 
men, did not know exactly what he wanted 
to make his life work when he started out on 
his career. He commenced as a physician. 
next gave his attention to carpentering, and 
subsequently turned to the farm as the place 
where he would like to spend the rest of his 
days. There is an old saying that "a rolling 



stone gathers no moss, ' ' but if Mr. Porterfield 
will pardon our likening him to a stone, we 
would say that he has not only gathered moss, 
but he has found time to dispeuse some to 
others who were less fortunate than he. 

Mr. Porterfield hails from a farm in Hard- 
in coiuity, Tennessee, where he was born Julj' 
31, 1849. He is the son of W. C. and Ursula 
Porterfield, who were natives of Eastern Ten- 
nessee, where he followed the occupation of 
farmiiig all of this life. In earlier life he 
had followed cariaeutering. J. M. Porterfield 
is the Seventh child in order of birth of the 
thirteen children who were born to his 
parents. He received his preliminary educa- 
tional training at the district school in the 
neighborhood of his father's farm, and at that 
time the school was a subscription one. After 
he had completed the course which was re- 
quired he entered the college at Savannah, 
Tennessee, and more as the result of accident 
than deliberate choice, he prepared himself to 
be a physician, in the medical department of 
the Savannah College. This college only of- 
fered a two years' course at that time, so that 
after he had learned all the medical knowl- 
edge which the college afforded, be entered the 
office of Drs. L. E. Covey and J. D. Wagner, 
and under the preceptorship of these able phy- 
sicians Mr. Porterfield read medicine for a 
.vear. He then went to Vanderbilt University, 
at Nashville, for a six months' term, and this 
completed his course. He was then a certified 
practitioner, and he established himself in 
Cerrogordo, Tennessee, where he built up a 
very fine practice during the eleven years tliat 
he stayed there. He found the life a hard 
one, however, as his patients were scattered 
over an area of eight or ten miles, which 
necessitated bis making verv long trips to visit 
them. After eleven years of tliis life Mr. 
Porterfield decided tliat he was not following 
the line of work for which he was best fitted, 
either in taste or al)ilities — although he had 
been reinarkal)ly siU'cessful, but be decided to 
give u\) his practice. He removed from Ten- 
nessee to Arkansas, where he took up his res- 
idence in Paragould and began to do car- 
pentering. From a boy he had always shown 
great aptitude for all kinds of wood work, 
and his success was immediate and stead.v. 
While he was living in Cerrogordo, Ten- 
nessee, he had accumulated some property, 
and when he moved from the state he sold 
this, Init he did not buy any more in Arkan- 
sas, rather devoted bis whole attention to liis 
carpentering ])usiness. He only stayed in 





,AiJP, 




HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



681 



Paragould a short time, and then moved to 
Piggott, Arkansas, but his stay there was of 
short duration also, and he pressed on to Mis- 
souri and located at Senath, wlien there were 
only a few scattered houses there; he helped 
to build the town, and at the expiration of 
three years he felt that his desires were 
turned in the direction of the farm. He 
bought the place which he occupies to-day, — 
a mile and half southeast of Caruth, where 
he farms eighty acres of land, forty acres of 
which belong to his wife and the other forty 
acres he bought. When he first moved on to 
the farm it was very much run down, but he 
has greatly improved it, having built fences 
and put up a new barn. He gi-ows cotton and 
corn, and also raises stock on his land, and 
is very successful. 

Mr. Porterfield has been twice married. 
On October 13, 1876, he was united in mar- 
riage to ^liss Sallie C. Welch, of Savannah, 
where the Doctor was in college. After just 
twenty years of married life she died in 
Arkansas, leaving five children. — Eldridge, 
who is now a contractor and architect in Pig- 
gott, Arkansas, and is married to Miss Lulu 
Wheeler; Mary, the second child, who is the 
wife of John Stevens, of Maiden, Missouri ; 
Ella, who is married to Tom Clifton of 
Dunklin county ; and Vivian, who lives with 
her sister Marsella, the wife of William Pitts, 
near Caruth. On the 18th of January, 1900, 
Mr. Porterfield married Mrs. Nancy A. 
Pruett, a widow with five children. One 
child, Archie, has been born to tlie union of 
Mr. and Mrs. Porterfield, and he is ju.st ten 
years old, a student in the public school. 

Mr. Porterfield is a member of the ]Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, where he is an active 
worker. He is a Democrat, and although he 
has no desires for political honors for him- 
self, he has at different times been most 
active in working for some of his friends. 
All that Mr. Porterfield owns is the result of 
his own efforts. As a rule it is not a good 
thing for a man to make change of occupa- 
tion, but it is much better to change than it 
is to continue in work which is distasteful, 
and in the ease of ilr. Porterfield liis varied 
experiences have helped to bi-oadeu his char- 
acter and to make him the efficient meml^er 
of the community that he is at present. 

Frederick W. Stumpe. For a decade past 
the Bank of Washington. ^Missouri, has had 
its official head Frederick W. Stumpe, who is 
a native of Missouri, though his father came 



from Germany. This is an especially happy 
combination — American aggressiveness and 
push combined with German thrift and con- 
servatism, and it has served to inspire with 
confidence those who desired to invest their 
savings in the Bank of Washington. Indeed, 
Mr. Stumpe has been extremely successful in 
handling money to good advantage, — not only 
his own, but that of his patrons, and he can 
justly take a pardonable pride therein. 

As above stated, Mr. Stumpe was born in 
Missouri, upon a farm three miles south of 
the city of Washington, the date of his birth 
being November 6, 1852, a son of Henry W. 
and Mary (IMarquard) Stumpe. Henry W. 
Stumpe and his wife were both natives of 
Osnabruck, Germany, where they were mar- 
ried, but hearing of the glories of America 
the}' decided to try their fortunes in that 
country, so, in 1833 they immigrated to the 
United States and settled in Franklin coimty, 
Missouri. Here Mr. Stumpe devoted his time 
and talents to farming, which formed his life 
occupation. He died in 1868, at the age of 
sixty years, his wife surviving him until May, 
1886, when she, too, passed to the Great Be- 
yond. The issue of this union was Mary, wife 
of W. H. Gallenkamp and mother of Judge 
Gallenkamp. the surveyor of the port of St. 
Louis ; Henry, who was one of the first volun- 
teers from Missouri in the Civil war, and who 
later passed his life as a merchant in Wash- 
ington ; Julia became the wife of Judge 
Robert Hoffman, of Washington ; Louisa mar- 
ried Arnold Godt. and died in Washington ; 
Charlotte passed awav in 1868 as the wife of 
John Wentyne. of St. Louis; and Frederick 
W., the immediate subject of this review. 

Frederick W. Stumpe left the farm during 
his early youth, as agricultural pursuits did 
not tempt him as a life vocation, and entered 
private school in Washington, where he 
acquired his educational training. He first 
tasted the fruits of his own labor employed as 
a painter, but instead of following this 
occupation he accepted a clerkship, which 
position he retained until 1875, when he was 
appointed assistant cashier of the Washington 
Savings Bank, the first and only bank in that 
city. He immediately discovered that the 
handling and investing of money was his 
forte, and decided to make the banking Imsi- 
ne.ss his life vocation. In July, 1877, this in- 
stitution failed and Mr. Stumpe was ap- 
pointed its assignee, and so successfully did 
he manage its tanerled affairs that the deposi- 
tors were practically paid in full. 



682 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



That same year the Bank of Washingtou 
was organized, its promoters being V. W. 
Stumpe, Leopold Wattenberg, F. A. Hendrich, 
John B. Busch and H. D. Kibbler, the two lat- 
ter gentlemen having but one share each. The 
capital of the institution was ten thousand 
dollars, and Leopold Wattenberg was chosen 
president, while Mr. Stumpe was appointed 
assistant cashier. In 1890 Mr. Stumpe was 
promoted to cashier, and in 1901 he was 
elected president to succeed Mr. Wattenberg. 
The success of its managements can best be 
grasped from its present condition, the capital 
stock having been increased to fifty thousand 
dollars, while its surplus is double its present 
capital. Mr. Stinnpe has other business inter- 
ests, being one of the directors of the Wash- 
ington Building and Loan Association, a con- 
cern which has made a phenomenal record as 
a fiduciary institution, and he is also a 
director of the Washington Water Company. 
In polities Frederick W. Stumpe gives his 
prefei'ence to the Repulilican party, his fellow- 
citizens having shown their trust in him liy 
electing him to the offices of city clerk and 
city treasurer, respectively. He is a member 
of that old established fraternity. Ancient 
Free and Accepted ilasons, and is a past mas- 
ter of Washington Lodge, No. 25. 

On October 9. 1878, a marriage ceremony 
was performed uniting Frederick W. Stumpe 
and Amelia Willielmi in the holy bonds of 
wedlock. ]\Irs. Stumpe was the daughter of 
Julius Wilhelmi, a native of Mannlieim, Ger- 
many, who came to this country- in early life. 
He was a Union refugee from Arkansas dur- 
ing the period of the Civil war, and was later 
sheriff and collector of Franklin county, JMis- 
souri. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Stumpe 
were the parents of the following children : 
Earna, the wife of Ja.sper N. Tankersly. of 
Chicago, manager of the interests of the Mc- 
Millan Company, of New York; Miss Adele. 
of Washington ; Robert W., who is in business 
in St. Louis; and Miss Elsie, of Washington. 
Mrs. Stumpe was called to her eternal home 
July 25, 1899. She was a devoted wife and 
mother and beloved by all who knew her. 
The two daughters, IMisses Adele and Elsie, 
preside gracionsly over the home of oiir sub- 
ject, which is a gathering place for the social 
activities of Washington. 

D. J. CoNKAD. It was "the embattled 
farmers" who "fired the shot heard round 
the world" at Concord Bridge and ever since 
America has drawn her best soldiers from her 



farms. Patriotism flourishes in the country. 
The life of D. J. Conrad is an instance of the 
response that the call to arms evokes from the 
man who owns and works his fields. His 
father, J. J. Conrad, was a veteran of the 
Civil war, whose military career in no way in- 
terfered with his being a successful agricul- 
turist, and the son, born in 1872, emulates his 
i:)arent in zeal for the two pursuits. 

Reared on his father's large farm, D. J. 
Conrad attended the schools of the county. 
At the outbreak of the Cuban war he enlisted, 
.ioined the Sixteenth U. S. Infantry and 
served eight months in Cuba. He was mus- 
tered out of the Cuban army Januaiy 17, 
1899. Eight months later he again enlisted 
in the Philippine war. His regiment was the 
Thirty-eighth U. S. Volunteer Infantry, in 
whose ranks he served seventeen months in 
the Philippine Islands. He returned to Bol- 
linger county after his dischai'ge and took up 
his woi-k of farming again. 

Upon his father's death in 1903 he became 
possessed of one hundred and fifty acres of 
land, mostly in timber, though he has added 
eighty acres of timber. The father owned at 
one time some four thousand acres, which is 
still owned in the family. Like most of his 
neighbors, Mr. Conrad raises stock besides 
doing general farming. He spent one year in 
the west, leaving Missouri in March, 1903. 
From 1905 to 1907 he was sheriff of Bollinger 
county, an office whose duties he discharged 
with characteristic thoroughness. At the 
time of the disturbance in i\Iexico, in 1911, 
Mr. Conrad was sent to Texas and served in 
the camp of instiiictions. He was called out 
by the Adjutant General of Missouri. 

The marriage of Mr. Conrad and Miss Ida 
Kinder took place December 30, 1908. Ida 
Kinder was the daughter of A. A. and Mary 
Kinder, both natives of Missouri. Mar>' 
Burns Conrad, the only child of Mr. and Mrs. 
D. J. Conrad, was Iwrn November 9, 1909. 

Mr. Conrad belongs to the Masonic order, 
being a member of the lodge at Marble Hill, 
IMissouri. He is also actively connected with 
the Army and Navy Union at St. Louis, Mis- 
souri. Mr. Conrad's church preference is the 
Presbyterian, where he regularly attends. 
Politically he is known as a thorough-going 
Republican. 

Rev. Elisha Calvin Butler. One of the 
most necessary characteristics for a man to be 
possessed of in order to make a success of his 
own life and of those things which he under- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



683 



takes is to be intensely in earnest. This is 
one of the most noticeable traits about the 
Rev. E. C. Butler, pastor of the Kennett Mis- 
sionary Baptist Chureli. If one follows his 
career one cannot fail to see that he has ac- 
complished almost miraculous results by rea- 
son of his own personality. Others have the 
same message to tell, but they are not able to 
obtain the listeners, simply because they have 
not the power to speak with the conviction 
that strikes home. Mr. Butler accomplishes 
those things which he sees possible day by day, 
thus opening up avenues to new efforts and 
new results. A brief survey of his history 
may prove of interest. 

He was born in Carroll county, in western 
Tennessee, January 8, 1869, and was brought 
up on the Tennessee farm. After the comple- 
tion of his preliminarv education he attended 
Phving College, Ewing, Illinois: not having at 
that time felt himself drawn towards the min- 
istry, he began to teach at the age of twenty- 
two, teaching in the country schools in Ten- 
nessee for three years. He had also taken a 
two .years' course at the Holiday Independent 
Normal School in Benton count.y, Tennessee. 
After teaching for a short time in Tennessee 
he decided that for him the way to do the 
most good in the world was to become a minis- 
ter. He was espeeiall.y interested in the mis- 
sion side of the ministry and he attended the 
Missionary Baptist College at Ewing, where 
he took a theological course. He had, how- 
ever, preached before this and had also been 
ordained ; lie felt, however, that the college 
work would make him more fully equipped 
for his career. As soon as he left college he 
entered upon his pastoral work, locating first 
at Steeleville, Illinois, in Randolph county, 
and Tamaroa, Illinois, taking charge of the 
pastoral duties at both these last named places 
at the same time. His next charge was at 
Cobden, Illinois, coming in 1906 to Dexter, 
Missouri, where he remained three years as 
local pastor. During this time the church 
was remodeled and the attendance was 
doubled. He organized the Baptist Young 
Peoples Union, wiiieh still continues to be a 
live enthusiastic soeiet.y. He owns a Gospel 
tent, in which he holds meetings. During the 
series held in Dexter there were twenty-four 
conversions. He held a series of four meet- 
ings in the county, outside Dexter, one result- 
ing in thirty-eight conversions one in forty- 
seven and still another in thirty-one. The 
result of these meetings, in addition, or per- 



haps because of the impression produced in 
the hearts of the people, resulted in the build- 
ing of a thousand dollar churcli at Idalia, 
Missouri. It was erected within sixty days 
after the close of the meetings and was fully 
paid for at the time of its dedication. This 
was cei-tainly striking while the iron was hot. 
It is the experience of so many of the evangel- 
istic preachers of the country that the people 
who are converted during special meetings do 
not continu(> in the road in which they started. 
The Rev. Elisha Butler has probably found a 
cure for that; he, as in the case cited above, 
immediately gets the new converts started to 
do something, not giving them a chance to 
backslide; then when once in the work, the 
chances are very much in favor of the large 
majorit.y remaining steadfast, as there is con- 
stantly something to do to keep their interest 
alive. He held meetings at the Tatum school 
house, near Dexter, Missouri, where there 
were forty-seven conversions; a church re- 
sulted, which is called Butler's Chapel. He 
witnessed two hundred conver.sions in five 
meetings in Stoddard county, IMissouri. All 
of this work was accomplished within three 
.vears, and in October, 1909, he came to Ken- 
nett, as the result of a most urgent invitation 
from the Baptist church. Since he came to 
Kennett he has spent most of his time in con- 
nection with the local church. Since his ar- 
rival the Kennett church has added twent.v by 
baptism and thirty-two by letter, as the result 
of constant, day by day effort on the part of 
Mr. Butler. The church is now being 
enlarged, to accommodate the growing enter- 
prises. Six Sunda.v-school rooms are being 
added, for the modern teaching that has been 
inaugurated. The present membership of the 
church is about two hundred and eight.v-nine. 
The young people in particular are becoming 
interested and are doing effective work. 
Although Mr. Butler is absolutel.y devoted to 
the local church and finds full scope for his 
energies, he still continues the tent work, for 
which he is so admirably suited. 

On April 20. 1897, Mr. Butler was married 
to Miss josie Parham, a native of Montgomery 
eount.y, Illinois. She is in perfect sympathy 
with her husband in all of his efforts and is 
herself active in the church. Besides being 
president of the Woman's IMissionarv TTnion, 
she is active in the general work of the church. 
Mr. and Mrs. Butler have one daughter. Ver- 
die Charleve, who is now twelve years old and 
attending the Kennett public school. Their 



684 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



other child, Loran Parham, died when he was 
two years old, while Rev. Butler was pastor at 
Dexter, Missouri. 

Mr. Butler is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. It is probable that 
his association with this order has been of 
great assistance to him in his church work, as 
he can the more readily adjust himself to dif- 
ferent classes of men. He has a fine library, 
composed chiefly of books pertaining to his 
work, but not exclusively, as Mr. Butler be- 
lieves in having about him all the broadening 
influences that are possible. If a minister 
would be effective, he must be able to be "all 
things to all men," not in the way of toady- 
ing to them in the least, but he must have the 
faculty of entering into their feelings and be 
able to view things from their standpoints. 
Mr. Butler naturally has this faculty and he 
has cultivated it so that it has developed to 
an lumsual extent. He is doing a great work 
and as he is still a young man, is probably 
only at the beginning of his career. From 
Mr. Butler's standpoint the most successful 
life is the one that has accomplished the most 
good and from that attitude his friends 
would say that he is most successful. He is 
not a rich man, which is the gauge of a busi- 
ness man's success — the ability to make 
money — but he has riches of a more lasting na- 
ture, treasures which can never be stolen nor 
lost. The people in Kennett love both Mr. 
Butler and his wife and appreciate every ef- 
fort they are making. His work as pastor 
at Kennett. Missouri, closed in October, 
1911. 

Emil Charles Schramm. A young man 
of splendid business intelligence and enter- 
prise is Emil Charles Schramm, manager of 
the Schramm Wholesale Grocery Company, 
of Flat River, an important and flourishing 
concern with capital stock estimated at forty 
thousand dollars. He is also connected with 
one of Saint Francois largest monetary in- 
stitutions, the ]\Iiners & IMerchants Bank, be- 
ing a stockholder and director in the same. 
Mr. Schramm is a native of Sainte Genevieve 
county, Missouri, his birth having occurred 
within the boundaries of that neighboring 
county May 11, 1881. His father. Henry 
Schramm, was born in Germany, March 22, 
1843. He secured his education in the rightly 
famed schools of that country and like so 
many German youtlis of liis generation, served 
an apprenticeship as a baker. At the age of 



nineteen years he came to America and lo- 
cated in Sainte Genevieve county, Missouri, 
but did not pursue the trade he had learned, 
instead securing land and devoting his ener- 
gies to the great basic industry. He early es- 
tablished a household by marriage, the young 
woman to become his bride being Miss Philli- 
pine Herter, of Sainte Genevieve county, 
daughter of Henry Herter. To their union 
were born twelve children, of whom ten sur- 
vive at the present time, Emil C, the imme- 
diate subject of this review, being the ninth 
in order of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Schramm, 
the elder, reside in St. Francois county at the 
present time, making their home upon the 
farm which is dear to them by many happy 
associations and enjoying the respect of the 
community in which they have so long been 
valuable factors. The elder Mr. Schramm is 
Republican in politics and Lutheran in relig- 
ious conviction. 

Emil C. Schramm enjoyed the experience, 
usually considered an advantage rather than 
otherwise, of spending his early years upon 
the farm and assisting in the duties there to 
be encountered which bring the boy and girl, 
in the words of the Hoosier poet, "near to Na- 
ture's heart." He received his education in 
the public schools of East St. Louis and later 
entered the business department of Carleton 
College, whose course he finished at the age of 
twenty-two. Soon afterward he entered the 
Schramm Wholesale Grocery House, man- 
aged )iy A. 0. Schramm, a brother, first en- 
gaging in the duties of the position of stock- 
man and subsequently as salesman. In 1908 
the subject became manager of the Schrannn 
Grocery Company at Flat River and in the 
subsequent time has met with no small 
amount of success in this capacity. As men- 
tioned in a preceding paragraph, he is also 
connected with the ]\Iiners & Merchants 
Bank. 

Mr. Schramm became a recruit to the Ben- 
edicts when, on the 26th day of September, 
1906, he was united in marriage at Farming- 
ton to Miss Mamie Braun. of Farmington, 
daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (iMell) 
Braun. Mr. and ^Irs. Schramm are the par- 
ents of one son, Leonard. The subject gives 
hand and heart to the policies and principles 
for which the "Grand Old Party" stands and 
i.s: Lutheran in relisious faith. He and his 
wife maintain a pleasant home and hold high 
place in popular confidence and esteem. 

The Schramm Wholesale Grocery Com- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOURI 



685 



pan}' was established in the year 1903, and is 
capitalized for forty thousand dollars. This 
company makes the entire lead belt its terri- 
tory and does a business of the highest class, 
being indeed one of those excellent concerns 
which contribute in very material fashion to 
the prosperit.y and prestige of the section. 

William N. Howard, M. D. In all the 
county of Cape Girardeau there is no man 
who is more respected and loved by old and 
young, by rich and poor alike, than is Dr. 
William N. Howard. For years his life has 
been spent in seeking to benefit others. His 
one ambition has been and still is to serve his 
fellow men. His maxim is to look up, not 
down, to look forward not back, but lend a 
hand. His knowledge of human nature has 
taught him to look upon the errors of others 
in sorrow not in anger. He is a man whom to 
see is to admire. 

He was born in Cape Girardeau county. 
Missouri, November 26, 1862. He is the sou 
of James M. Howard, a native of North Caro- 
lina and one of the early settlers in Missouri, 
whither he came with his parents when he 
was a small boy. The family located on a 
farm near Appleton, on which one of the sons 
still lives. James M. Howard married Sarah 
Day who was also born in North Carolina and 
was the daughter of Nighten Day of that 
county. When Sarah was very small her par- 
ents moved to Cape Girai'deau county, where 
they farmed, settling near Oak Ridge. Mr. 
and Mrs. Day have four sons and two daugh- 
tei-s, who all live in the neighborhood of their 
old home. Mrs. James M. Howard died in 
1909, having borne five sons and two daugh- 
ters. The little girls both died in infancy. 
Four of the sons are living now, of whom Dr. 
William is the third. The grandfather of 
William N. Howard aud father of James il. 
Howard was named John. He was of Scotch 
English descent and was born in North Caro- 
lina. He came to southeastern Missouri and 
located on a farm near Appleton. Two of his 
sons were also farmers. 

William N. Howard's boyhood days were 
spent on his father's farm, where he learned 
something of the farm life and attended the 
district school. After he had been educated 
as highly as his father thought was necessary, 
he started out to make a career for himself. 
He had not at that time decided to become a 
physician, but first did some surveying for 
the railroad, in 1884. Three years later he 
began to study medicine, entering the St. 



Louis iledieal College, from which he grad- 
uated in 1890. Immediately following his 
graduation, he came to Cape Girardeau, 
where he has been in practice ever since. He 
is a member of the Cape Girardeau Medical 
Society , the Southeastern Missouri Medical 
Society, the Missouri State Medical Society 
and the American iledical Association. 

In 1896 his marriage to Adda Wilson, 
daughter of Gilbert Wilson of Cape Gir- 
ardeau county, was solemnized. To this union 
was born one daughter, named Sarah after 
the Doctor's mother. 

Dr. Ploward is a Democi'at and although he 
is greatly interested in pa])lic affairs, he has 
evinced no desire for houors for himself. He 
is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of 
the ^lasonic Order, holding membership in 
the Blue Lodge Ancient Order Free and Ac 
cepted Masons. He is a life long resident of 
Cape Girardeau county and has been in prac 
tice in this city for over twenty years, having 
a general practice and also doing surgical 
work for the railroad. There is only one phy- 
sician in Cape Girardeau who has been in 
practice a little longer than Dr. Howard, but 
there is no one who is more loved. He is very 
much interested in educational work and is a 
member of the board of education, on which 
he does very admii-able work. He realizes 
that it is on the schools that the future of his 
native county depends. He has the interests 
of the children greatly at heart. 

Thomas J. Sweazea. It is a pleasure to 
the biographer to include in these sketches of 
important citizens of southeastern Missouri 
one who is not only prominent for his pres- 
tige as the grandson of a pioneer and as a 
respected member of the legal profession, but 
one who is also as firmly intrenched in the af- 
fection and high regard of the many who 
know him personally as Mr. Thomas J. Swea- 
zea, of Piedmont. 

The paternal grandfather of Thomas Swea- 
zea, William Sweazea, was born in the state 
of Tennessee, and migrated to this state in 
1808, locating near the Black river, where he 
entered and bought a large and fertile tract 
of land, which he tilled and made his home 
until 1850, the year of his death. George 
]\Iaun, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Swea- 
zea, a native of South Carolina, also early 
felt the impulse to try life on what was then 
the frontier, and came from his native state 
to the Black river district. ' William Sweazea, 
the father of the subject of this brief record, 



686 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



was born aud reared in Wayne county, where 
until 1865 he undertook farming on a small 
tract of laud ou the Black river, but in that 
year he removed to Reynolds county. There 
he purchased another tract of laud aud spent 
the remainder of his life in its improvement, 
so that in 1901, when he died at the veuer- 
able old age of seventy-three years, he hav- 
ing been born in 1832, it was an important 
agricultural and stock raising estate. His 
wife, before her marriage, was Amanda 
Mann, a native of Reynolds county. Her 
birth occurred in 1832, and she passed to Iwv 
eternal reward in 1880. Her husband was 
ever a loyal member of the Democratic party, 
and both were devout members of the J3ap- 
tist church. Besides Thomas J., their chil- 
dren were as follows: William A., now of 
Wayne county; Sophronia, wife of Robert 
Benson and makes her home in Alabama; 
and ]\Iargaret, wife of M. L. Sanders, of 
Leeper, this state. 

Thomas J. Sweazea was bom on his fa- 
ther's farm on October 14, 1870. He remained 
on the home farm until he was within one 
year of his majority, and took advantage of 
the educational opportunities afforded by the 
district schools of those early days. When 
he was twenty he entered Carleton College, 
at Farmington, Missouri, where he remained 
until 1893. He then made practical use of 
his education and taught a school with such 
success that in 1895 he was elected county 
commissioner for a term of two years. His 
first experience as candidate for the office of 
county clerk of Reynolds coixnty not result- 
ing in the possession of the honor, he ran 
again in 1903 and this time easily won the 
office. In 1907 his political service to his 
county was continued as a member of the 
Forty-fourth General Assembl}^, as repre- 
sentative from the Reynolds county district, 
and he is still remembered for his able par- 
ticipation in the making of wise legislation 
for his native state. 

Following his term of oifice, he removed to 
Salem, where he prepared himself for his 
profession by reading law, with such success 
that in 1909 he was admitted to the bar. He 
again changed his residence, coming to Pied- 
mont, where he opened his office and made 
the beginnings of his present fine patronage. 
He has continued his public service as a mem- 
ber and secretary of the school board of Pied- 
mont, where he has rendered needed service 
as an advocate of better aud more effieient 
schools. 



Besides his profitable law clientage, Mr. 
Sweazea owns a farm not far from Piedmont. 
On June 6, 1895, he insured for himself a 
gracious companionship and happy home by 
his marriage with iliss Ella ^lalloy, who was 
born May 30, 1871, near Piedmont, a daugh- 
ter of John and Mary (Warren) iVIalloy, of 
Wayne county. Four children have since 
come to their pleasant home, namely : Doyle 
J., Pearl, Ava and Opal T. 

Mr. Sweazea adheres firmly to the princi- 
ples and policies of the party of Jefferson 
and Jackson. Both he and his wife support 
the tenets of the Baptist church. 

Thomas IMartin Jackson, member of the 
bar of Southeast Missouri and a successful 
attorney of Desloge, has had a varied and 
useful career both in the law and in the min- 
istry. Born in Monroe county, Kentucky, 
January 14, 1860, and spending his early 
years on a farm, he received an education in 
the country schools, in the Glasgow Normal 
School and Business College at Glasgow, 
Kentucky, and the Southern Normal School 
and Business College at Bowling Green, Ken- 
tucky, and after his graduation from the lat- 
ter entered educational work. For thirteen 
years he was a successful teacher in Ken- 
tucky, Missoxu-i and Ai'kansas. During six 
years of this period he carried on his studies 
for the bar in a law office, aud was admitted 
to practice April 28, 1892, at Russellville, 
Arkansas, and later enrolled in the supreme 
court of Missouri. 

For six years he was engaged in active 
practice. He then devoted his service to the 
ministry of the Methodist church, South, 
and for sixteen years was a traveling min- 
ister for that denomination. Finally, on ac- 
count of his wife's health, he returned to the 
practice of law in 1908, and has since en- 
joyed a liberal business at Desloge. During 
his ministry he occupied some of the leading 
j)ulpits of the state and was also a presiding 
elder in that church. In politics he is a 
Republican. 

Mr. Jackson 's father was George W. Jack- 
son, who was born in Washington county, 
Tennessee, March 29, 1836. His early life 
was spent on a fai'm in his native state until 
the war, when he joined the Union army, 
Company B, Fifth Kentucky Cavalry, and 
was a member of Sherman's army during its 
march to the sea. After the war he settled 
on a farm in Kentucky. Before entering the 




^/nv^ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



687 



service he married iliss Rebecca A. Ford, a 
daughter of Thomas and Mary Elizabeth 
Ford," of that state. Eleven children were 
born of their marriage, Thomas M. being the 
second in order of birth. George W. Jack- 
son moved to Missouri in 1880, locating near 
Farmington, where his active years were 
spent in farming, and he lived retired in that 
town until his death, in 1910. His wife pre- 
ceded him to the other world about twenty 
years. In polities he was a strong Repub- 
lican, was affiliated with the G. A. R. post, 
and was a member of the Baptist church. 

Mr. Thomas M. Jackson married, Febru- 
ary 27, 1890, iliss Jennie Fowler, a daughter 
of George P. and Lavina Fowler, farmers of 
St. Genevieve county, Missouri. Mr. and 
Mrs. Jackson have four children: Clemmie, 
Harry F., Grace M. and Catherine., 

W. A. Davault. The great Apostle Paul, 
when describing the ideal preacher of the 
gospel, says, he must be "apt to teach," a 
characterization which cannot fail to impress 
all who know Rev. W. A. Davault, vice-presi- 
dent of Will Mayfield College, as being an 
especially fitting description of the Profes- 
sor. It is not given to many men to wield so 
wide an influence ; to be in such close touch 
with the younger generation, the students of 
the college, and at the same time to be pastor 
of three Baptist churches, and perhaps few 
men could fulfill such respoiisiliilities. Cer- 
tainly Professor Davault is rightly regarded 
as a power for righteousness, culture and all 
that makes for the higher life. 

By descent Professor Davault belongs to 
the Huguenots who settled in North Caro- 
lina when persecution drove them from 
France and who have given America so many 
theologians, scholars and statesmen. The 
founder of the American branch of the fam- 
ily was a Baptist missionary. In 1804 James 
Davault, grandfather of W. A., came to 
Bollinger county, where he was one of the 
earliest settlers. Christian J. Davault, son 
of the pioneer and father of the sub.iect of 
this sketch, was a farmer and also a soldier 
in the Civil war, in the Union army. He was 
once captured and later paroled. He was 
in active service at the close of the war. hav- 
ing enlisted three times, always in a Missouri 
regiment. He died in 1899, in the county 
where he was born and where he spent the 
most of his life. His wife was born in Perry 
county, the daughter of William Adison 
Walker. Her family, too, were jjioneers of 



this county, coming from Virginia early in 
the nineteenth century. The Walkers are of 
English origin. 

W. A. Davault 's native town is Perry ville, 
Missouri, where he was born January 25, 
1865. His boyliood days were spent on the 
farm assisting his father and attending the 
district school. He began teaching at the age 
of nineteen, an occupation for which he had 
prepared himself by study in both public and 
private schools and one for which he kept 
liimself at the best by constant study. In 
1894 he graduated from the academic 'course 
of Will Mayfield College; in 1901 Mr. Da- 
vault took his B. S. degree from the same in- 
stitution, and received his A. iM. degree in 
1911. 

Mr. Davault has not confined his interest 
in education to merely accpiiring knowledge 
or even to imparting instruction. He has 
given many years of faithful and intelli- 
gent service to the administrative branch of 
the department of public education. His 
service as school-commissioner of Bollinger 
county began in 1895. He served in this ca- 
pacity until 1899. During the same period 
he was chosen as conductor of the district 
teachers' institute, doing most efficient work 
the whole four years in both offices. In 1903 
the Professor was again elected school com- 
missioner and served six years, making five 
terms in all which he has given to this work. 

During all this time he was active in the 
ministry, having missed but twenty appoint- 
ments in twenty-two years since he was or- 
dained for the Baptist ministry in 1889. He 
is now moderator of the St. Francis Baptist 
Association of southeast ^Missouri. He gives 
half of his time to preaching at Marble Hill. 
The other half he divides between the Baptist 
churches at Glen Allen and Marquand. 

The Rev. Davault has been teaching in Will 
Mayfield College since 1893, with the excep- 
tion of some years spent in teaching in the 
public schools. His service to that institution 
has been recognized by his appointment to 
the vice-presidency of the college, which of- 
fice he has held since 1900. His work as an 
instructor is in the departments of History 
and Psychology. 

The marriage of Mr. Davault to ]\Iiss 
Margaret E. Williford occurred in 1887. 
Mrs. Davault is the daughter of George S. 
Williford, a native of Tennessee. Six chil- 
di-en have been born to the Professor and his 
wife, one son and five daughters. The .son. 
Dr. Webster W. Davault, has chosen the pro- 



688 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



fession of me,dieine and will graduate from 
the Barnes Medical School of St. Louis in 
1912. Before entering upon this special 
training. Dr. Davault took his A. B. degree 
at Will Maytield College. He was boru in 
1889, four years before Miss Miriam Eula 
Davault. Jliss Davault graduated from the 
college where her father and brother received 
their degrees both in music and in the aca- 
demic department. She is at present en- 
gaged in teaching at Sikeston, Missouri. 
Three younger daughters, Helen I]mma, 
Willa Anastasia and Lula Ionia, are aged 
sixteen, thirteen and nine, respectively, and 
the fifth, Mildred Anna, made her advent 
into the home September 10, 1911. 

Professor Davault is a valued member of 
the Modern Woodmen of America. His many 
professional and social duties have not caused 
him to grow indifferent to his immediate sur- 
roundings. He owns a fine residence and six 
lots in Marble Hill. 

R. E. Jennings. Noteworthy among the 
prosperous agriculturists of Dunklin county 
is R. E. Jennings, of Senath, M'ho through 
his own persistent energy and industry has 
acquired a good farming property, which ho 
is managing with most satisfaetor.v pecuni- 
ary results. A native of Texas, he was born 
in' Dallas June 27, 186.5, but a short time be- 
fore the death of his father. 

Taken then by his widowed mother to Vir- 
ginia, he lived for awhile in the Old Domin- 
ion, and later accompanied his mother to 
Tennessee, from there, at the age of fourteen 
years, coming to Dunklin county, Missouri, 
where the death of his mother occurred in 
1898. Although he had received but a mea- 
ger education, R. E. Jennings was forced to 
begin working for wages as soon as old 
enough to be of use to any one, and the first 
seven months after coming to ilissouri v.'a-^ 
employed on a farm in the vicinity of Ken- 
nett. He subsequently worked as a farm 
hand in various places, principalh- in Dunk- 
lin count.v. and by dint of perseverance and 
thrift accumulated sufficient money to war- 
rant him in purchasing a farm. Assuming 
possession of bis present farm of forty acres 
in 1904. Mr. Jennings has made improve- 
ments of an excellent character, increasing 
its value to one hundred and fifty dollars an 
acre, it being one of the best and most highl.v 
productive estates in the neighborhood. 

Mr. Jennings has been twice married. He 
married fifst,'' in 1886, Beulah C. Wright, 



who died a few months later, on November 
30, 1886, leaving no children. He married 
for his second wife, January 8, 1888, Cassa 
B. Harkey, who was born August 13, 1872, 
and is a sister of W. R. Harkey, of whom a 
brief biographical sketch may be found on 
another page of this work. Mr. and Mrs. 
Jennings are the parents of three children, 
namely : Annie, born March 31, 1893 ; Wal- 
ter, born October 18, 1891:; and Raymond, 
liorn February 28, 1905. Politically Mr. Jen- 
nings is a stanch adherent of the Democratic 
l)arty, and fraternally he is a member of the 
Woodmen of the World. 

George W. Lanpher, Se., has for manj- 
years been a leading and influential citizen 
of Fredericktown and his former activity in 
I)nsine.ss affairs, his co-operation in public in- 
terests and his zealous support of all objects 
that he believes will contribute to the mate- 
rial, social or moral improvement of the com- 
munity keeps him in the foremost rank of 
those to whom the city owes its development. 
His life has been characterized by upright, 
honorable principles and it also exemplifies 
the truth of the Emersonian philosoph.y that 
''the wa.v to win a friend is to be one." His 
genial kindl.y manner wins him the high re- 
gard and good will of all with whom he comes 
in contact and while he lias lived in retire- 
ment for the past ten years he is still hale 
and hearty. 

A native of Madison count,v. IMissouri, 
George W. Lanpher was born at Mine La- 
Motte on the 12th of February, 1837, and he 
is a son of George and Elizabeth (Nifong) 
Lanpher. the former a native of Ohio and the 
latter a native of Missouri. The father came 
to this state as a young man, was a carpenter 
by trade, and after his marriage settled at 
Mine LaMotte, where he was interested in 
mining projects until his death, in 1845, at 
the earl.v age of thirt.v yeai's. For a short 
time he also conducted a tavern at Frederick- 
town, where he likewise served as postmaster. 
Mrs. Lanpher was a daughter of George Ni- 
fong. who settled in Bollinger county, Mis- 
souri, having removed thither from North 
Carolina. Mr. Nifong was a farmer by occu- 
pation and during the closing years of his 
life resided on a fine estate near Frederick- 
town, where he died in 1870. Mrs. Lanpher 
died in 1885. at the age of seventy-seven 
years: in earl.v life she was a member of the 
Christian church but later affiliated with the 
IMethodist denomination. ]\Ir. and Mrs. Lan- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



689 



plier became the parents of seven children, of 
whom four grew to maturity and three of 
whom are living at the present time, namely, 
— Felix, of Cape Girardeau; Mrs. Amanda 
Moore, of Ironton, Missouri; and George \V., 
of this notice. 

George W. Lanpher, Sr., the immediate 
subject of this review, was reared to matur- 
ity at Fredericktown, where he attended the 
common and subscription schools. As a mere 
youth, in 1854, he accompanied a band of fel- 
lows on the overland trip to California, where 
he remained until the latter part of 1857 and 
where he was interested in mining ventures. 
After his return to Madison county, Mis- 
souri, he farmed for eight or ten yeai-s, his 
fine homestead, a mile and a half west of 
Fredericktown, being now operated by a son. 
In 1872 he was elected to the office of assessor 
of Madison county and later he was chosen 
as county sheriff and collector, serving in the 
latter offices for four years. In 1879, in com- 
pany with Michael DeGuire, he built the mill 
at Fredericktown, continuing to operate the 
same for a period of twenty-one years, at the 
expiration of which he disposed of his inter- 
est therein to William Gudger Since 1901 
he has lived in virtual retiremenc. 

On the 14th of October, 1858, was recorded 
the marriage of Mr. Lanpher to Miss Eliza 
Virginia Parkin, whose birth occurred in 
Madison county, August 28, 1838, and who 
is a daughter of Joseph and Emily (Johnson) 
Parkin. Joseph Parkin was born in England, 
whence he removed to Virginia in an early 
day, settling at Wytheville. He was twice 
married, Mrs. Lanpher having been a child 
of his second union. On his trip to America, 
Josenli was accompanied by two brothers, one 
of whom died at sea, en roiite, and the other, 
Thomas, who died in Missouri shortly after 
the Civil war. Mr. Parkin was a farmer and 
miner by occupation and he died in the vi- 
cinity of Fredericktown in 1845, at the age of 
sixty years. Emily (Johnson) Parkin was 
a sister of Thomas and William Johnson, 
former residents of Cape Girardeau. She 
was born at Louisa Coui-thouse, Virginia, re- 
moving thence to Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and 
coming from the latter place to Missouri as 
a girl. Mrs. Lanpher has one brother and a 
sister living and one brother deceased, 
namely: Joseph resides at Fredericktown; 
Emily is the wife of Dr. Reuben Fugate, of 
Farmington, Missouri ; and A.ylette B. was a 
soldier in the Confederate army and lost his 



life during the Civil war, at Farmington, 
this state. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lanpher became the parents 
of seven children, of whom five are living at 
the present time, in 1911. Emma is the wife 
of M. E. Blanton, of Fredericktown; they 
had four children — James, William, Charles 
(who died at four years of age), and Almeda. 
William, who had been attending the State 
Univei-sity at Columbia, Missouri, died at 
the age of twenty-three years, at Frederick- 
town, Missouri. Edgar is a farmer near 
Fredericktown ; he married Patty Wiley and 
they have three daughters — Belle, Eliza V. 
and Dorothy. Lillian married Samuel Bu- 
ford and she died on the 17th of August, 
1909, being survived by four children — 
Prank, Charles, George L. and Nellie Jane. 
Annie is the wife of William H. Blanton and 
they reside on a farm one mile north of 
Fredericktown ; they have three children — 
Lillian, Walter and Clyde. Charles A. is en- 
gaged in the general merchandise business at 
Fredericktown; he married Belle Hoffman 
and they have two children — Eliza Elizabeth 
and Charles, Jr. George W., Jr., operates 
his father's farm near Fredericktown; he 
married Annie Nevada Graham and they 
have one child. Alma. 

In politics George W. Lanpher, Sr., is a 
stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party. 
in the local councils of which he has been a 
most active factor, serving with efficiency in 
a number of important offices of public trust 
and responsibilty, as previou.sly noted. For 
the past fifty years he has been a valued and 
appreciative member of the time-honored 
Masonic order, being the oldest living mem- 
ber of the lodge at Fredericktown, He and 
his wife are both connected with the Order 
of the Eastern Star and in their religious 
faith are consistent members of the Christian 
church. 

Robert F. Wichterich, M. D. During 
the years which mark the period of Dr. 
Wichterich 's professional career he has met 
with gratifying success and during the pe- 
riod of his residence at Cape Girardeau he 
has won the good will and patronage of many 
of the best citizens here. He is a thorough 
student and endeavors to keep abreast of the 
times in everything relating to the discover- 
ies in medical science. Progressive in his 
ideas and favoring modem methods as a 
whole, he does not dispense with the time- 



690 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



tried systems whose value has stood the test 
of years. There is in his record much that 
is wortliy of the highest commendation, for 
limited j^rivileges and financial resources 
made it necessary that he personally meet 
the expenses of a college course. In doing 
this he displayed the elemental strength of 
his character, which has been the foundation 
of his success. He now stands very high in 
the medical profession of the state and is in 
the fullest sense of the term a self-made man. 
Dr. Wichterich is also engaged in the drug 
business at Cape Girardeau, where he has 
resided during most of his life thus far. 

A native of this city, Dr. Robert Felix 
Wichterich was born on the 23d of ilareh, 
1868, and he is a son of Nicholas Wichterich, 
whose l)irth occurred at Biinn. Germanv, on 
the 12th of March. 1827. Reare'd and' edu- 
cated in Germany. Nicholas Wichterich at- 
tended the gymnasium and University of 
Biinn, making a special study of astronomy. 
He was a school mate of Carl Schurz and par- 
ticipated in the Rebellion of 1848, coming to 
America immediately after the close of that 
struggle. Shortly after his advent in the 
United States he located at Cape Girardeau. 
Mis.souri, where in 1860 he engaged in the 
milling business, continuing in that line for 
thirteen years. He was active in politics, be- 
ing eit.y treasurer for thirty-two years, thus 
demonstrating the respect and esteem ac- 
corded him by his fellow townsmen. He 
died January 9. 1900. He was lieutenant of 
the Home Guards at the time of the Civil 
war and his political allegiance was given to 
the Democratic party. He married Miss 
Eliza ]\Iolitor and to them were born three 
children, of whom the Doctor is the youngest. 
The others are Kathryn, who is now Mrs. An- 
tone Kammer, and John H. Mrs. Wichterich 
is still a resident of Cape Girardeau, being 
eighty-three years of age. 

Dr. Robert F. Wichterich received his 
rudimentary educational training in the pub- 
lie and parochial schools of Cape Girardeau 
and as a young man he attended St. Vincent's 
College. Subseqaiently he was matriculated 
as a student in the Memphis Hospital IMed- 
ieal College and still later he attended the 
St. Louis College of Physicians & Sui'geons. 
and the Barnes ^ledieal College, in which lat- 
ter institution lie was g'raduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1899. duly receiving his 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. Dr. Wichter- 
ich was registered as a pharmacist in April, 



1889, before the state board of pharmacy and 
thereafter he was engaged in the drug busi- 
ness at Cape Girardeau for a time in com- 
pany with Dr. J. H. Rider. For three years, 
from 1885 to 1887, he was engaged in the 
drug business at JMarshall, Texas, where he 
was connected with the Texas & Pacific Rail- 
road Hospital. After being graduated in 
Barnes Medical College Dr. Wichterich set- 
tled permanently at Cape Girardeau, where 
he initiated the active practice of his profes- 
sion and where he soon succeeded in building 
up a large and lucrative patronage. In 1907 
he again engaged in the drug business in 
conjunction with his professional work and 
he is now the owner of a very fine drug store. 
In his practice Dr. Wichterich makes a spe- 
cialty of internal medicine, never advising 
surgery except in most urgent ca.ses. He is 
an ardent follower of the unwritten code of 
professional ethics and by reason of his 
splendid ability and straightforward methods 
has won the imqualified regard and admira- 
tion of his fellow practitioners. 

In June, 1902, was recorded the marriage 
of Dr. Wichterich to ]\Iiss Elma Taylor, wlio 
was born and reared at Cape Girardeau and 
who is a daughter of J. W. Taylor, long a 
prominent and influential citizen of ths place. 
Dr. and Jlrs. Wichterich have no children. In 
his religious faith the Doctor is a devout 
communicant of the Catholic church and a 
liberal contributor to many philanthropical 
organizations. 

In politics Dr. Wichterich is aligned as a 
stanch supporter of the cause of the Demo- 
cratic part.v and while he is not desirous of 
political preferment of any description he 
manifests a deep and sincere interest in all 
matters aifecting the general welfare. After 
liis father's death, in 1900, he filled out the 
latter's unexpired term as city treasurer. For 
the past eight .vears he has been a member 
of the board of health of Cape Girardeau and 
in tliat connection he has been a means of 
improving the sanitary conditions of the city. 
He was president of the Cape Girardeau Med- 
ical Society for one year and he is also con- 
nected with the Missouri State Medical Soci- 
ety. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with 
the local lodges of the Benevolent & Protect- 
ive Order of Elks and the Knights of Co- 
lumbus. Dr. Wichterich is a man of high 
ideals and generous impiilses. He is consid- 
erate of others' opinions and sensibilites and 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



691 



is ever ready to lend a helping hand to those 
less I'ortunatel}' situated than himself. 

Henry Allen May. Too much honor and 
esteem cannot be given to a physician who 
counts his time and pleasure as naught in 
comparison with the aid he can give to sutfer- 
ing humanity, who foregoes his night's rest, 
perhaps, and buffets a driving snowstorm to 
render assistance to one of our loved ones. 
Dr. Henry Allen May, of this review, has 
passed his entire life in Franklin county, 
Missouri, and has, doubtless, during the last 
decade and more, done just such service for 
many who will read this history. 

Robert H. May, grantlfather of our subject, 
was the founder of this Franklin county fam- 
ily and the progenitor of all the older mem- 
bers of this family. He was born August 7, 
1792, in Charlotte county, Virginia, and re- 
moved from that state to Jlissouri. locating 
at Gray Summit, where he lived until 
March 13, 1870, when he was called to the 
Great Beyond. This old pioneer married 
Mary R. Portwood, of Virginia, and to them 
were born seven sons and two daughters, as 
follows: Stephen T., William H., Robert 
H., Jr., John R., James A., Joseph F. and 
Edward B. P., the two daughters, IMary A. 
E. F. and Martha, dying unmarried. 

James A. May. one of the large family of 
Robert H. j\Iay, was born in 1827, on a farm 
near Gray Summit, Franklin county, ^Mis- 
souri, and he followed his fatlier's vocation, 
that of farming, while he lived. His allegi- 
ance to the Southern cause precluded his en- 
listing in any other than the Confederate 
army when hostilities broke out. and he had 
many thrilling adventures during his war 
record. He was a prisoner of war in the 
hands of the Federals, and was wounded at 
the liattle of Gettysburg. James A. May mar- 
ried Sarah Frances Hundley, a daughter of 
W. A. Hundley, a pioneer of Franklin county 
from the Old Dominion state, the locality 
fi'om whence also came the Mavs. The chil- 
dren born to this union were James Arthur, 
a lawver of Pacific, Missoiiri : Annie Lee, the 
wife of W. H. Miles, of Grav Summit ; and 
Henry Allen, the subject of this sketch. The 
mother of these children died July 23. 1880, 
whpu she was but little more than thirty-one 
years of age: the father had died nine years 
previouslv, in December, 1871. 

Dr. Henry Allen ^lay was thus left with- 
out parents at a very tender age. his birth 
having occurred at Gray Summit, Franklin 



county, Missouri, on the 14th of April, 1872, 
At the death of his mother, this eight-year- 
old boy was tpken care of by his relatives, 
and he spent the first two years in the home 
of his uncle, Edward B. F. May. Upon the 
death of this gentleman he went to live with 
another uncle, Thomas B. North, where he 
remained for some years, acquiring his edu- 
cational training in the common schools of 
that locality. After finishing the prescribed 
work of the public school he spent two years 
in the State University of Missouri, and, hav- 
ing decided that he would become a physi- 
cian, he took up the study of medicine at 
Beamnont Hospital jMedical College, a school 
which later was merged with the St. Louis 
I'niversity, and graduated from that institu- 
tion, receiving his certificate of Doctor of 
Medicine in 1894. The next year young Dr. 
May located at Washington, where he has 
since successfully practiced his profession, 
attaining a consderable clientele and an ever- 
growing circle of admirers, who have every 
confidence in the skill and professional acu- 
men of Henry A. May. The Doctor holds 
memliership in the Franklin County Medical 
Society, the Missouri State Medical Society 
and the American Medical Association. Fra- 
ternally he is affiliated with the Ancient Free 
and Accepted Masons and the Modern Wood- 
men of America, while in politics he, like his 
ancestors, is a supporter of the principles and 
policies of the Democratic party. Dr. May is 
also one of the proprietoi's of that interesting 
sheet, the Franldin Count}! Observer. 

On February 5, 1895, our subject married 
Miss Clara Ming, who was born Setember 8, 
] 868. a daughter of the late Judge James M. 
Ming, an honored citizen of Frankilu 
county. Judge iling was born in Virginia, 
in 1824, where he married Jemimah Osborn, 
a native also of that state, and from there 
they removed to Missouri early in life. He 
rendered invaluable and und.ying .service to 
the citizens of Franklin county when he, as 
county judge, declined to make the levy of 
taxes for the payment of the bonds of the 
fraudulent Budd and Decker road, and, be- 
cause of such refusal, he was imprisoned by 
the court and thus suffered for his loyalty 
to his county and his allegiance to the prin- 
cinles of rierht. The children of Judge James 
M. and Jemimah (Osborn) Ming were as fol- 
lows: Eugene, who has sat upon the bench 
of the county court of Franklin countv and 
wore the ermine which his father graced and 
rendered hallowed by his righteous decisions. 



692 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



and he is uow engaged in farming; William, 
who married Miss Celeste Jeffries; Emmet, 
deceased, who married Miss Emma VVallis; 
Fannie, deceased, who was united in mar- 
i-iage with Dr. J. R. Wallace, and passed 
away at Washington, Missouri, in June, 1904 ; 
and Clara, who married Dr. Maj', our sub- 
ject. Judge Ming was not only respected and 
beloved as a public official, but was a man 
of fine character, being, as he always as- 
serted, a "self-made man" in the truest 
sense of the word. He made a success of 
whatever he undertook, believing in that old 
and trite but true axiom: "What's worth 
doing at all is worth doing well. ' ' He was a 
staunch Democrat in his political proclivi- 
ties, having served Franklin county for three 
terms in the legislature. He passed away 
March 22, 1908, his wife having preceded 
him to that "Far Country," her demise oc- 
curring October 2, 1903. 

Returning to the immediate subject of this 
sketch, Dr. Henry Allen May, we would 
chronicle the fact that Dr. and Mrs. I\Iay 
have one daughter, Susie Frances, and these 
three form a home circle which is in every 
way ideal, and their friends, be they rich or 
poor, are ever accorded a genial welcome to 
their home. 

Jacob M. Deck. That true American, 
Thomas Jefferson, is credited with saying: 
"Let the farmer evermore be honored in his 
calling; for though he labor in the earth he 
is one of the chosen people of God." Jacob 
M. Deelc, of Bollinger county. Missouri, comes 
of a family of farmers, men of honor and 
good citizens and he stands as a representa- 
tive of the third generation of his family in 
this county, tlie first of the name having been 
one of the brave and dauntless pioneers who 
turned out of the trodden highways and cut 
new paths, laying them straight and clean. 
Mr. Deck was born one mile northwest of the 
town of Glen Allen, Bollinger county, Mis- 
souri, on the 18th day of April, 18.58. He is 
the son of Frederick and ^Margaret E. 
(Clubb) Deck, natives of Missouri, and his 
paternal grandfather, Isaac Deck, was a na- 
tive of North Carolina. Isaac Deck was the 
founder of the family in the state, his arrival 
in Bollinger county occurring in 180.5. He 
secured six Imndred acres of land, which he 
entered and homesteaded, and he changed the 
wilderness into a fertile farm, upon wliich he 
lived and reared his children. His son Fred- 
erick, father of the immediate subject of this 



biographical record, died March 20, 1865, and 
left three hundred and forty acres to be di- 
vided among his four lieirs. Mr. Deck be- 
came the possessor of the entire estate, buy- 
ing the shares of the other three heirs. How- 
ever, he later sold forty acres and now owns 
all but that amount of the old Isaac Deck 
homestead. 

Upon this fine old farm the subject was 
born and reared and here has passed all his 
life. He attended the district school and like 
most farmers' sons early became familiar 
with the many mysteries of seedtime and har- 
vest. When it came to choosing a vocation 
he concluded to follow in the paternal foot- 
steps and he has achieved success, being well- 
to-do and prominent. 

Mr. Deck married in 1880, the lady of his 
choice being Eliza J. Sites, born in Madison, 
a daughter of Emanuel and Susan (Yount) 
Sites, natives of Missouri. Their union has 
been blessed by the ■ birth of a number of 
children, seven of whom are living, namely: 
Ira Walter, born in 1881, married to Ruie 
Reason; Dora, born in 1883, married to E. 
A. Lincoln; Isaac Jacob, born in 1886; Mary 
Ann, born in 1887, is the wife of Jesse H. 
Winters and now lives at Ilotchkiss, Colo- 
rado ; Archie M,, born in 1891 ; Nellie, born in 
1896 ; and Beulah, born in 1898. The cheer- 
ful and hospitable Deck household is one of 
the most popular of the community. Mr. 
Deck is a tried and true Democrat and in his 
religious conviction is in harmony with the 
teachings of the Missionary Baptist church, 
lie is a member of the Woodmen lodge. 

Mr. Deck is the only one living of a fam- 
ily of ten children, and he has but one aunt 
living, Mrs. Catherine Sullivan, who was also 
one of a large family, one of the younger chil- 
dren. She is now past eighty-five years of 
age. 

Charles E. Kiefner. An enumeration of 
the men of the present generation who have 
won success and public recognition for them- 
selves and at the same time have honored the 
state, to which they belong, would be incom- 
plete were there failure to make prominent 
reference to the one whose name initiates 
this paragraph. He holds distinctive pre- 
cedence as a contractor and Iniilder at Periy- 
ville, Missouri, as a man of liroad and varied 
attainments and as a valued and patriotic 
citizen. He is distinctively a man of affairs 
and one who has wielded a wide influence. A 
strong mentality, invincible courage and a 





■aW 




/ £^ 




HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



693 



most determined iudividuality have so 
entered into his makeup as to render him a 
natural leader of men and a director of opin- 
ion. He has ever manifested a deep and sin- 
cere interest in community ali'airs and for 
three sessions represented his district in the 
state legislature of Missouri. 

A native sou of Perryville, Missouri, 
Charles E. Kiefner was born on the 25th of 
November, 1869, and he is a scion of an old 
and honored German family, his father, Jolm 
Kiefner, having been born in Bavaria on the 
6th of April, 1834. John Kiefner was reared 
to the age of sixteen years in his old father- 
laud and he received an excellent primary 
education in the public schools of Germany. 
In 1850 he immigrated to the United States 
in company wnth. his grandfather and they 
located in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, 
where the young John learned the cabinet 
maker's trade. In 1865, just after the close 
of the Civil wai', John Kiefner decided to 
establish his home in the west and in that 
year he came to Perryville, where he opened 
up a furniture and undertaking business, 
continuing to be engaged in that line of 
enterprise for a period of forty years. On 
the 25th of December, 1854, at Baltimore, 
was solemnized his marriage to Miss Cather- 
ine Lakel. who traces her origin back to ster- 
ling German stock. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefner 
became the parents of eleven children, five of 
whom are living at the present time, in 1911. 
On other pages of this work is dedicated a 
sketch to Samuel B. Kiefner, an older brother 
of the subject of this review. Mr. and Mrs. 
Kiefner are now living at Perryville, where 
they are retired from the active affairs of life 
and where they are enjoying to the full the 
fruits of their former years of earnest toil and 
endeavor. They are a fine old couple and are 
everywhere beloved for their admirable qual- 
ities and genial kindliness. 

Charles E. Kiefner was educated in the 
public schools of Pei-ryville and at the age 
of fourteen years he accompanied his parents 
to Kansas, where they resided for the ensuing 
four years. During this period Mr. Kiefner 
learned the carpenter's trade and upon his 
return to Perryville, at the age of twenty-one 
years, he opened offices as a contractor and 
builder. In 1894, when the railroad was ex- 
tended into Perryville he entered into a part- 
nership alliance with Mr. Tlapek in the lum- 
ber business, in which line of enterprise he 



has continued to be interested during the long 
intervening years to the present time. As a 
captain of industry he is a man of shrewd 
executive ability — one who sees and grasps 
an oi^portunity in time to make the most of 
it. But all his attention has not been devoted 
to business enterprises. He is a stanch Re- 
publican in his political proclivities and his 
first public oifice was that of alderman of 
Perryville. So well did he discharge his 
duties in this connection that later he was 
elected mayor of the city, serving in that 
capacity for a period of four vears, from 
1899 to 1903. In 1902 Mr. Kiefner was 
further honored by his fellow citizens in that 
he was then elected to represent Perry coimty 
in the Forty-third general assembly of Mis- 
souri. He was elected as his own successor 
in that office for the two succeeding sessions 
and he finally retired from the legislature in 
1908. He was assigned to membership on 
important committees of the house and was a 
faithful and earnest worker in the deliber- 
ations of both the floor and committee room. 
At the present time, in 1911, he is president 
of the Republican county committee. In 
every possible connection Mr. Kiefner has 
contributed his fair quota to the progress and 
upbuilding of Perryville and Perry countj^ 
at large and as a citizen no one commands a 
higher degree of popular confidence and 
esteem than does he. 

On the 10th of July, 1895, Mr. Kiefner was 
united in marriage to Miss Jettie Luckey, 
who was born and reared at Brazeau, in 
Perry county and who is a daughter of Robert 
Luckey, a representative farmer at Brazeau, 
now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefner are the 
fond parents of five children, whose names 
are here entered in respective order of birth, 
—Charles H., Edwin L., Frank W., John and 
Kathryn. In their religious faith the Kief- 
ner family are devout members of the 
Presbyterian church, to whose charities and 
benevolences he is a most liberal contributor. 

In a fraternal way Mr. Kiefner is affiliated 
with the time-honored Masonic order and 
with the Modern Woodmen of America, in 
addition to which he is also a valued and ap- 
preciative member of the local lodge of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. His is 
a noble character, one that subordinates 
personal ambition to public good and seeks 
rather the benefit of others than the aggrand- 
izement of self. Genial in his associations, he 



694 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



is considerate of others' feelings and sensibil- 
ities and is always ready to lend a helping 
hand to those in distress. 

Kos Little is known in Kennett as the 
"Spoke Man." By that they do not mean 
that he is always talking, on the contrary, he 
does not talk unless he has something to say 
and then he knows how to say it. One can- 
not fail to have the most profound admira- 
tion for those men who do their work and 
hold their peace — giving us faitli in their al)il- 
ities. They mind their own business. Such a 
one is Kos Little, the manufacturer of spokes. 

He was born in Weakley county, Tennes- 
see, October 27, 1869. He is a son of T. I. and 
Sarah (Roberts) Little, both residents of' Ten- 
nessee, being natives of Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, respectively. T. I. Little has always been 
and is still actively interested in spoke manu- 
facturing and banking. Both are members of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church. There 
were eight children boim to them, viz. : J. D. 
(deceased), T. M., J. W., Kos, Mrs. Maud 
(Jeter), Maggie (deceased). Dr. R. M. and 
Mrs. Mary Gray (Banks). Kos Little was 
educated in his native county and after his 
schooling was ended he spent two years in 
the United States Revenue Service ; then 
moved to Paducah, Kentucky, and engaged 
with his brother, J. W. Little, in manufactur- 
ing spokes. His father and three older broth- 
ers are all engaged in the spoke manufactur- 
ing business. He learned all about the busi- 
ness, learning how to select the timber, how 
to cut it and move it to the factory. He used 
hickory ahnost exclusively for his spokes. He 
was in the business with his brother in Pad- 
ucah for eight years, coming to Kennett in 
1901 to establish a plant here. He sells about 
thirty thousand dollars worth of spokes each 
year, manufacturing buggy, carriage and au- 
tomobile spokes, all made of hickory. He em- 
ploys thirty men and his expenses for operat- 
ing are about twenty-five thousand dollars a 
year. In addition to this business he is presi- 
dent of the Merchant Oil Company of Ken- 
nett, selling oil for tanks, etc. He is vice 
president of the Kennett Building and Loan 
Association, which is doing a great deal for 
Kennett. He owns some town property, on 
•^'hicli he puts up the buildings. He is inter- 
ested in educational work and has served on 
the city board. 

Mr. Little married Mary Jones in Green- 
field, Tennessee. November 7, 1894, and one 
daughter, Louise, has been born to the union. 



When Mr. Little takes a vacation, he gen- 
erally spends it at Dawson Spring, Kentucky. 

George Henry Bisplinghopf. Three years 
ago (in 1908) when George Henry Bispliug- 
hoff, editor and publisher of The Bisfiiarck 
Gazette, first secured control of that newspa- 
per, he had the distinction of being the 
youngest newspaper proprietor in the state 
of Missouri. Now, although but twenty-four 
years of age, he has manifested that he is of 
the stuff of which the ideal member of the 
Fourth Estate is made. The Gazette is inter- 
esting, reliable, sound and advanced in its 
views and is experiencing a steady growth. 
]\lr. Bisplinghoff is loyal to Bismarck with 
the loyalty of a native son, for it was within 
its borders that his birth occurred on Febru- 
ary 10, 1887. His father, Henry Bispling- 
hotf, was born in Wayne county, ]\Iissouri, in 
1858, and is of German descent. The grand- 
father, August Bisplinghoff, was, in truth, 
one of the early settlers of the state. He was 
born in Elberfeldt, Germany, in 1829, and 
came to the "land of promise" — America — 
in early life, locating in Missouri and engag- 
ing first in surveying and then devoting his 
energies to farming. He was never elected 
to the position of government surveyor, but 
was appointed to the same by Governor 
Brown. This interesting and honored gen- 
tleman, who is now eighty-two years of age, 
divides his residence between Bismarck and 
Frederiektown, and although advanced in 
yeai-s still retains his physical and mental 
faculties in much of their pristine vigor. The 
father of the subject came to Missouri just 
previous to the Civil war and settled in Pat- 
terson, in whose vicinity the grandfather 
conducted a farm. In 1885, some two yeai-s 
before the birth of the subject, he removed 
to Bismarck, where he still resides. He mar- 
ried Cornelia Jordan, daughter of William 
Jordan, of Potosi, and to their union eight 
children were born, six of whom are living, 
George Henry being the second in order of 
birth of the living children. The father since 
becoming identified with Bismarck has been 
engaged in the drug and general merchandise 
bu.siness. He is one of the stalwart Demo- 
crats of the county and is affiliated with the 
Court of Honor, while the family is con- 
nected with the Methodist Episcopal church, 
South. 

The early life of George Henry Bispling- 
hoff was passed in Bismarck and to the 
schools of the eitv is he indebted for his ed- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



695 



ucation in its preliminary stages. He subse- 
quently matriculated in Marvin College at 
Frederiektown, and was graduated from the 
Will Mayfield College at Marble Hall in 1905, 
taking the degree of Bachelor of Science. 
After graduating he returned to Bismarck 
and in April, 1908, he bought the office of 
The Bismarck Gazette. Although young in 
years, he has given evidence in the manage- 
ment of its affairs of a sound judgment and 
an editorial ability of decidedly promising 
order. The paper, independent in policy, has 
a local subscription list of five hundred, and 
its advent into the many homes of the little 
city and its environs is each week eagerly 
awaited. 

^Ir. Bisplinghoff still resides at the paren- 
tal home, having not yet become a recruit to 
the Benedicts. He is Democratic in his po- 
litical faith, as his father and grandfather 
have been before him, and his lodge member- 
ship is with the Masons, the Odd Fellows, 
the Court of Honor and the Rebekahs. 

Harry E. Alexander, although a young 
man, has already shown the citizens of Cape 
Girardeau the mettle there is in him. He is 
a man who is calculated to be a power for 
good in the community. Most people are 
consumed with anxiety as to what others will 
think of their actions and will govern their 
conduct according to other people's ideas of 
what it should be. On the other hand, some 
men are utterly regardless of what other peo- 
ple may think and in order to show their dis- 
regard for public opinion they go ahead and 
do exactly the opposite to the approved, gen- 
erally accepted methods of procedure. Mr. 
Alexander is one of the small class of men 
who have hit the happy medium. He takes 
pains to find oi^t in his own mind the course 
he intends to follow and he pursues that 
course, regardless of all other considerations. 
It is through such men that reforms come 
and without them there would be no progress. 

He was born in Cape Girardeau county, 
February 3, 1880. His grandfather, Wil- 
liam E. Alexander, was a native of Mecklin- 
burg county. North Carolina, and was of 
Scotch-Irish descent, his ancestors having 
come to America from Scotland. In 1830. 
when William E. was a lad of eleven years 
of age, his father and mother brought him to 
southeastern Missouri ; they located in Cape 
Girardeau county, where they were one of 
the pioneer families of the county. William 
was educated in the county and achieved suc- 



cess. For many years he was public admin- 
istrator in the state. His sou, Oliver Alexan- 
der, was born iu Cape Girardeau county, 
where he was educated, engaged in farming 
and was married to Lillian L. Woods, also a 
native of Cape Girardeau count.y. She was 
the daughter of Rufus Woods who came from 
North Carolina al)out the same time that 
W^illiam E. Alexander came. The Woods 
family packed all their worldl.y belongings on 
wagons and made the journey from North 
Carolina to Missouri by that slow, laborious 
method. The family originally came from. 
Scotland and like the Alexander family were 
of Scotch-Irish descent. 

Harry is the eldest of three children, hav- 
ing a brother and sister. His boj'hood days 
were spent on his father's farm, where he 
learned to work, his father believing in the 
value of earl.y training in habits of industry 
and responsibility. He did not, however, in- 
tend to be a farmer, but to be a lawyer like 
his grandfather. He was sent to the district 
school, where his natural abilities and dili- 
gence combined soon won him recognition. 
He attended high school and then the State 
normal school at Cape Girardeau, after which 
he went to the state university at Columbia, 
but did not complete the course there. In- 
stead he went to Austin, where the state uni- 
versit.v of Texas wqs located and graduated 
from the law department there in 1902. The 
following year he came to Cape Girardeau, 
where he began to practice law. He was 
alone for six years, but in 1909 he formed a 
partnership with Senator Lane, a lawyer 
who had already become prominent as a law- 
yer and a statesman. The firm has met Avith 
unprecedented success. 

In 1905 Mr. Alexander married Miss Myr- 
tle Jackson, the daughter of Dr. Robert -T. 
Jackson, of Bloomfield, Missouri. Two chil- 
dren have been born to this union, Genevieve 
Lucille and William E., named after his 
great grandfather. 

In 1907 Mr. Alexander was elected state 
attorney, which position he held until 1911. 
He is a firm supporter of the Democratic 
party, believing that that platform embodies 
the principles of good government. He is a 
member of the Benevolent and Protective Or- 
der of Elks, of the Eagles, of the Knights of 
Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica. Being a life long member of Cape Gi- 
rardeau county, it is natural that Mr. Alex- 
ander should be vitally interested in the wel- 
fare of that county and of southeastern Mis- 



696 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



souri generally. He is by no means inclined 
to rest on his oars, but is ready to assume any 
responsibility and imdertake any work that 
will promote the well being of the community 
and of the state. Personally he has the at- 
tributes which assure a man of success in 
anything he undertakes. 

E. L. Clevenger. One of the public- 
spirited citizens of Piedmont is the agent and 
yard master of the Iron Mountain Railway, 
E. L. Clevenger. He is the eldest of three 
sons of Henry and Susan (Horwood) Clev- 
enger, of Fulton county, Pennsylvania. The 
other two brothei-s live in Washington, D. C, 
and in San Francisco, respectively. The 
parents died in Pennsylvania, the father at 
the age of sixty-four and the mother in Penn- 
sylvania, when thirty-nine years old. 

E. L. Clevenger was born in Fulton county, 
Pennsylvania, February 6, 1870. When he 
was six years old his parents took him from 
the farm to town and sent him to school until 
he was fourteen years old. At that age he 
started work in a tan yard and four years 
later he came west. For a time Mr. Cleven- 
ger worked on farms in Iowa, but in Decem- 
ber of 1891 he came to Missouri as an opera- 
tor of the Iron Mountain Railway at Annap- 
olis and has continued in the railroad work 
in this state ever since. ,From Annapolis he 
was transferred to Blackwell, Missouri; in 
1894, was sent to Williamsville as agent, and 
in 1902 he was promoted to his present posi- 
tion at Piedmont. 

In this town Mr. Clevenger has worked 
untiringly for the improvement of the schools. 
He was "first elected to the school board in 
1908. He was reelected in 1911 and chosen 
president in recognition of his hard work 
for the cause of education. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. Clevenger are active members of the 
Christian church. Mrs. Clevenger was for- 
merly Miss IMargaret Suddeth, of Prairie 
City, Iowa. She became Mrs. Clevenger Sep- 
tember 4, 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Clevenger 
have four children, Ruby, Helen, Marjorie 
and Edrice. all at home. 

Polities has no part in Mr. Clevenger's busi- 
ness, biit he is a staunch Republican in mat- 
ters of political policy. 

John C. Dale. Distinctly a man of affairs, 
with a wide and successful experience in busi- 
ness and service in public office, Mr. Dale is 
best known in the county as a lumber mer- 
chant. His parents, James L. and Sarah J. 



Dale, were natives of Tennessee, who came 
to Missouri in 1847 and located in Wayne 
county, near Piedmont. Here John C. Dale 
was born May 16, 1857, the first of a family 
of four children of whom three are still liv- 
ing. Both parents are deceased. 

Until eighteen years of age Mr. Dale lived 
on his father's farm. At that time he went 
to Greenville and spent the next four years 
as deputy clerk, deputy sheriff and collector 
under James F. Hatton. At the conclusion 
of this period he kept books for Mr. Fred 
Evans, of Piedmont, and later was employed 
in the same capacity by Mr. H. N. Holliday, 
of Williamsville. Mr. Holliday was then 
planning the Holliday Railroad, later 'built 
to Greenville. 

After spending four years in mercantile 
business in Piedmont, Mr. Dale went to 
Texas in 1885. He remained there ten years, 
the entire time working in the clerical de- 
partment of the Southern Pacific Railway. 
In 1895 he returned to Missouri where he 
has remained ever since. Saw mills, a 
stave factory, real estate, the insurance busi- 
ness and lastly the tie and lumber busi- 
ness have claimed his attention during these 
last sixteen years. Mr. Dale operated saw 
mills for three years and in 1900 he became 
superintendent for the Pioneer Cooperage 
Plant at Lutesville, which was established 
over forty years ago. He kept this position 
for six years, until he resigned it to engage 
in a successful real estate and insurance busi- 
ness. Mr. Dale spent the period from 1905 
to 1909 at the last mentioned business, and 
then went into the lumber and railroad tie 
business. In a normal season his son Harry 
is his official tie and lumber inspector and 
buyer. Mr. Dale himself is the owner of 
three hundred and fifty acres of timber and 
farm land in Bollinger county, besides one 
and three-fourths acres and a fine residence 
in Lutesville. 

The marriage of Mr. Dale to Miss Anna 
Dennis, of Wayne county, occurred August 
1. 1879. Miss Dennis was the daughter of 
William Dennis, former sheriff of Wayne 
county, a personal friend of Sam Hildebrand 
and a Confederate soldier. Mr. and Mrs. 
Dale have seven children living: Maudie, 
wife of S. E. Chandler, was born in 1883. 
Hattie, a bookkeeper in Shreveport, Louis- 
iana, was bom in 1885. The third daugh- 
ter, Martha V., is the wife of J. H. Byrd, 
of Kansas City, Missouri, and was born in 
1888. Ollie, born 1890, is with the Consoli- 




JAMES R. HOMINES 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



697 



dated Store and Manufactm-ing Company. 
James Harry, mentioned earlier in tliis sketch, 
was born in 1893. Lillie and Charles were 
born in 1897 and 1900 respectively. 

A good mixer and a man of deserved per- 
sonal popularity, Mr. Dale is active in sev- 
eral fraternal organizations. He is a mem- 
ber of the A. F. and A. M., of Marble Hill, 
and of the chapter and commandery at Cape 
Girardeau, in which he has taken fourteen 
degrees. He is also affiliated with the I. 0. 
0. F., the K. 0. T. M. and with the A. 0. 
U. W. Mr. and Mrs. Dale are members of 
the Presbyterian church. 

In politics Mr. Dale is a Republican, and, 
as earlier stated, he is not without experience 
in public office. It was while he was serving 
as deputy sheriff of Wayne county that the 
capture of the New Madrid desperadoes was 
planned and executed. The leaders in this 
dangerous undertaking were James Hatton 
and John Davis. Mr. Dale, who was absent 
on ofScial business, was fifteen minutes late 
in arriving at Greenville, and Messrs. Hat- 
ton and Davis had already followed the des- 
peradoes out of town and caught up with 
them at the rendezvous, Jim Lee's residence, 
where they were eating a late breakfast. Hat- 
ton and Davis had held up both robbers in 
the dining room, but unfortunately they re- 
laxed vigilance and both were shot. Hatton 
recovered, but Davis died as the result of 
an operation performed in the hope of sav- 
ing him from the effects of the robbers' bul- 
lets. Altogether, Mr. Dale's career has been 
one of unusual interest. 

"William "W. Hubbard. An industrious 
and enterprising farmer of Dunklin county, 
William W. Hubbard is prosperously en- 
gaged in his free and independent occupa- 
tion on one of the pleasantest homesteads in 
Senath, where he has lived for nearly a dec- 
ade. Coming on both sides of the house from 
Irish ancestry, he was born September 27, ' 
1858, in Brownsville, Haywood county, Ten- 
nessee, where his parents settled on leaving 
Virginia, their native state. His father, who 
died while yet in the prime of life, in 1861, 
was a stage driver until after the building 
of railroads throughout Tennessee, when he 
embarked in the grocery business, which he 
carried on successfully until his death. His 
widow married a second time, but did not 
live very long thereafter, passing away in 
1872. 

After his mother's death William W. Hub- 



bard, who had acquired his early education 
in the subscription schools of Tennessee, 
went to live with his grandmother and two 
aunts, who had been left almost destitute 
through the ravages of the Civil war, and 
his grandmother subsequently lived with him 
until her death, in 1896, at the venerable age 
of eighty-nine years. Selecting farming as 
his life occupation, Mr. Hubbard settled in 
White county Arkansas, about 1879, remain- 
ing there until 1903, being employed in agri- 
cultural pursuits all of the time with the 
exception of four yeare when he was en- 
gaged in railroad work, being foreman of a 
section gang a part of the time. For four 
years after locating in Dunklin county, in 
1903, jMr. Hubbard rented land, but has since 
resided on his present farm, and in its man- 
agement has been quite successful, having a 
large part of it cleared and under cultiva- 
tion, much of which is now rented to tenants. 
He intends to clear and improve the whole 
of his land and fence it, a work in which he 
has already made rapid progress, his farm 
bidding fair to become one of the most desir- 
able pieces of property in the neighborhood. 

Politically Mr. Hubbard is aiSliated with 
the Republican party, and fraternally he is 
a member of the Woodmen of the World, in 
which he has held various offices, and of the 
Woodmen 's Circle, an auxiliary of the former 
organization. 

Mr. Hubbard married, in January, 1889, 
in White county, Arkansas, Elizabeth Allen, 
who was born in Tennessee, January 24, 
1867, a daughter of J. M. and Emma (Spark- 
man) Allen. Her father is now living in 
Senath, but her mother died in 1878, wbcxi 
Mrs. Hubbard was a girl of eleven years. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard have four eliildren, 
namely : Russell B., born July 23. 1890 ; Wal- 
ter C, born January 27, 1892 ; John B., bora 
November 11, 1896 ; and Pauline, bom De- 
cember 25, 1908. 

James R. Romines. Missouri boasts, and 
with reason, of its wonderful agricultural re- 
sources, and that it has become such a success- 
ful farming country is attributable to the fact 
that men of acknowledged abilities have iden- 
tified themselves with the cultivation of the 
soil. James R. Romines, a farmer by nature, 
by inheritance and from choice, stands prom- 
inent in the state which he has helped to make 
famous. 

Mr. Romines was born August 2, 1870, on a 
farm near Vineit, and is the son of Thomas 



698 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



and Lulu (Rogers) Romines. The father, 
familiarly called ' ' Tom, ' ' was a native of Ten- 
nessee, where he spent the first few years of 
his boyhood, then came to ilissouri with his 
parents, where he later entered the agricul- 
tural field. He secured a tract of land on 
Horse Island, with the idea of cultivating it, 
but he was not very successful ; thinking that 
he would accomplish better results in some 
other location, he moved to Vincit, but a short 
trial convinced him that if anything he would 
find the Vincit farm less desirable than the 
one he had formerly worked on, so back he 
went to Horse Island. He stayed this time 
for a period of seven years, his previous ex- 
perience enabling him to achieve a fair suc- 
cess, but he was by no means satisfied. At 
the expiration of seven years of uphill work, 
he disposed of the Horse Island place and 
again pulled up his stakes, moving this time 
to a farm two and a half miles northeast of 
Caruth. He was a hard worker, but some- 
how or other he was not able to do more than 
make both ends meet — land was new and 
there were few conveniences in that section of 
the country. He died in 1880, leaving fifty 
acres of land to his twin brother Will, and 
this tract represented the result of his years 
of work; Will died some years ago, and the 
property' remains in the family, owned by his 
children. The early history of j\Irs. Tom 
Romines was identical with that of her hus- 
band, in that she was born in Tennessee and 
had come to Missouri with her folks some 
years before her marriage, which took place 
at Caruth. To their union two children were 
born, Ellen, who married Wesley Winters, of 
Vincit, and James R,, the subject of this 
sketch. Mrs. Thomas Romines maintains her 
home with her daughter at Vincit. 

When James R. Romines was very small 
the family moved from Vincit to Horse Is- 
land, as above noted, remaining tliere until 
James had passed his sixth birthday and was 
about ready to commence his school life. At 
that time he accompanied his parents to Ca- 
ruth ; his father was poor iind the roads in 
the neighborhood of his new home were verj' 
bad, so the result was that the lad received 
very little education in the way of schooling, 
but he did receive a thorough training in all 
kinds of farm work, so that in 1890. when 
at the age of twenty he started out to carve 
his own career, he was erpiipped with a work- 
ing knowledge of the various classes of agri- 
cultural pur.suits, which stood him in good 



stead. Leaving home with^-a capital of ten 
dollars, he passed the eu.siting three years as 
a farm hand, working for the farmers in 
the neighliorhood of Caruth. He did not 
draw on his capital, but on the other hand he 
constantly added to it all that he could pos- 
sibly save, and at the expiration of three 
years he bought a tract of land on Horse Is- 
land and commenced farming operations on 
the place. After two years' steady cultiva- 
tion of the soil he had made many improve- 
ments in the farm, and he was able to dispose 
of it at a profit. For the following four or 
five years he rented a place, and in the mean- 
time he watched for an opportunity to be- 
come permanently located. He bought forty 
acres of land near Kennett, his present home, 
but he now owns a tract of sixty acres, and 
inasmuch as the land has doubled in value 
since he bought it, he is worth three times as 
much as when he fir.st came to Kennett. He 
has done much to bring his farm to a high 
state of cultivation, — has put up new fences, 
built new outbuildings and generally im- 
jiroved the place. In addition to managing 
liis own land, he rents about eighty acres 
yearly, making al)out one hundred and fifty 
acres of land which he farms, raising cotton 
and corn for the most part, but he also de- 
votes part of his land to stock raising. 

On the 8th of January, 1890, Mr. Romines 
married Josephine Akers, who was born in 
Alabama, in 1872, where her father was en- 
gaged in farming. She is a daughter of Leb 
and Jane (Stone) Akers, both natives of Ala- 
l^ama and both are deceased, as are ]\Irs. Ro- 
mines' three brothers and three sisters. The 
Akers family moved to Vincit, Missouri, in 
1874, when the little Josephine was a mere 
child, and as a matter of course she made the 
ac<iuaintance of James Romines, her neigh- 
lior. To the union of the young people two 
children were born, Hersel, whose birthday 
was on St. Patrick's Day, 1896, and Nolar, 
born May 23, 1900, 

Mr, Romines is a Democrat in political 
sympathies. He is a member of the Wood- 
men of the World, being affiliated with the 
Caruth lodge, in which he has held office at 
different times. He was for years active in 
the different enterprises of the Shady Grove 
:\lission Baptist church, standing high in the 
regard of its members, as with the farmers 
in the community «\vhere he has spent all of 
his life, Mrs. Romines is a member of this 
church. 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



699 



Thomas B. Sharp, who is ably filling the 
office of marshal of Frederiektown, ilissoiiri, 
has been the popular and efficient incumbent 
of a. number of important offices of public 
trust and responsibility since his ari-ival in 
this place, in 1892. He was sheriff of iladi- 
son county for four years and for two j'ears 
was county collector. He is loyal and public- 
spirited in his civic attitude and is ever on 
the qui vive to do all in his power to ad- 
vance the be^t interests of this section of 
the state. 

Mr. Sharp was born in Iron county, Mis- 
souri, some five miles south of Ironton, the 
date of his nativity being the 2Sth of July, 
1855. His father, John Q. A. Sharp, was 
a son of Robert L. Shaip and he died in 18SS, 
at the age of sixty- two years. John Sharp 
was a small boy when his father worked at 
the mine LaMotte. As a youth he became 
interested in a colliery, engaging in the manu- 
facture of charcoal until the Pilot Knob 
mine was started, when he secured employ- 
ment in it as a miner. He also owned a farm 
sixteen miles southwest of Fredericktown, on 
the St. Francis river, where he resided dur- 
ing the closing years of his life, his death 
having occurred in 1888. He married Miss 
Jane Sutton and they became the parents 
of six children, of whom the subject of this 
review was the third in order of birth and 
four of whom, two sons and two daughters, 
are living at the present time, in 1911. 

To the public schools of Iron and Madison 
county Thomas B. Sharp is indebted for his 
preliminary educational training. He was 
a child of ten years of age at the time of 
his parents' removal from Iron county to the 
vicinity of Fredericktown, where he has since 
passed the greater portion of his life. For 
three years he was engaged in I'anehing and 
stock-raising in Texas and he holds a reputa- 
tion for being the first man in Madison county 
to feed a carload of stock here. He is the 
owner of considerable farming property in 
Madison county and he also owns land in 
Oklahoma, his holdings in this county amount- 
ing to eight hundred acres, the same con- 
taining timber and valuable mineral deposits. 
A portion of this land is under cultivation. 
In 1892 Mr. Sharp was honored by his fel- 
low citizens with election to the office of sher- 
iff of Madison county and that year marks 
his advent in Fredericktown. His work as 
sheriff covered a period of foi;r years and 
during that time he was instrumental in 
greatly raising the standard of law and order 



in the county. In 1896 he was elected county 
collector and in 1908 was chosen for the of- 
fice of city marshal. He was re-elected to 
the latter office in 1910 and is serving in that 
capacity at the present time. In politics he 
is an uncompromising supporter of the prin- 
ciples and policies promulgated by the Demo- 
cratic party, in the local councils of which 
he is an active worker. 

On January 27, 1877, Mr. Sharp wedded 
Miss Alma S. King, whose birth occurred in 
Madison county and who is a daughter of 
Alexander King, a farmer near the St. Fran- 
cis river. Mr. and Mi-s. Sharp are the jjar- 
ents of four children, concei-ning whom the 
following brief data are here recorded : jMillie 
Emeline is the wife of William T. White, a 
farmer in Madison county, and they have one 
child, Thomas; Robert L. remains at the 
parental home; Flavia Eveline is a stenog- 
rapher in the Third National Bank building 
at St. Louis; and George Gilbert is in the 
United States Marine service, his headquar- 
ters being at Norfolk, Virginia. 

In fraternal circles Mr. Sharp is a valued 
and appreciative member of the time-hon- 
ored Masonic order and he is also affiliated 
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Brother- 
hood of America and the Modern Woodmen 
of America. In religious matters he is a con- 
sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. The life of Mr. Sharp is a noble 
illustration of what independence, self-faith 
and self-reliance can accomplish in America. 
He is absolutely self-made and for that reason 
his admirable success in the business world 
of this section of the state is the more gratify- 
ing to contemplate. 

George W. Tarlton. M. D. One of the 
prominent and well known physicians and 
surgeons of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is Dr. 
George W. Tarlton, who in connection with 
his medical work, conducts a large and flour- 
ishing drug business at Cape Girardeau. 

Dr. George W. Tarlton was born in the 
state of Kentuck.y, just across the river from 
New Madrid, the date of his nativity being 
the 13th of October, 1849. He is a son of 
Alexander C. Tarlton, who was born in 1828, 
at the old Tarlton home in AVayne county, 
about four miles northeast of Wappapello, on 
which beautiful estate he was reared and 
where he was engaged in agricultural opera- 
tions during the greater part" of his active 
business career. In 1864, on the 18th of 



700 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



December, he was murdered by a band of 
gnerrilas, who entered the home on Sun- 
day evening, saying: "You d black Re- 
publican, ain't you ashamed of yourself?" 
The mother of the Doctor was Arzula Phillips 
in her girlhood days and she was born and 
reared in the vicinity of New Madrid. Alex- 
ander C. Tarlton was twice married and by 
his first marriage he became the father of 
four children, of whom the Doctor is the 
only survivor at the present time, his two sis- 
ters and one brother having died in infancy. 
The second marriage was prolific of six chil- 
dren, of whom three are now living. 

Dr. Tarlton attended school in his native 
place until he had reached the age of fifteen 
years when he left home and came to Cape 
Girardeau, which city has continued to rep- 
resent his place of residence during the long 
intervening years to the present time, with 
the exception of a period of two years, from 
1881 to 1883, during which time he lived in 
Wajme county. For three years he was a stu- 
dent in the state normal school, at Cape 
Girardeau. In 1871, at the age of twenty- 
one years, he engaged in the drug business, 
continuing to follow that line of enterprise 
until 1879, in which year he was matriculated 
as a student in the St. Louis Medical College. 
in which excellent institution he was gradu- 
ated as a member of the class of 1881, duly 
receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
Immediately after graduation he entered up- 
on the active practice of his profession at 
Pocahontas, later removing to Oak Ridge. In 
1890 he returned to Cape Girardeau, where 
he now controls a large and lucrative patron- 
age and where he is also engaged in 
the drug business. In connection with 
his life work he is a valued and ap- 
preciative member of the Southeastern 
Medical Society and of the Cape Girardeau 
Medical Society. In the time-honored Ma- 
sonic order he is affiliated with the Scottish 
Rite branch and he is also a valued member 
of the local lodge of the Woodmen of the 
"World. His religious faith is in harmony 
with the tenets of the Baptist church and in 
politics he accoi'ds an unswerving allegiance 
to the principles promulgated by the Dem- 
ocratic party. 

Dr. Tarlton has been twice married, his first 
union having been to Miss Addie Penny, the 
ceremony having been performed on the 18th 
of Marcii, 1880. Mrs. Tarlton was called to 
eternal rest four and a half months after her 
marriage and on the 29th of November, 1882, 



was solemnized the marriage of the Doctor to 
Miss Maggie Morton, who was born and 
reared at Pocahontas, Missoiu'i. To this union 
have been born four children, concerning 
whom the following brief data are here in- 
corporated, — David W. P. Tarlton is a den- 
tist by profession and he is engaged in that 
work at Marshall, Arkansas; Lou B. is a 
teacher at Cape Girardeau ; Ann, who is the 
wife of George Cochran, resides at Hoxie, 
Arkansas; and Mary Katrina, fourteen years 
of age, is a student in the local high school. 

Guy F. Kahmann. It is to be doubted 
whether a man in a position of great trust 
realizes the confidence and esteem thus ex- 
hibited by his friends and fellow citizens. 
Guy F. Kahmann of this review holds just 
such a position, but he is deeply conscious of 
the trust reposed in him as cashier of the 
Fir.st National Bank of Washington, and la- 
bors valiantly and well to uphold that con- 
fidence. 

Oiir subject came from good old German 
stock, thrifty, alert and honest, his father, 
Christopher H. Kahmann, having been born 
in Hanover, Germany, in 1828. He came to 
the United States when but a small boy of 
eleven years, but there is no record of where 
his youth was passed or what were his edu- 
cational advantages, but his later business 
success marked him as a man of unusual and 
extraordinary acumen, being endowed with a 
capacity for affairs of broad scope. Mr. 
Kahmann was a leading citizen of Wash- 
ington for many years, being the pro- 
prietor of the pork-packing business in 
that city, instituted in 1856 and con- 
tinued until his death in 1883 and then until 
1887 under his successor, Gxiy F. Kahmann, 
when it yielded to the pressure of the great 
packing interests of St. Louis and Kansas 
City and became extinct. Christopher H. 
Kahmann married Anna Mense, a daughter 
of Gerhard Uhlenbrock Mense, who was en- 
gaged in the saw and grist-mill business in 
Franklin county for many years, coming to 
that county in 1833. The children born to 
this union were as follows: George H., who 
died in Kansas City in February, 1911, a 
prominent contractor of that city; William, 
who was a lawyer and a publisher, and passed 
away in Washington in October, 1893; Guy 
F.. "the immediate subject of this review; 
Annie, the wife of Charles Wynne, of New 
York city; Cassilda, who married John B. 
Busch, of Washington; and Joseph P., of 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOUEI 



701 



Kansas City, special agent for the London 
and Lancashire Insurance Company. 

Guy F. Kahmann, our subject, was born in 
Franklin county, Missouri, September 6, 1858, 
the son of Christopher H. and Anna (Mense) 
Kahmann. He received a sure foundation for 
whatever business he chose to adopt in hav- 
ing received good educational advantages, 
than which there is no greater heritage. He 
entered Pio Nono College in 1873 in IMilwau- 
kee, Wisconsin, and completed the commer- 
cial training in that college to prepare him 
for practical life. As above stated, he be- 
came a member of the firm of C. H. Kah- 
mann & Son, of which lais father was the 
founder in 1856, and continued in this busi- 
ness until 1887, carrying on the business him- 
self some four years after his father's de- 
mise. After the abajidonment of this pork- 
packing industry he associated himself with 
the firm of H. Tibbe & Son Manufacturing 
Company, the predecessors of the Missouri 
Meerschaum Company of Washington, and 
was its secretary and treasurer for nearly a 
quarter of a century, his ability and value in 
this concern being evidenced by the length 
of time of his association with it. 

The First National Bank of Washington 
was oi'ganized by E. C. Stuart, of Cape Gir- 
ardeau, in 1900, and in 1910 our subject was 
chosen cashier, succeeding Mr. E. C. Stuart, 
who is now connected with the Third National 
Bank of St. Louis, at which time he severed 
his connection with the Missouri Meerschaum 
Company. The other officials of the bank 
are : A. Kahmann, president, and E. C. Stuart 
and E. H. Otto, vice-presidents. Its capital 
stock and surplus is at the present time, 1911, 
$38,000.00, and deposits, $250,000.00, and its 
board of directors comprise some of the most 
successful business men of Washington and 
community. This bank is a sound and safe 
moneyed institution of this part of Missouri. 

Mr. Guy F. Kahmann was united in the 
holy bonds of wedlock with Miss Regina Wel- 
lenkamp, a native daughter of Franklin 
county, this marriage being solenmized in 
Washington on the 11th of September, 1883, 
and Mrs. Kahmann being the daughter of 
Henry and Katharine (Menkhaus) Wellen- 
kamp, the former an eai-ly merchant of Wash- 
ington. To this union have been born six 
children, as follows: Walter H., assistant 
cashier of the First National Bank of Wash- 
ington; Regina; Leander, who is with the 
Roberts, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company of 



St. Louis ; Raj'mond J. ; Othmar M. ; and Rosa 
L., deceased. 

While Mr. Kahmann has never desired to 
avail himself of the honors or emoluments of 
office, he has ever kept in touch with party 
politics, and is firmly allied on the side of 
the Democratic party. He devotes much 
time to his family and his friends, and con- 
sequently has not found leisure to join any 
fraternal organizations. The Kahmann family 
are members of the Catholic church. The 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Kahmann is one of the 
most pleasant and hospitable in Washington, 
and the latch-string is always out not only to 
their friends but to any one in distress or 
trouble. 

Samuel Thojias McGee is one of the 
prominent farmer-citizens of Bollinger 
county and he is also a veteran of the Civil 
war, his military record in the great conflict 
being a thrilling one whose reeountal has 
brought to many a youthful cheek the glow 
of interest and enthusiasm. He is a native 
son of Missouri, his birth having occurred in 
Washington county on the 2nd day of I'eb- 
ruary, 18'42, and his parents were Samuel 
and Elvira (Thompson) McGee, both natives 
of the state. The scene of the father's birth 
was Washington county and that of the 
mother's Cape Girardeau. He is of Irish de- 
scent, both his paternal grandparents having 
claimed Erin as their birthplace. Their 
names were Felix and Elizabeth McGee. The 
great-grandfather, Patrick McGee, was also 
a native of Ireland, as was his wife, Rosa. 
His great-grandfather Dennis was bom, 
lived and died in Ireland. The birth dates of 
the father and mother of Mr. McGee were 
1813 and 1815. 

Mr. McGee was reared upon a farm and 
has spent almost his entire life amid rural 
surroundings. A young man less than twenty 
years of age at the outbreak of the Civil war, 
he was none the less one of the first to enlist, 
in 1861 joining Company B. Sixth Missouri 
Infantry under the command of William Te- 
cumseh Sherman, and Captain John W. 
Fletcher, as a member of the First Brigade, 
Second Division of the Fifteenth Army 
Corps, Army of the Tennessee. A brief re- 
sume of his service includes many of the 
great and decisive events of the struggle be- 
tween the states. He was in the engagement 
at Chickaisaw Bayou. Mississippi, when Shei-- 
man was repulsed ; the battle of Arkansas 



702 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Post; at Champion Hill and Jackson, Mis- 
souri; he was present at the siege of Vicks- 
burg and pai-ticipated in the battle of Mis- 
sionary Ridge, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. 
He was in the forced march from Chatta- 
nooga to Knoxville, in eastern Tennessee, 
when General Biu-nside was surrounded by 
General Longstreet. He then started with 
Sherman on the march to the sea in the 
spring of 1864, and after that was in one con- 
tinual light until June 24, 1864, at which 
time he received his discharge. 

Upon the termination of his career as a 
soldier Jlr. McGee returned to Jefferson 
county, ilissouri, and in 1870 bought eighty 
acres of land in the vicinity of Glen AUeii, 
Missouri. Since then he has added twenty- 
four acres, his property now consisting of one 
hundred and four acres. It is an excellent 
farm, fruitful and well improved and it is 
very dear to Mr. McGee, who has made his 
home upon it for forty-one years. 

On October 1, 186:3, Mr." McGee wa.s hap- 
pily married to Mary A. Brinley, daughter 
of Michael and Catherine (Baldwin) Brin- 
ley, natives of Missouri. Mrs. McGee passed 
to the life eternal June 29, 1880, after be- 
coming the mother of the following children : 
Elvira, horn in 1865, wife of R. A. Porter; 
Sarah Elizabeth, born in 1866, the wife of 
Edward Stanton; Patrick P., born in 1868, 
died 1890 ; Jessie, born in 1870, wife of Phin- 
eas Haynes; Minerva, born in 1872, wife of 
James Stewart; William Jackson, born in 
1874, died in 1904; and Andrew M., born in 
1879, and married to Ida Cole. He was mar- 
ried a second time, to Rachel Browmer, 
daughter of William and Lydia Browner, 
natives of Tennesse^e and Kentucky, respec- 
tively, their union licing solemnized May 7. 
1881. The two sons of this union are Jasper 
Samuel, born in 1883, and married to Grace 
Sample; and Thomas Sherman, born in 1894. 

Mr. McGee and his worthy wife are affil- 
iated with the Methodist Episcopal church 
and the former is an influential Republican 
who has from time to time held public office 
accepta])ly. He was deputy sheriff of Bol- 
linger county for two years; justice of the 
peace for twelve years; and public adminis- 
trator four years. He is interested in all 
things likely to benefit the community, and 
the county finds in him one of the valuable 
citizens. 

J.\MEs A-. Rogers, of Kennett, is a man of 
the highest sense of honor, which has never 



been besmirched. He is exceptionally fair 
minded in all of his conclusions, having the 
unusual ability to see both sides of a question. 
His history has been an interesting one. 

He was born in Giles county, Tennessee, in 
1848, on the 6th of November, the son of John 
and Susannah Rogers, both natives of South 
Carolina. They lived in Tennessee until 
1860, when they came to Dunklin county, 
Missouri. They bought land at Caruth and 
also cotton gins, operating the same for about 
four years. They then bought the Redman 
farm at Vincit, six miles south of Kennett, 
where they liotli died and were buried on the 
farm. He was sixty-four when he died and 
she was seventy-five at her death. They had 
a family of five children, three of whom are 
living now. Louisa married Tom Romines 
and is now his widow. She has one son, 
James. The other daughter is Euuua, who 
married Mr. Snipes of Kennett. 

The third child living is James A., who 
spent the first twelve j'ears of his life in 
Tennessee, coming to Dunklin county when 
he was twelve years old. For four years they 
lived on Horse Island, farming. He then 
moved six miles south of Kennett. From the 
time he first moved to Jlissouri he did not 
have a great deal of schooling, but helped his 
father on the farm and with the cotton gins. 
He lived at home until he was twenty-six 
years old, for the last five years of that time 
taking full charge of the farm, part of which 
his father had deeded to him and he still 
owns it. He lived on the farm until 1910, 
when he moved into Kennett. He had one 
hundred acres of land to start out with, to 
which he added as he was able until he had 
three hundred and one and a half acres, the 
large proportion of which he cleared himself. 
He sold part of this large farm, now owning 
two hunclred and sixty acres on which he has 
built a new house and buildings. The farm- 
ers around say that Mr. Roger's farm js 
the best one in that section of the country. 
He grows grain and cotton on his land. For 
a few years he operated a cotton gin. but gave 
that up long ago. Vincit post office and gen- 
eral store were on his farm, he being post- 
master from 1895 to 1902. He is a Demo- 
crat, but a.side from casting his vote at elec- 
tion times he does not take any active part in 
politics. 

In 1879 he married Lavisa Barger, daugh- 
ter of Philip and Jane Barger. They came 
from Indiana to IMissouri in the fifties, their 
daugliter Lavisa having been born since their 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



703 



removal to Missouri. Mr. Barger was killed 
by the guerillas during the Civil war, as they 
were believed to be in sympathy with the 
South. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers have had three 
children. The eldest is Audrey, who was ed- 
ucated in the state normal school at Cape 
Girardeau and has been a teacher for the past 
seven years, now teaching in the Kennett 
school with great success. Thomas, the elder 
boy, also attended the state normal and died, 
October 30, 1909, when he was twenty years 
old. The youngest child is Ra.y, who is at 
present a high school student. 

Mr. Roger.s is not a member of any church, 
but his family attend the Baptist church. He 
is interested in education, perhaps all the 
more because his own schooling was of ne- 
cessity rather meagre and what he knows he 
has had to gather from reading and observa- 
tion as he went along. He has made a point 
of giving his children the best education that 
he could, realizing the advantages that it 
would be to them, no matter what line they 
might follow in after years. Mr. Rogers is 
very devoted to the county where he has 
lived practically all of his life, and the 
county is fully appreciative of Mr. Rogers 
and all that he has done in a quiet way for its 
improvement ; he is widely known and as uni- 
versally respected. 

Moses Burette Barber, M. D., of Flat 
River, is one of the foremost professional and 
business men of southeastern Missouri, Dur- 
ing his career as a physician and surgeon his 
practice has grown to the extent of his ability 
to care for it, and in addition many important 
business interests require his attention, 

Dr, Barber was born at Frohne, Perry 
county, Missouri, August 30, 1869, and spent 
his early life on a farm in that county and 
in Wayne county. His early education was 
secured in the public schools and at the Carl- 
ton Institute and Farmington Baptist Col- 
lege, and thus equipped he entered educa- 
tional work and for seven years taught 
school, during the last two years lieiug prin- 
cipal of the Mine La Motte public schools. 
For two succeeding years he was engaged in 
the drug business at Bonne Terre, Having 
in the meantime taken up the study of medi- 
cine, he took his degree of Doctor of Medicine 
at the Barnes Medical College on April 12. 
1899. His entrance in this profession was at 
Flat River, where he has resided for the past 
twelve years, 

Dr, Barber was the organizer of the Flat 



River Ice & Cold Storage Company and is its 
president. This company, which is capital- 
ized at fifty thousand dollars, has two plants, 
one at Bonne Terre and one at Flat River. 
He also was one of the organizers and is a 
stockholder in the Central Steam Laundry at 
Flat River. For two years he was president 
of the Miners and Merchants Bank, of which 
he is still a director. His real estate holdings 
include property in Flat River and extensive 
interests in New Mexico. 

Dr. Barber belongs to one of the old fam- 
ilies of southeastern Missouri. His father, 
Richard H. Barber, who is still a resident of 
Madison county, was born at Brazean, Perry 
county, January 4, 1845, and has enjoyed a 
career of prosperity, being the owner of lai-ge 
amounts of real estate. He is a member of 
the Presbyterian church and the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics is a 
Democrat. He married, October 23, 1868, 
Surena Cline. of Frohne, Missouri, daughter 
of Moses and Caroline Cline, farmers and 
early settlers of Perry county. Her mother, 
Mrs. Cline, was one of the first members of 
the Baptist church in this state, and lived to 
the age of eighty-six, Mrs, Barber died July 
22. 1909, having been the mother of seven 
children, of wliom Dr. Barber is the oldest. 

In politics Dr. Barber is Democratic, is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
South, and affiliates with the ^Modern Wood- 
men of America and the Modern Americans, 
He is also a member of the American Medical 
Association, the Missouri State Medical Asso- 
ciation, the Southeastern Missouri Med- 
ical Society and the St, Francois County 
Medical Association. He was married, Au- 
gust 29. 1895, to Miss Mollie E. Turley, She 
taught in the public schools of St. Francois 
county for ten years before her marriage. 
Her parents are Wesley and Emeline Turley, 
her father being one of the pioneer farmers 
in tlie lead belt. Three children have been 
born to Dr. and Mrs. Barber. The two liv- 
ing are Anson B. and Virginia E. 

Luther Henry Williams. Among the 
most prominent and able financiers of Saint 
Francois county is Luther Henry Williams, 
cashier of the Farmers' Bank, a monetary 
institution in whose organization he partic- 
ipated: a director of the Mines' Supply Com- 
pany at Flat River; and interested in the 
National Bank of Commerce of the city of 
St. Louis and the Bankers Trust Company 
of St. Louis. The Farmers' Bank is one of 



704 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST IMISSOUEI 



the monetary institutions which emphasize 
and exert marked influence in conserving 
the financial stability and commercial pres- 
tige of the county and its judicial center 
and Mr. Williams has shown marked dis- 
crimination in the management of its affairs. 

Mr. Williams is a native of Saint Francois 
county, his birth having occurred within its 
pleasant boundaries on November 21, 1869. 
His father, George IMcGahan Williams, was 
born in this county, March 4, 1831. The 
senior Mr. Williams, owing to educational 
conditions of his time, received but a limited 
training, this, such as it was, being secured 
in the common schools of the locality and 
period. Pie passed his early days on the 
farm and in truth has devoted his life-long 
activities to the great basic industry. He 
established a household of his own in 1855, 
when he was imited in marriage to Amelia 
Thomasson. of St. Francois county, a daugh- 
ter of Gabriel and Sally Thomasson. the 
former of whom was a prominent agricultur- 
ist. To this union nine children were born, 
six of whom are living at the present time. 
The devoted wife and mother was sum- 
moned to the life eternal in 1885, but the 
father survives, a venerable gentleman, well- 
known in the locality. He remained upon 
his farm until he sold it to the Theodora 
Lead Company, about the year 1894, which 
marks the time of his retirement from active 
farm life, and he now makes his home in 
Farmington. In political questions he gives 
heart and hand to the men and measures of 
the Democratic party, which he has sup- 
ported since his earliest voting days, and his 
religious conviction is that of the Southern 
]\Iethodist Episcopal church. 

Luther Henry Williams had what is gen- 
erally considered the good fortune to pass 
his early life upon the farm, and in the com- 
mon country schools he received his prelim- 
inary education. When it came to choosing 
a life work he found that he had no ambition 
to follow in the paternal footsteps, and at the 
age of tAventy-one yeai's he left the farm and 
went to work in the mines, riinning a dia- 
mond drill. He was engaged in this wise for 
four years, at the end of which time he con- 
cluded to prepare himself for a business 
career and to this end he went to St. Louis 
and entered the Bryant & Strattou Commer- 
cial College, and having finished this he_ en- 
tered the mercantile business at Flat River 
in association with his brothers, George K. 
and John T. In 1898 the Messrs. Williams 



sold out and after a short period of leisure 
the subject entered upon his first banking 
experience, as an employe of the Miners' & 
Merchants' Bank at Flat River, he taking 
the olfiee of assistant cashier for the first 
year and in the two years following holding 
that of cashier. In 1904 he assisted in the 
organization of the Farmers' Bank at Farm- 
ington, and was made cashier of the institu- 
tion, which place he now holds. As men- 
tioned in a preceding paragraph he is a 
director of the Miners' Supply Company at 
Flat River and also interested in the Na- 
tional Bank of Commerce in St. Louis and 
The Bankers Trust Companv of St. Louis. 

On the 20th day of April, 1898, Mr. Wil- 
liams was happily married to Nelly Pearl 
^Moody, of Irondale, daughter of William 
Moody, an engineer and mechanic. The 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Williams has been 
blessed by the birth of six children, namely: 
Gwendolyn, Luther Wallace (deceased) ; 
George Harry, Franklin, Mary Lucile and 
Corinne. 

]\Ir. Williams is an interested and popular 
member of the great ]\Iasonic order and ex- 
emplifies in his own life its noble principles, 
while his church home and that of his 
worthy wife is of the Southern Methodist 
denomination. Politically he is a stahvart 
supporter of the Democratic party, having 
been aligned with the same since his earliest 
voting days. 

Robert H. Wiiitelaw, one of the success- 
ful lawyers of Cape Girardeau, is as popular 
as he is influential. Throughout his career 
his maxim has been to do the duty which lies 
nearest, not worrying about what the next 
step might be. It is because of this simplic- 
ity of creed that Mr. Whitelaw has made such 
an unmitigated success of his life up to the 
present time. He has by no means reached 
the limit of his capabilities, although he has 
accomplished enough to satisfy a less enter- 
prising man. However, it is safe to predict 
that innsmui'h as he has heretofore filled all 
offices to the satisfaction of lioth his own and 
opposing parties, he will continue to have re- 
sponsibilities thrust iipon him. 

He was born in Essex count.y, Virginia, 
January 30, 1854, and is the son of Thomas 
Wiiitelaw, a planter in Virginia, in which 
state he was born. He was possessed of a 
large plantation on which were many slaves, 
but he was a believer in the rights of the col- 
ored man and was a most considerate master. 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



705 



In 1859, foreseeing the struggle that was im- 
minent between the north and the soutli, he 
set free his slaves and sold liis plantation, 
coming to Cape Girardeau in 1859. He 
bought a farm thei'e but died in 1863, while 
the war was still in progress. He married 
Emily Reynolds, a young Virginia girl, who 
bore him three children, the last one costing 
her her life. She died in 1856, leaving her 
husband, her two little boys and baby girl to 
mourn her loss. 

When Roliert was only five 3-ears old, bis 
father took him and his little brother to Cape 
Girardeau, leaving the daughter in Virginia. 
Robert has very little recollection of the little 
mother who left them when he was two .vears 
old, of the plantation where he was petted 
and scolded by turns by his colored mammy 
and of the journe.v from Virginia to Cape 
Girardeau. He has, however, very distinct rec- 
ollections of the first school which he at- 
tended, of the death of liis father when lie 
was onl.y nine years old and of the sense of 
desolation which overwhelmed him at being 
left without father or mother at that early 
age. He attended the public schools of Cape 
Girardeau and later the academy of St. 
Louis. Professor W.vman being the principal 
at that time. He then went to Ann Arbor, 
where he took a law course at tlie T^niversity 
of Michigan. He graduated in 1874 when he 
was just twenty years old and located in Cape 
Girardeau. He soon established a practice, 
and. young as he was, in 1876 he was elected 
prosecuting attorne.v of Cape Girardeau 
county. This office he held until 1879. He 
was elected to the legislature, representinar 
Cape Girardeau county, serving for two 
terms. He was a member of Congress in 
1890 and 1891 and has been prosecuting at- 
torney for many years. 

In 1877 he married Katie Block, tlu^ 
daughter of Zalma Block of Cape Girardeau. 
Mr. and JMrs. Whitelaw have three children 
living, as follows: Helen, the wife of Uieii- 
tenant R. G. Rutherford, now stationed at 
Madison Barracks, New York. Matilda, the 
second child, is the wife of Captain Allen R. 
Williams and is also stationed at ]\Iadison 
Barracks. New York. Thomas G., the young- 
est child and only son. is in business in St. 
Louis. 

Like his father. Mr. Wliitelaw has always 
been a Democrat and most active in the inter- 
ests of his party. Altliousrb not born in Cape 
Girardeau, he has very little remembrance of 

his native place and his affections are all witli 
Vol. 1—4 5 



southeastern Missouri, which has been to liim 
a foster parent, taking the place of father 
and mother. He is a man who has done in- 
calculable good in the county and his efforts 
have been appreciated by the citizens of Cape 
Girardeau. 

Bristol French. To the editor is confidc^l 
singular responsibility. He is the moulder 
of public opinion, and it is his privilege to 
be heard on questions of public welfare by 
more people than any public speaker could 
possibly hope to reach. The Piedmont Ban- 
ner is indeed fortunate to liave as its publisher 
and editor Mr. Bristol French, who, though 
.yet a young man, brings to his task a va- 
ried experience in the newspaper field as well 
as a courageous sense of his responsibility to 
the public whom he informs through the 
pages of the Piedmont ^YeeldlJ Banner. 

He was boi-n in Houston county, Tennessee, 
Februar.y 2, 1877. His father was John 
French, a member of an old Tennessee famil.v, 
and his mother was a daughter of Colonel 
John Morris, who was a military' officer in 
both the Mexican and Civil wars. Until the 
opening of the Spanish-American war he was 
engaged in the newspaper business, con- 
nected with the Erin Neivs in his home town 
of Erin, Tennessee. At the call for volun- 
teers, he at once enlisted with the First Ten- 
nessee Volunteers, and went with that com- 
pany to the Philippine Islands, where he 
spent nineteen months in the sem'ice, during 
which time he served as sergeant ma.ior in 
the second battalion and sergeant in his own 
company. His army career, however, in no 
way interfered with his life work, as he was 
an active correspondent for the Nashville 
papere during his stay in our insular posses- 
sions. Upon his return, he was associated 
first with the Memphis News Scimitar, and 
later with the Memphis Commercial Appeal. 
In 1904 Mr. French took his present position, 
and ]nirchased the Piedmont WceMy Banner, 
whicli sheet was established by Dr. J. N. 
Holmes in June, 1892. 

He was married in 1905 to Miss Nettie Wil- 
liams, of Piedmont, Missouri, and to this 
union have been born two children. Polit- 
ically i\Ir. French favoi-s the policies advo- 
cated bv tlie Democratic part.v, and both per- 
sonally and officially, is counted a valuable 
member of his party. 

C. A. W.VLKER has risen from clerk to the 
position of leading hardware merchant in the 



706 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



county l)y the qualities of business sagacity 
and initiative, combined with a genius for 
hard work. He was born in Illinois, in 1869, 
on the 16th of July. His parents, C. T. and 
Louise Walker, are still living on a farm in 
that state. 

Mr. Walker spent the first twenty-one 
years of his life in Illinois. He helped his 
father on the farm and secured his educa- 
tion in the meantime in the district schools 
and in the normal at Carbondale. Illinois. 
In September, 1890, he came to Lutesville 
and secured employment as clerk for George 
E. Clark & Son. Mr. Walker learned the 
business thoroughly in the following six 
years and rose steadily in it, so that in 1897 
he was able to purchase a hardware business 
in ]\larble Hill. In 1910 he sold out his in- 
terests in ]\Iarl)le Hill and went to Colorado, 
intending to make liis home in that state, but 
decided to return to Missouri. In January, 
1911, Mr. Walker purchased the interests of 
Clark & Son and is engaged in managing 
that extensive business. The house carries a 
line of hardware, agricultural implements, 
furniture, lumber, sliingjes, cement and lime, 
and transacts the bulk of the trade in these 
lines in Lutesville and in Bollinger county. 
In addition, Mr. Walker is a stockholder in 
the Bollinger County Bank and in the Bank 
of Marble Hill. His residence is one of the 
attractive homes of Lutesville. 

Mr. Walker's wife was ]\Iiss Nellie Clark, 
daughter of (ieorge Clark, the former em- 
ployer of Mr. Walker. Mr. George Clark 
was a pioneer merchant of Lutesville, com- 
ing to that town in 1872 from ]\Iarble Hill, 
where he had located five years previously. 
Mr. and ]\Irs. Walker have two children : 
George Earl, born in 1893, and Charles Dean, 
in 1897. 

]\Ir. Walker has attained high honor in the 
]\Ia.sonic order. He was made a Blue Lodge 
Mason at ^larble Hill, Missouri, and joined 
the Chapter at Frederiektown. He went into 
the Commandery at Cape Girardeau, and into 
the Consistory at St. Louis, taking thirty-two 
degrees in all. In additfon he is a member of 
the I\Iodern Woodmen and of the Odd Fel- 
lows in Lutesville. He takes an active inter- 
est in bis lodges and in the Presbyterian 
chiircli, of which ]\Irs. Walker is a member 
and a valued adherent. 

J. Oliver Eubanks. A thrifty and well-to- 
do agriculturist of Hollywood, J. Oliver Eu- 
banks is the proprietor of a fine farm, which 



in regard to its appointments compares fa- 
vorably with any in the locality, the neatness 
and orderly appearance of the property show- 
ing conclusively that the owner has a thor- 
ough understanding of his business and ex- 
ercises excellent judgment in its management. 
A Missourian liy birth, he was born on a 
farm in Douglas county, January 8, 1877, 
and lived there until three .years of age. In 
1880 his father and his half-sister were killed 
liy lightning, and his mother sulisequently 
married a second husband and removed to 
Stoddard county, Missouri, where her deatli 
occurred in 1892, on the farm which she 
had there purchased. 

Until sixteen years of age J. Oliver Eu- 
banks worked on his mother's farm in Stod- 
dard county, near Puxico, in the meantime 
obtaining a practical education in the district 
school. He subsequently worked for wages 
on neighboring farms for a number of years. 
Coming then to Dunklin county, he invested 
his money, all of which, with the exception 
of forty-two dollai-s that he received from 
his mother's estate after attaining bis major- 
ity, he had earned by the sweat of his brow, 
in farming land in Hollywood. ^Ir. Eubanks 
first purchased forty acres on time, and later 
l)ought forty acres of adjoining land, and of 
this he has cleared about sixty-three acres 
himself, and placed it under culture, and 
when he first came to the place he also cleared 
land for other people, becoming quite ex- 
pert in the pioneer task. For a numlier of 
years after assuming possession of his prop- 
erty ;\li'. Eubanks lived in a rude shack. Imt 
he has since erected a substantial, eight-room 
house and good farm buildings, and is now 
devoting his energies to the growing of com 
and cotton, crops which he finds most profit- 
able. Jlr. Eultanks also owns an eighty-acre 
farm lying one and three-fourths miles north- 
east ofCardwell, on which he has made valu- 
al)le improvements, that land being reiited 
out. He is also now contemplating the pur- 
chase of one hundred and twenty acres of 
land adjoining his farm near Cardwell. an 
investment which will eventually pi-ove of 
value. 

^Ir. Eubanks married first, in 1892, on his 
present farm. Xellie Horner, the daughter of 
an early settler of Hollywood. She passed 
to the higher life a few years later, leaving 
four children, namely : Nettie, Melvin, El- 
mer and Herman, all of whom, with the ex- 
ception of tbe eldest child, are at home. Mr. 
Eubanks married in 1900 Oi'a Sanders, and 



HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



707 



they are the parents of three children, 
namely : Ruth, Rose and Floyd. Politically 
J\Ir. Euhanks is a Democrat, and fraternally 
he belongs to Senath Camp, No. 256, W. 0. W. 

William ]M. Gudger. At this juncture in 
a volume devoted to the careers of representa- 
tive citizens of southeastern Missouri, it is 
a pleasure to insert a lirief history of the life 
and work of William M. Gudger, who has 
ever been on the alert to forward all measures 
and enterprises projected for the general wel- 
fare and who is the present efficient incum- 
bent of the office of president of the ^Madison 
County Milling Company, an enterprise wliich 
reflects credit on Predericktown. 

William JI. Gudger is strictly a self-made 
man. the admirable success which he has 
achieved in the business world of Madison 
county l)eing the direct result of his own 
well applied endeavors. He was born in the 
vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, the date of 
his nativity being the 29th of May, 1869. He 
is a son of John and Nancy (McCreary) Gud- 
ger. both of whom were natives of North Caro- 
lina, whence they removed to Tennessee a 
short time after their marriage. In the early 
'70s they decided to move still further west, 
and accordingly came to Missouri, settling 
at Predericktown. They were the owners of 
a fine plantation in Tennessee in the ante- 
bellum days but the ravages of the w'ar prac- 
tically rained them. The father w'as identi- 
fied witli farming operations during the 
greater part of his active career and he was 
.summoned to the life eternal in 1908, when 
past seventy years of age. The mother died 
in 1884, in her forty-fifth year. John (iudger 
was a devout IMethodist in his religious faitli 
and his wife was a member of the Baptist 
church. Mr. and Mrs. Gudger were the par- 
ents of five children, two of whom are de- 
cea.s'ed. Those living are : Henry, who is en- 
gaged in the railroad business in Texas; Lulu, 
who is the wife of Henry Roliinson, of St. 
Praneois county. ^Missouri ; and William 'SI.. 
the immediate sulijeet of this review. 

Mr. Gudger grew to young manhood at 
Predericktown, where his preliminary educa- 
tional training consisted of such advantages 
as were afforded in the public schools. Af- 
ter leaving school he launched out into the 
business world on his own account, early be- 
coming interested in milling enterprises. He 
had no capital to start with but by hard work 
and careful management he finally forged 
ahead and today he is recognized as one of 



the most prominent and influential citizens 
in this place. He is president of the Madison 
County ililling Company, which important 
concern was incorporatecl under the laws of 
the state of Jlissouri in 1903. In November 
of that year the present mill was erected and 
since that time a splendid business has been 
controlled. The Company is incorporated 
with a capital stock of twelve thousand dol- 
lars and the officers are as follows: W. M. 
Gudger, president; George 0. Smith, secre- 
tary; and Henry Ward, director. The ca- 
pacity of tlie mill is one hundred and fifty 
barrels of flour per day and two of the lead- 
ing brands of flour in this section of the state 
are turned out, namely, "Pride of Madison" 
and "Lily of the Valley." A force of five 
men are constantly employed and ninety per 
cent of the wheat ground comes from local 
customers. 'Sir. Gudger was formerly asso- 
ciated in the milling business with ilessrs. 
DeGuire and Laupher, being a ineml)er of t lie 
UeGuire ililling Company at Predericktown 
for some eighteen years. His long association 
with milling enterprises has made him ex- 
pert in that particular business and under his 
careful and wise management the ^ladison 
County ililling Company has prospered won- 
derfiilly. 

In the year 1894 was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. (iudger to Miss Elizabeth 
Hunter, a native of St. Prancois county. Mis- 
souri, and a daughter of English parents, who 
came to America about the year 1873. j\Irs. 
Gudger's father was long engaged in teach- 
ing in this part of the state and he is now 
residing at Predericktown. Mr. and I\Irs. 
Gudger have no children living. 

In politics i\Ir. Gudger is a loyal supporter 
of the principles of the Democratic party and 
for six or seven years he was a member of the 
city council of Predericktown. He is now 
serving on the school board. In Scottish Rite 
]Ma.sonry he has attained to tlie tliirty-second 
degree and he is also a member of Moolah 
Temjile, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles 
of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise con- 
nected with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and Mrs. Gudger is a member of the 
Daughters of Rebekah. In their religious 
faitli they are devout communicants of the 
Protestant Episcopal church, to whose good 
work they are lil)eral contributors. 

]\IosES Rosenthal, ;M. D., in his profes- 
sional service has been prompted by a laud- 
able ambition for advancement as well as by 



708 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



deep sympatliy and humanitariau principles 
that urge him to put forth his best efforts 
in the alleviation of pain and suffering. He 
has gained recognition from the profession 
as one of its able representatives and the 
trust reposed in him by the public is indi- 
cated by the liberal patronage awarded him. 
Since 1903 Dr. Rosenthal has been a valued 
citizen of Cape Girardeau and here he is uni- 
versally admired and respected for his high 
order of ability and for his loyal and public- 
spirited interest in all matters affecting the 
general welfare. 

At Scranton, Pennsylvania, occurred the 
birth of Dr. Closes Rosenthal, the date of his 
nativity being the loth of May, 1858. He is 
a son of Julius Rosenthal, who was born and 
reared at Stolp, Germany, whence he im- 
migrated to the United States about the year 
1855. Julius Rosenthal was born in the year 
1825 and he was summoned to the life eternal 
in 1892. For a time after his arrival in this 
country' he resided in the city of St. Louis, 
Missouri, where he was engaged in the general 
merchandise business. xVt the time of the 
inception of the Civil war he gave evidence 
of his intrinsic loyalty to the cause of the 
south by enlisting as a soldier in the Con- 
federate army. In 1865, .just after the close 
of the war, he went to Jackson, Tennessee, 
where he was engaged for a number of years 
in the mercantile business and where he con- 
tinued to reside until his demise. In 1857 
was solemnized his marriage to ]\Iiss Hen- 
rietta Aekerman and this union was prolific 
of four children, of whom the Doctor was 
the fii-st born and of whom he is now the 
only survivor. By a former marriage Julius 
Rosenthal had one child, Benjamin, a resident 
of Kentucky. 

Dr. Rosenthal was a child of seven years 
of age at the time of the establishment of the 
family home at Jackson, Tennessee, where 
his preliminary educational training con- 
sisted of such "advantages as were afforded 
in an old Catholic school. Subsequently he 
was matriculated as a student in the Southern 
Baptist Union University, at Jackson, Ten- 
nessee, in which excellent school of learning 
he was graduated as a member of the class 
of 1875. For two years after completing his 
collegiate course he was engaged in business 
with his father but in 1877. deciding upon 
the medical profession as his future life work, 
he began to study for the same under the 
able preceptorship of Dr. Joseph Thompson, 
at Paducah, Kentucky, the latter having been 



a surgeon in the Confederate army under 
(General Sidney Johnson. From Paducah Dr. 
Rosenthal removed to St. Louis, Missouri, 
where he attended the Missouri Medical Col- 
lege, in which well equipped institution he 
was graduated in 1880, duly receiving his 
ilegree of Doctor of ]\Iedicine. Prior to his 
graduation and during his residence in Ken- 
tucky he had been admitted to the medical 
fraternity of the old Bluegrass state and for 
a short time he was associated with Dr. 
Thompson in a general practice. Immedi- 
ately after graduation he opened offices in the 
city of St. Louis, where he resided until 1882 
and where he was successful in building up 
a large and lucrative patronage. On account 
of ill health, however, he was forced to give 
up liis practice in the ilissouri metropolis and 
he then went to Pemiscot county, this state, 
remaining there for a period of two years, 
at the expiration of which, in 1885, he re- 
moved to Kennett, in Dunklin county. He 
maintained his home in the latter place until 
1903 and in that year came to Cape Girar- 
deau, where he controls an extensive practice 
and where he is a man of prominence and in- 
fluence in all the relations of life. Since com- 
ing to this city Dr. Rosenthal has pursued 
post-graduate courses in St. Louis, Chicago 
and New York. He is interested in and is 
a valued member of a number of representa- 
tive medical organizations of representative 
chai-acter, including the Southeastern ]\Iis- 
souri Medical Society, in which he has been 
honored with a number of important official 
positions. He is surgeon for the C. G. & C. 
Railroad Company and is everywhere held 
in high esteem for his splendid ability in 
tlie field of one of the most helpful profes- 
sions to which man may devote his energies. 

In Januaiw, 1882, at St. Louis, was cele- 
l)rated the marriage of Dr. Rosenthal to Miss 
Affie Nickerson, who was born at Pawtucket, 
Rhode Island, on the 16th of May, 1860. Dr. 
and Mrs. Rosenthal have no children. In 
religious faith Sirs. Rosenthal is a consistent 
member of the Presbyterian church. They 
are popular and prominent factors in con- 
nection with the liest .social activities of Cape 
Cirardean. 

In his political proclivities Dr. Rosenthal 
is an uncompromising advocate of the prin- 
ciples and policies set forth by the Democratic 
party and while he has never mixed much in 
local politics he served at one time with all 
of efficiency as coroner of Dunklin county. 
In fraternal circles he is affiliated witli tlie 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST .MISSOURI 



709 



Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks and 
with the Modern Woodmen of America. Dr. 
Rosenthal 's professional career excites the ad- 
miration and has won the respect of his con- 
temporaries, and in a calling in which one has 
to gain reputation by merit he has advanced 
steadily until he is acknowledged as the su- 
perior of most of the members of the medical 
fraternity in this part of the state, having 
long since left the ranks of the many to stand 
among the successful few. 

Harry A. Guess. An essentially promi- 
nent and influential business )nan at Elat 
River, Saint Francois county, Missouri, Harry 
A. Guess is manager of the Federal Lead 
Company, an important mining concern of 
this county. Though a native Canadian, Mr. 
Guess has resided in the United States and 
Mexico since 1901, and during the interven- 
ing years to the present time he has been en- 
gaged along mining and metallurgical lines. 
Harry A. Guess was born, November 21, 
1875, at Kingston, in the province of Ontario, 
Canada. He is a son of Charles Wellington 
and Sarah (Shorey) Guess, both natives of 
Canada, where the former was born in the 
year 1846, and the latter in 18-48. The Guess 
family traces its ancestry back to stanch Eng- 
lish and Irish stock. Charles W. Guess was 
identified with agricultural pursuits during 
the major portion of his active career but re- 
tired from business in recent years and is 
now living at Napanee, Canada. Mr. and 
Mrs. Guess became the parents of three chil- 
dren, whose names are liei'e entered in re- 
spective order of birth. — George A., Harrj' A., 
and Ross W. George A. Guess is metallur- 
gical superintendent of the Cerro de Pasco 
Mining Company, at La Fundicion, Peru, 
South America; Harry A. is the immediate 
subject of this review; and Ross W. is cash- 
ier of the Bank of Jlontreal. at Glace Bay, 
Canada. In polities the father is a liberal 
and in his religious adherency he is a devout 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
in vyhose faith he reared his children. 

To the public schools of his native place 
Harry A. Guess is indebted for his early edu- 
cational training, which was followed' by a 
course in the Sydenham Collegiate Institute, 
at Sydenham. Sulisequently he was matricu- 
lated as a student in Queens University, at 
Kingston, in which excellent institution he 
was graduated as a member of the class of 
1895, duly receiving the degree of Master of 
Arts and also the Ihiiversitv medal in chem- 



istry. He was also graduated in the School 
of .Mines at Kingston and thereafter he 
passed two years in British Columbia, in the 
southern part of which province he was en- 
gaged in survey and assay work. P^r a time 
lie had an office in British Columbia but in 
1897 he returned to eastern Canada, where 
he became manager of the Ottawa Gold ilill- 
ing & .Mining Company, at Kewatin, prov- 
ince of Ontario, remaining there until 1901. 
In the latter year he came to the United 
States and assumed charge of the concentrat- 
ing plant of Silver Lake ilines at Silverton, 
Colorado — a Guggenheim property — continu- 
ing there for the ensuing three years. Dur- 
ing the year 1904 to 1905 he had charge of 
special experimental work for the Cananea 
Consolidated Copper Company, at Cananea, 
Mexico. Subsequently he was manager of the 
Silver Lake Mines, at Silver Lake, Colorado, 
and in 1907 he became general milling super- 
intendent for the Guggenheim interests in the 
United States and Mexico, retaining the lat- 
ter position to the present time. Since 1908 
he has also been manager of the Federal 
Lead Company and of the Central Experi- 
mental plant at Flat River. In connection 
with the latter concern he is interested in de- 
vising the best processes of treatment for all 
difficult ores and products from the various 
properties of the Guggenheim interests in the 
United States and Mexico. He is a member 
of the Colorado Scientific Society ; Society of 
Chemical Industry; American Chemical So- 
ciety ; and the American Institute of Mining 
Engineers. 

Mr. Guess was married on the 19th of 
June, 1901, to Miss Eva Young, of Winnipeg, 
Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Guess have one son, 
Shorey Guess, born on the 16th of April, 
190 (. The.y are popular and prominent in 
connection with the best social activities of 
Flat River, where their spacious and com- 
fortable home is the center of many attrac- 
tive gatherings and where they are held in 
high regard by all. In their religious faith 
they are members of the Presbyterian church, 
to whose philanthropical work they are lib- 
eral contributors. 

Upton L. Weirick. One of the important 
industrial enterprises that contribute ma- 
terially to the commercial prestige of the city 
of Washington, Missouri, is the Missouri 
Jleerschaum Company, of which that promi- 
nent and valued citizen, Upton L. Weirick. 
is pi'csident. He is one of the aggressive and 



710 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



thoroughly up-to-date business nieu who arc 
aiding in the up-building of the eity, and 
while his own affairs are of engrossing nature 
he still finds time to concern himself with the 
matters eft'ecting the general community in an 
admirably public-spirited fashion. Although 
a native of the Buckeye state. JMr. Weirick has 
been a resident of the city for a quarter of a 
century, his ideutitication with it dating from 
the year 1886. In this period he has built 
up an extensive business and his specialties. 
"Tibbes Missouri Meerschaum Patent Corn 
Cob Pipes" and the "Only Genuine Detmold 
Corn Cob Pipes." are known and enthusias- 
tically recommended in whatever country and 
clime are found devotees of Lady Nicotine. 
This concern is a definite factor in the in- 
dustrial and conunercial jirestige of Washing 
ton and the subject 's reijresentation in a work 
of this nature is indeed fitting. 

Upton L. Weirick was born at Dalton, 
Ohio, October 7, 18-i7, but passed the roseate 
days of childhood and youth in Tiffin, Seneca 
county, that state. He is a, son of Jesse Wei- 
rick, a TifSn carriage manufacturer, who 
died in that place in 1871. after a life of in- 
dustry and usefulness. The maiden name of 
the mother was Eliza Flenuei;, and lie was one 
of a family of six children. Young Upton 
received his education in the public schools 
and previous to entering commercial pursuits 
he worked at painting and blacksmithing. He 
had had some training as a clerk before he 
embarked in merchandising at Tiffin, and in 
that place he conducted a store for four years. 
Retiring from this, he represented the Buck- 
eye Tobacco Company of Toledo, Ohio, as a 
traveling salesman for eight years and then 
settled down in Kansas City. Becoming in- 
terested in mining and the development of 
mining territory, he took an interest in the 
Niles-Augusta mine at Leadville and helped 
develop the property to a commercial proposi- 
tion, and in 1879 he disposed of his stock. His 
next move of importance was embarking in 
the cattle business in western Nebraska. He 
located not far distant from Fort Robinson 
and for a number of years continued there 
successfully, in 1885 selling out his stock at 
the topnotch of cattle prices and seeking other 
channels for his capital. 

It was upon returning to Kansas City that 
Jlr. Weirick lie 'ame interested in the manu- 
facture of cob pipes, and he was so favor- 
ably impressed with the possibilities in this 
feld that he iuv-ested extensively in the busi- 
ness of H. Tibbe & Sons at Washington. 



With his entry into the business the name 
was changed to the 11. Tibbe & Sons Manu- 
facturing Company and eventually to the Mis- 
souri Meerschaum Company. Since 1886 he 
has made his home here and has large real 
estate interests here and in Kansas City, IMis- 
souri. 

ilr. Weirick laid the foundation of a happy 
houseiiold and congenial life companionship 
when, on November 2-5, 188.5, he was married 
at Kenton, Ohio, to Sirs. Flora B. Mille, 
daughter of Judge T. II. Bagby, a widely 
Imown citizen of that place. Their charm- 
ing home is situated upon the grassy bluff 
overlooking the Missouri river, where they 
share the blessings of prosperity with their 
friends and neighbors, not forgetting the 
derelicts and those to whom fortune has been 
less kind. They are friends and supporters 
of the Episcopal church and are held in high 
regard in the community. 

In politics the Weiricks have for many 
years espoused the faith of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, but the present representative of the 
family confines his political action to the ad- 
vocacy of protection policies at national elec- 
tions. 

H. B. ilcCLENDON. Faithfulness to duty 
and strict adherence to a fixed purpose in life 
will do more to advance a man's interests 
than wealth or advantageous circumstances. 
The successful men of the da.y are they who 
have planned their own advancement and 
have accomplished it in spite of many ob- 
stacles and with a certainty that could have 
been attained only through their own efforts. 
One of the well and favorably known farmer- 
citizens of Bollinger county is H. B. McClen- 
don, who is engaged in general farming and 
stock raising and who has been identified with 
this section since 1887. He is a native of 
Randolph county, Alabama, his birth having 
occurred there on the Kith day of August, 
18.53, his parents being Wiley and Sarah ilc- 
Clendon, natives of Georgia and South Caro- 
lina, respectively. Mr. McClendon was 
reared upon his father's homestead farm, his 
time, like that of the majority of his rural 
associates, being divided between assisting in 
the work of the farm and pursuing his study 
of the conunon brandies behind a desk in the 
district school. He liegan farming independ- 
ently in young manhood and for some years 
was engaged in that calling in his native state. 
His coming to ilissouri, as previously men- 
tioned, dates from the vear 1887, when he sev- 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST INHSSOURI 



711 



ered old assoeiatious and removed to Bollinger 
county, of whose advantages he had heard 
good report. Here he bought two hundred 
and forty acres of land, five miles west of 
Glen Allen, and this has ever since been his 
home and the scene of his activities. Al- 
though this gives the greater part of his at- 
tention to general farming, he also raises stock 
and at the present time owns sixteen head of 
cattle, fifteen hogs and thirty sheep. He be- 
lieves in the future of Bollinger county and 
takes a helpful interest in all affairs of pub- 
lic import. 

-Mr. ^IcClendon laid the foundations of a 
liapp.v marriage b.v his union on the Ttli day 
of September. 1902. to Anna Pridy, one of 
Bollinger count.v's daughters. Her parents 
are J. T. and Betty Prid.y. They share their 
home with one daughter, p]nla, born in 1903. 

yir. ^McClendon is a stanch and stalwart 
supporter of the policies and principles of the 
Democratic part.y and for two .vears served as 
marshal of Alexandria City. Alabama, rep- 
resenting the law and its restrictions with 
entire efficiency. He is one of a famil.v of 
nine children, the other members being Cyn- 
thia, Joseph, Mary, Wyle.y, Samantha, Eliza, 
Clamanda and William. 

Dr. N. F. Kelly. "The evil that men do 
lives after them, the good is oft interred with 
their bones," Considering that one never 
hears so man.v good things about a man as at 
the time of his funeral, at first glance it seems 
as if the immortal bard were incorrect in his 
statement, but if we take it in the broader 
sense, that evil has more lasting effects than 
good, it is ti'ue to some extent. Dr. Norris 
F. Kelly, father of Will V„'did many acts of 
kindness, performed many acts of goodness, 
made many worthy efforts towards the bet- 
tei'meiit of his fellow citizens, which now, 
three years after his death, live in the hearts 
of his friends. The results have not all been 
buried with him, but have been inculcated 
in his son and many others with whom the 
Doctor had intimate relations. 

Norris F. Kelly was born in North Caro- 
lina, April 20. 1850, and came to Dunklin 
county when a bo.v, about 1868. when he lo- 
cated at Clarkton. bis brother John having 
preceded him and become a man of note in the 
count.v. N. F. Kell.y studied medicine under 
the late Dr. V. H. Harrison and was later 
graduated at the ilissouri Medical College. 
St. Louis. Immediately after his graduation 
he engaged in the pi-actice of medicine, lo- 



cating in Kennett in 1871. Since then he has 
lived here constantly except a few years that 
he spent at Senath. He built up an extensive 
practice, partly on account of his skill and 
partly because of his pei-.sonality. 

Earl.y in the seventies the Doctor married 
^liss Ruth Bragg, daughter of Captain Bragg 
and sister of W. G. Bragg and of Mrs. J. F. 
Tatum, ilrs. Bettie Sturgis, Mrs. Mattie Tow- 
son and the large family of daughters of 
Captain Bragg. Three children were born of 
the union, onlv one of whom lived to matai- 
rity. Will V. Kelly. :\Irs. Kelly died in the 
late eighties. Several years afterwards he 
was married to Miss Bow White, of Jersej'- 
ville, Illinois, but she lived only a few years. 

Dr. Kelly was a leading citizen in Kennett 
for man.v years and at one time owned much 
valuable property, but he coiild never become 
what is known as a wealthy man. He con- 
sidered that money was made to spend and 
he lived with a great degree of comfort, be- 
sides expending much in helping those less 
fortunate than he. He was not ostentatious 
in his giving, but as a rule only the recipients 
of his kindness knew anything about them. 
The Doctor was a lover of political excitement 
and was never happier than in a contest for 
his friends. His power was felt many times 
in the count.v and district. He was several 
times treasurer of the county and was coro- 
ner for several terms. He was chairman of 
the Democratic count.v committee for a con- 
siderable time. He was a warm-hearted man 
and no one who came to him in trouble would 
be turned awa.y without his trying in some 
slight manner to ease the burdens. Besides 
his son. he left two sisters in North Carolina 
to mourn his loss when he died on August 4, 
1908. in his native place. He was a man 
whose memory will long be cherished, even 
as it has been during these three years. 

William V. Kelly was born in Kennett July 
8, 1875. He attended the public schools and 
then entered the insurance business, estab- 
lishing an agency in Kennett in April, 1908, 
dealing with general and fire insurance. He 
is a well read man. thoroughl.v well up in 
insurance and a student of human nature. It 
is this last ability which causes him to be so 
successful. He knows wlien to talk to a man 
and when to let him alono and he knows the 
kind of talk that will suit a particular man. 
He is still a .young man, with much of his 
career still before him and .judging from his 
past record, this career will be a noteworth.v 
one, full of achievements and worthv acts. 



712 



HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 



Frank Leo Long, M. U., is a proiuiueiit 
young ijhysic'iau of Doe Run, and lias ac- 
quired higli rank in the profession ajid an 
excellent practice in this vicinity. His fam- 
ily have been identified with southeastern 
Missouri more than half a century, and its 
members have been honored citizens and able 
workers in various lines of activity. 

He was Ivorn in Jefferson county, Novem- 
ber 18, 1882. His father, W. T. Long, who 
was born in the same comity in July, 1855, is 
one of the best known railroad men in this 
part of the state. He spent his early life on 
a farm, being educated in the common schools 
and when about thirty-five began railroading. 
With the exception of four years when he 
was sheriff of Jelferson county, he has been 
conductor on the Iron Mountain railroad for 
the last twenty-five years. He is a member 
of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen 
and the Order of Railway Conductors, and in 
politics is a Democrat. His mother was a 
cousin of the late Senator Hearst of Califoi-- 
nia. He was married about 1878 to .Miss 
Emma Goodin. of Jefferson county, and of 



their eight children six are living, the Doctor 
being the third in the family. 

The early life of Dr. Long was spent in 
Jefferson county, and he graduated from the 
DeSoto high school in 1900. The following 
year he entered the medical department of 
the Washington University at St. Louis and 
took his degree in medicine in 1904. His first 
two yeai-s of practice was in DeSoto, after 
which for three years he was a member of the 
medical staff at the Farmington asylum un- 
til a change in politics occurred. Since then 
he has been a resident of Doe Run, where in 
addition to a large general practice he does 
the surgical work for the M. R. & B. T. rail- 
road and the Doe Run Lead Company. He 
is a member of the f!ounty. State and Amer- 
ican jMedical Societies. In politics he is a 
Democrat, is a member of the Presbyterijin 
church, and affiliates with the Ancient Order 
of ITnited Workmen, the Court of Honor and 
the Masonic order. 

On March 31, 1909, Dr. Long married Miss 
Genevieve Browne, of DeSoto. IMissouri. They 
have one child, Frank L.. Jr. 



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